Date: 23+24/5/2026
Trip leader: Elias Dunstone
Party: Alicia, Frida, Ethan, Sofia, Suning, Wei-Chie, Xinning, Kevin
In planning this trip, I was looking for a nice camping spot, rather than a particularly strenuous hike. Pindar cave turned out to be the perfect such destination: A huge cave that could shelter 50+ people for the night, only 6km away from Wondabyne train station. After hiking there on my own to check it out, I knew it would be a great spot to camp. With a few people pulling out or joining the trip, I ended up with a group of 9. Unfortunately the rain forecast kept increasing closer to the hike, with 7mm forecast for Saturday
Getting to the cave turned out to involve a few logistical issues, thanks to Wondabyne being a train access only station (no roads). The train ride from Central started with Wei barely making the train, after hitchhiking (cough cough foreshadowing cough cough) to Central due to bus issues, and over the next couple of stops we had 7/9 of our group together (80% success is fine right?), with Frida missing the train, and Alicia coming from the other direction. After requesting the conductor to stop at Wondabyne (they don’t unless you ask), we got off, and decided to split into 2 groups, one going on ahead to the cave, and the other staying to wait for Frida, who was catching the next train, an hour later. After making sure the first group knew the way to the cave and sending them off, we stayed enjoying the very scenic Wondabyne station. Unfortunately, I realised that I should probably let Frida know about requesting the stop (and avoid waiting another hour), meaning I had to climb the hill to get signal. Call it a warmup I guess, to pass the time. It didn’t take too long to head up to the ridge, send the message, and head back down.
The train arrived at 3pm, and we started the climb up the hill (the first km or so is uphill, and the rest is fairly flat along a ridgeline). After missing the turnoff to the cave, turning back, and missing it again (despite having been there a couple of weeks prior. I’ll blame the others for distracting me…), the rain was starting to set in, and continued to do so as we headed along the overgrown, partially flooded track to the cave. On the way we passed a group heading out, who told us that there was a ‘not dangerous’ snake hanging out in the cave (to mixed reactions from us). As we got closer to the cave, we were all pretty soaked from the rain, and it was starting to get dark. We passed another group who were on the train with us, and decided to camp out in the rain instead of making it to the cave, for some reason. The last approach to the cave became quite flooded, which would’ve been much more annoying if we weren’t already drenched. Finally, as it was getting dark enough to need headtorches, we reached the cave and joined up with the first group (who somehow didn’t get that wet. Lucky), as well as two other groups who got there before us and thankfully left a wide berth around the snake, giving everyone plenty of space to camp.
After finding the snake coiled up on a ledge in the cave wall, my first priority was getting a fire going to dry out a bit and cook dinner. Luckily I brought 5kg of wood with me (perks of not having to bring a tent), since it would’ve been near impossible to get a fire going with the wood available near the cave. Everyone set up either just a sleeping mat or a tent, and started to cook dinner, and I found a very sensible size log to put on the fire (not much wood around due to it being a popular spot).
Dinner around the fire (or cooked on the fire for me) was great, as well as some smores and cookies cooked on the fire. Throughout the night, it was a constant struggle to keep the damp, oversized log in a position where it was burning somewhat well. Good thing it wasn’t very cold. Eventually, around 11pm, we had to leave the dismal fire and go to bed after receiving a noise complaint from one of the other groups (and after checking that the snake wasn’t moving anywhere).
Since the walk back wasn’t far, we had a slow morning, packing up by around 10:30am. We headed down to check out Pindar falls, near the cave, which was very nice, albeit slightly challenging to get to the base of, and then back to pick up our packs and head back to the train (after trying out some potential bouldering routes in the cave. Next trip bouldering at Pindar cave?).
We left the cave around 12pm, and as we were walking, I figured that going back to the train might be a bit boring. Exact same route as Saturday, only 6km, and not many good views, apart from at the station. Why not go further, to Little Wobby, where I hiked to the first time I was there? Although it would add 18km to the hike (total 24km, 700m vertical), the views are great (if you get to see them in the daylight…), the ferry ride is fun, and our packs were light. Proposing this idea to the group, Kevin, Alicia and Wei decided to come, with the rest deciding (probably wisely) to go back to Wondabyne as planned. After checking our water and food supplies and the ferry timetable (last service purportedly at 6:15pm), we headed off ahead of the other group, but they quickly caught up to us as we stopped to watch an echidna beside the trail.
