Ku-ring gai Chase National Park

When I asked around what would be worthwhile visiting when in the Sydney area, a friend suggested Ku-ring gai Chase NP. I googled it and saw a beautiful waterfall. Being a fan of waterfalls I decided to go. The entrance fee is $11. It is quite big park so that is why the price is higher than the normal $7 in NSW. The first thing I noticed is that unlike the parks I visited in WA it is not very well indicated where the main visitor office is. But I found it and since if was planning on camping in NSW NP I wanted to buy a multi park annual pass for $45. That according to the NSW national park website covered all parks in NSW except the Kosciuszko NP. According to the lady at the visitor centre that pass did not cover the Sydney area parks (such as Ku-ring gai Chase). And she didn't have them for sale neither. So I decided to buy the $64 one and, get this, I got a refund for my entree fee to Ku-ring gai Chase...

I asked for a map of the park, unlike in other parks there were none on display. 

There was one trail I was interested in, a short one that led to some aboriginal sights. After looking and trying to orientate myself the only trail I found was near the boat area to the top of Mt Ku-ring gai.

On the sign it said 2,7kms so I slipped into my sneakers, got my camera and some water in my backpack and off I went. 

After an hour I had only passed one more sign indicating the way, and had not seen anything worthwhile. The trial just kept going up and up. It was fairly hot and the sun was directly above the path. After about two hours of walking and having reached what I thought the top or almost I had had enough. When I saw two paths ahead, one going further up and one down the choice was easily made.

There were no signs and after about 1km the path stopped...not feeling like going back up I decided to go through the bushes and reckoned I would get back on the main path down. This was not the case. I spent about 4 hrs climbing up and down the mountain through very thick weeds over rockes and through water, even swimming while trying to hold my backpack out of the water. I fell down at least 20 times. I had the good reflex to drop on my ass to minimize the harm or not to fall down the rocks in a hole. I was wearing shorts, they got torn on the back and my shins got bruised and cut so did my arm. 

I kept going following small rivers to a dead end, climbing up the mountain hoping to reach a path. 

When I finaly heard a car and looked up and spotted the road I was close to exhaustion. I dragged myself to the road and walked another 4kms to where my car was parked. I changed into my swim shorts and slipped into the water to clean my wounds. I could feel my legs burning. I think it is safe to say I will not be doing anymore hiking for a while.

Don't get me wrong the park looks very nice. It seems perfect If you want to go canoeing, have a boat or a jet ski or just like to have a picnic and enjoy the sun reading a book on the lawn. But if you ask me don't go there for a hike...

On my drive out of the park I did see a possum at the side of the road. I slowed down and stopped. I got out of the car and was stunned when the possum was actually running towards me. When I turned on my flashlight I sadly turned around and disappeared into the bush. I am told that is a rare thing to do for a possum to run towards humans.