Rachmartee

It’s hard to believe it now, looking back, but at the end of 2021 I still hadn’t completed an overnight hike.

What’s even harder to believe for those who know me now is from a teenager I never particularly liked camping, nor did I really ever experience it. During my year 10 camp it was compulsory to complete a 10 day camping experience, which my parents let me opt out of!

Fast forward 15 years and camping is now one of my favourite things to do! I have now completed multi-day hikes on my own, spent 3 nights camping in the Snowy Mountains back country and hike some of NZ Great Walks.

But those are tales for another time, this post is all about my first camping adventure, to Pindar Cave!

Pindar Cave is located on the Western side of Brisbane Water National Park, and only accessed via train ride to Woy Woy Station. It’s a pretty fun way to start an overnight hike, I couldn’t stop giggling at myself walking around a train station with a hiking back almost as big as me.

The hike to Pindar Cave is 11.5km return, with 493m of elevation. The start of the hike is very steep, especially with a hiking pack, where you cover most of the elevation in one go. You essentially hike from down on the train station straight up to the top of the ridge.

The rest of the hike is pretty easy going, just a little overgrown in some parts. The cave itself is beautiful and makes an epic camp cave. Unfortunately it’s a popular camping spot so there is graffiti through-out the cave…

Once we set up camp for the night we headed town a faint walking track down to Pindar Falls, it was almost dry when we visited but in heavier flow it would be quite a beaut waterfall.

Later that night we were treated with a surprise thunder storm that wasn’t shown on any weather radar. The lightning lit up the whole cave and the thunder was so loud, it was honestly pretty scary at the time even with the cover we had. A first overnight hiking experience I won’t be forgetting!