Heart ~ Macleay Camp               Click on thumbnail to see larger    back

(After returning from the Heart, and heading downstream)

No 57 This view is looking back almost due North from HEARTNOB1 (c.948/056) towards HEARTNOB0 , as you head down the Macleay.

These cattleyards at 950/051 are on a big flat enclosed by a barbed-wire fence about 500 X 500 metres. In 1995 it was almost clear of trees, but they have largely grown back since. The yards are still accessible by a challenging 4WD road that comes down from Long Point tops to the other side of the Macleay (at c. 953/048).

The star pickets (called ‘steel posts’ by old-timers) are well known, but the set of hames hanging behind the mug might need an explanation. They attached to the outside of a heavy padded collar around a horse’s neck, and had chains attached to the heart-shaped hooks to allow the pulling of carts, ploughs, etc.

A fine Spring morning below the Heart at 953/046. Note the Stinging Nettles (Utrtica sp.) in the foreground- a good reason to wear long pants, or gaiters, when doing a lot of river walking.

Rock Wallaby at 953/046. Fifteen years ago they were comparatively rare, as wild goats were taking over their rocky refuges. A well-organised culling program has significantly reduced the goat population, and now Rock Wallabies are a common- and very welcome- sight down in the gorges.

Looking back UP Macleay at 948/032, at cliffs bordering the river.

Horsetracks are always welcome. The dung is deposited in piles, perhaps to mark territory?

These boulder beds (at 953/033) are OK to walk across when dry, but it can be surprisingly easy to turn an ankle when they are wet.

This view from 954/025 is of the skyline ridge which leads SW up from the Macleay, waypoint MACL965020 , through the old Enmore State Forest to Blue Nobby.

Looking up the river bank through a pleasant campsite at 95393.02562.

From about where the previous photo was taken, looking across the river.

Taken upstream from just in front of the blue Megamid tent in the previous photo

A brumby stallion, who greeted us with the whistling snort of a challenge, at the start of the Macleay 965/020- Enmore SF- Blue Nobby ridge. Floods often knock down fences along the Macleay, and then both wild and domesticated horses range far and wide for months.

Checking bearings at MACL965020 before climbing the ridge.