A circuit of the inner Shoalhaven Valley

Regular readers will know that I live on the very northern limit of the Shoalhaven Valley. My septic tank drains into the deep basalt soil which helps feed Wallagunda Creek, which becomes Barrengarry Creek, which drops over Belmore Falls and runs into Kangaroo Valley, and hence to Tallowa Dam and the Shoalhaven River.

 View from my back deck on a crystal clear winter's day.

View of Kangaroo Valley and Shoalhaven Valley beyond.

 Ignore the Power Pole.

Mt Scanzi is the conical mountain, 

just to the left of the power pole.

The tower (tall column) visible on the plateau at right is the

"surge tank" in the pipeline between 

the Shoalhaven System (Bendeela pondage)

and Fitzroy Falls Reservoir.

Here is Mt Scanzi zoomed.

Mt Scanzi sits between Lower Kangaroo Valley and the Shoalhaven River.

You may recall my recent posting about the Purple Fly and the mysterious Grub, which turned out to be the most strangely matched couple it has ever been my pleasure to meet up with. Well, at the end of that discovery process I was asked if I could deliver some specimens to the worthy entomologist who had written about them, and who told me what they were.

As I had a forthcoming commitment to drive to Huskisson, for Alan Stephenson's book launch, it occurred to me I could combine a trip to meet up with Penny at her weekend retreat at Windellama, south from Marulan, and then go south to Nerriga and east to Jervis Bay, and circle back to Robertson via Kangaroo Valley. That would neatly give me a circuit of the inner edge of the Shoalhaven Valley, take in some "new country" at the same time, and minimise any "backtracking.

Here is my route.

Being a back-roads person I am pleased to say my entire round trip of 330 Km involved only 15 Kms of "highway" traffic (5 Km at Marulan and 10 Km at Nowra.). The rest was good quality back roads, mostly bitumen (except Nowra to Kangaroo Valley via Budgong and Mt Scanzi).

Blogger photo uploader seems to be broken. Damn.

I tried to post some photos I took along the way.
I'll post this quarter of the story now, anyway. Hopefully Blogger will be back on line tomorrow.