After actually leaving the other group, we set a good pace, conscious of arriving on time. We arrived at Kariong brook falls, an amazing waterfall, definitely a highlight of the hike. Kevin decided to swim in the very cold water and try the rope swing, while the rest of us stayed dry, and spotted some yabbies. We then continued the hike, with two decent climbs, eventually reaching Mt Wondabyne, where Alicia and Kevin decided to do the side trip up to the summit for some great views over Brisbane Water NP.
When they returned, I realised that we didn’t actually have that much time left for the 9km to the ferry (although probably still manageable). We proceeded along the firetrack at a faster pace, jogging on the downhills to make up time, especially considering I was aware that the last 5.5km was along fairly rugged singletrack. We were still feeling confident at this point, helped along by the easy trail and a very cool rainbow. At some point, Alicia twisted her ankle, luckily not too badly, but bad enough to be problematic when hiking fairly fast over uneven trails.
We soon got to the start of the singletrack (where I almost sent us continuing down the much more obvious, but dead-end, firetrail which I accidently took the previous time I was there), which was more of a ditch/creek than a track for about 1km. Not ideal, considering it was starting to get dark. We quickly stopped to get out our headtorches, and I kept checking Alltrails, to see our required pace to make the ferry going up to around 5km/h. At this point we were all fairly tired, but still motivated and confident about making it to the ferry, despite the continuous poor quality of the trail and dwindling light (which also unfortunately meant we couldn’t appreciate the great views). This continued on until we reached the spur trail heading down from the top of the ridge to the wharf at Little Wobby, with around 10 minutes and 1km left, where I decided to attempt to go on ahead and stop the ferry (after attempting to call them multiple times). About halfway down, I realised that I wasn’t going to make it, and stopped to wait for the others.
When they caught up, we stopped for our first proper break in 2.5hrs to recover a bit. Kevin had ended up taking Alicia’s pack due to her twisted ankle, which had been getting progressively worse. Despite having missed our final opportunity of getting back to civilization, spirits were still high, and we eventually set off again down the hill, slower this time. On the way down, the others were talking about how we were going to hitchhike back. I didn’t want to tell them that, actually, Little Wobby is a boat access only community, so we wouldn’t exactly be able to just hitchhike back. When we reached the bottom of the hill, I had to tell them the bad news, and we agreed that we should knock on doors trying to get a boat ride back to Brooklyn (from where we could catch the train back to Sydney), or failing that, some food and a place to stay (none of us had tents, and not much food left).
As we tried to find the front door of one of the houses (all the houses in Little Wobby are squished between the water and the steep hill behind, so it’s a bit difficult to walk through), the lady living there heard us and came out to see what was happening. After explaining our situation to her, she agreed to give us a lift on her boat, as well as informing that the ferry we had spent 2.5 hrs rushing to catch was never going to come. Due to a massive oversight on my part, I had failed to realise that the 6:15pm ferry was scheduled as by request only, and we had not requested it. We waited on the jetty, very grateful and excited to be getting a nighttime boat trip with a random stranger, for her to come out. Around 7:20pm, we got on the boat, which luckily wasn’t too crowded with us and our packs. As we headed off towards the lights of Brooklyn, it started to rain (incredible timing, as it hadn’t all day). We learnt some interesting tips about maritime navigation on the 15 minute trip, and were then dropped off just in front of Hawkesbury River train station. After thanking her profusely for her generosity (even refusing our offers to pay), we headed up to the platform, thrilled at our incredible luck.
After a 25 minute wait for the next train, we got on the train around 8pm, happy to finally be able to relax. We let the other group (who’d probably all been comfortable at home for a few hours) know that we’d made it back alright, getting back to Central a bit after 9pm for a quick dinner together, and finally heading home around 10pm.
This was a very enjoyable trip, getting to camp in a cave was a great experience, and the hike out on the second day was very memorable. It was great to share these experiences with everyone who came along. While I would definitely do it differently next time, we all had a great time, and everything ended up working out fairly well.
