Bushwalk 7 - Woy Woy Rd to Patonga Drive

I'm off to Italy in an hour, and so we have reached the final walk in this part of my journey - Woy Woy Rd to Patonga Dr (we roughly followed the walk that I have linked to in the opposite direction, but finishing at Patonga Drive & without the side-trip to Kariong Brook Falls).

I enjoyed this walk, it started from the same point & had the same feeling of isolation as the Woy Woy Rd to Girrakool stretch. I was really tired though, and again needed to go to the toilet from the start (what is with that!), so was glad that the challenge level was much lower than previous tracks. My downhill radar was on high alert, but luckily there weren't too many strenuous climbs in this one.

The first part of the walk is a pretty straightforward hike towards Mount Wondabyne, which provides many convenient photo opportunities along the way.

This boardwalk came out of nowhere, but did frame the peak nicely.

Next to the boardwalk were these disused power poles. I was thinking to myself that it was a very isolated place to have power lines, but we soon came across the modern equivalent - huge steel structures, that are much more sensible, given the number of bushfires that pass through here.

This is the view over The Peninsula. We could see the rain falling in the distance and were hoping that it stayed on that side of us for the next couple of hours.

This walk also consisted of long stretches of sandstone - these were more vast though & I was grateful for the signs helping us navigate through them.

I was a bit lazy with the camera on this walk, but luckily the bro wasn't. Here is a beautiful view (complete with storm clouds) from the edge of the escarpment - you can just see the Dillons Fire Trail winding through the scrub below.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of the Woy Woy Landfill site as we skirted around the edge of it. We could smell this for at least a kilometre before seeing it & I basically held my breath for the whole walk around it.

After passing the tip the track descended into a sandy rainforest habitat, before climbing back up to our finishing point at Patonga Drive.

You can continue across the road from here and down into Patonga for lunch, but luckily we chose to stop when we did, as the rain had closed in within 30min.

The Stats
Distance: About 12km
Time: 3hrs 30min
Difficulty: Medium (there are a couple of steep sections, but nothing too overwhelming - the terrain around the landfill site is probably the most difficult section)

Next stop - Italia!