Rachmartee

It had been 5 months since our epic hike along the Milford Track in NZ, so after our wedding (which certainly consumed our lives for a short while), the overnight hike itch needed itching. This time it was me, Haydo and Sophie.

Bonnum Pic in the Southern Highlands has been on my radar for some years. It is a ‘pic’ or rocky peak that sits at the end if a spectacular knife-edge ridge (about 20m wide with 150m high cliff walls) that juts out into the Wollondilly Valley in Nattai National Park. It is only a relatively short walk, being 16km return, so regularly is completed as a long day hike. We however, were keen to camp out on the pic!

I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get any photos of the views along the drive in, it was one of the most scenic roads we have in NSW! Absolutely phenomenal roadside views to reach the trail head. It passes through private properties and herds of cattle, which felt very similar to driving in the New Zealand country-side.

From the carpark, which very much feels like private property still, there is a short climb up the hill through the bush until you make your way towards the rocky plateau.

I am tempted to say this was one of the most scenic parts of the track, but we honestly had these views most of the way from this point onwards!

Some super cool rock formations along the way!

The track then leaves the bush and is mostly unmarked as you make your way along the rocky pagoda fields. There is a lot of this type of terrain in the Newnes Plateau and up around Giraween National Park, but not so much of it around the Southern Highlands.

It is pretty easy making our way along the ridge top.

Some cool rocks formations and caves found along the way.

This was our first view of the end of the Pic! For a short 7km walk to reach the end, it was pretty slow moving through the undulating pagoda field and overgrown shrub, so once we saw the Pic we were a little surprised with how much further we had to go.

The track then surprisingly drops down into a small gully that has a little waterfall and a creek we used to fill up our water bottles. It then climbs steeply up the other side in a rather exposed scramble.

Haydo helping lug up some bags! Once at the top of the scramble we were treated with even more epic views!

At this point the hike had taken us a lot longer than expected, and it felt as though we starting to run out of daylight. We had found a passable spot to set up tents, though it wasn’t perfect and we had hoped to camp closer to the Pic. We were also cautious of hiking all the way to the Pic, not finding anything suitable and having to hike back to our bags in the dark.

We opted to leave our bags at the first campsite we found, and continued on to see if we could find anything better – which we certainly did!

I was keen to call home and check in with Luke with the limited service we had, so Haydo back tracked and collected my bag for me from the first camp site – thanks Haydo!

The views out towards Lake Burragorang were stunning! And the iconic mountain peaks of the Southern ranges of the Blue Mountains.

I walked only a further 10 – 15m from our campsite to see the close up view of the Pic, just as the sun was starting to set.

Happy little mountain ridge camper. It felt so good to be back out in nature!

There is something so peaceful about watching the sun setting over the mountains.

The stars that night were so clear and visible! I tried my best taking photos of the milky way with my Samsung Galaxy. This image has been enhanced with an AI editor, so this is not the raw file!

Unfortunately I made the mistake of bringing my 1P tent that requires anchoring, to which we were camping on a rocky platform. I managed to anchor one end of the tent from a tree and the other with a large boulder – it worked well enough!

Sunrise hitting Haydo’s tent the next morning.

The next day the plan was to hike to the far end of the Pic, where there is a log book for all visitors. To do so, you need to scramble down this extremely steep and exposed rock ledge, with a 150m drop on either side.

We set up a hand line to assist, but after looking at the exposure I decided this wasn’t for me. In the past this kind of thing hasn’t bothered me too much, I don’t know if I’m getting older and more mature or for the fact I just got married a week or so prior, but I didn’t feel the need to make the risk.

Haydo and Soph headed off to the end, and I stayed back and soaked up the sun.

Still can’t get over this view! We took some of our last photos before beginning the hike back to the car.

The best kind of friends are adventure friends!

The views following the ridge line back towards the cars.

I am not usually one for flowers or wild flowers, but it was nice seeing all the different colours in bloom on the hike back!

At the other ends of the pagoda field we bumped into a large group of hikers – which were a community hiking group doing a day walk to the Pic and back. They were super friendly and we had nice chats about where they were all from.

After that we had a pretty scrubby bash back to the car, but an awesome adventure was had.

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