AMAZING WILDFLOWER WALKING TOUR - Muogamara Nature Reserve - 8km moderate grade

Muogamarra Nature Reserve, in Sydney's northern suburbs, puts on the most spectacular explosion of wildflowers at the start of Spring. Don't miss this opportunity as it's fragile and stunningly beautiful ecosystems, aboriginal rock engravings, and epic vistas over the Hawkesbury River are open to the public for just 6 weeks a year. You’ll see swathes of waratahs, majestic angophoras, old-man banksias, pink boronias, delicate native orchids, and native animals like echidnas, wedge-tail eagles and lyrebirds.

There are expensive structured guided tours run by the park staff, but we are doing our own self-guided tour of the wildflowers and scenic lookouts with entry tickets to the park being just $15.

To join us ...

• book your own entry ticket to the nature reserve (see details below), tickets sell out in the weeks before the season opens in mid-August so don't leave it to the last minute,
• RSVP on this meetup page ONLY AFTER you buy your ticket to the reserve (if you RSVP and then drop out you get banned, we mean it).

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THE PLAN

Meet at 9.30am sharp in the car park outside the Muogamara visitor centre. To find us look for the organiser's car - metal grey Hyundai Tucson SUV.

We will commence our walk on the loop trails around the nature reserve. It's likely that the flower nerds (we do love you) will stop alot to gawk and take pictures of everything so expect a bit of stop start walking, but we will make an effort to cover the planned distance in an efficient time to finish by about 3.30pm, as follows:

- The reserve has four main trails fanning out along ridge lines that radiate from the central Visitor Centre that we will start and return to.

- We will do the first 5km loop which follows a ridge line descending 200 metres down to wind through a gully full of lush vegetation, before ascending the 200 metres up again - expect a large number of steps - to return us past the Visitor Centre.

- The second loop is a much easier 3km course along the crest of another ridge, again heading out and returning us to the Visitor Centre.

- These two loops will total 8km of walking, with a good number of steps down and up the ridges included in the workout, and bring us back to our origin by about 3.30pm.

- You can finish your day here and head home, or if there is energy we can do one or two additional 3km loops to explore the third and fourth ridges - phew!

Bring your lunch, snacks and drinks - we will sit at one of the scenic lookouts for a nice lunch break.

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DIFFICULTY - IS THIS WALK FOR ME?

The two planned loops total 8km of walking and include a descent and ascent of 200 metres with many steps. We are therefore grading this walk as MODERATE (or hard if you are not used to many steps).

If you have done some undulating walks such as the waterfall routes in Wentworth Falls / Leura / Katoomba / Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, you will handle this one just fine.

Given the large number of steps, this walk is not a good one for you if you have bad knees.

As each of the loops comes back past the visitor centre, there will be opportunity for you to exit and head home if you are tired (or have gone blind from the amazing sight of so many flowers).

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HOW TO BOOK

Do NOT RSVP on this meetup page until AFTER you purchase an entry ticket to the nature reserve.

Go to the Muogamara booking page HERE.

• Click BOOK NOW.
• Make sure that you select SUNDAY 31 AUGUST.
• Select the number of adults, and enter your details.
• Scroll down to OPTIONS and tick either the box for "I'm the driver" or the box for "I'm a passenger" as appropriate.
• Pay the $20 if you are a driver with reserved parking space, or $15 if you are a passenger only.

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TRANSPORT

Arriving by car:

• From Cowan train station in northern Sydney, take the old Pacific Highway ... NOT the Sydney-Newcastle Pacific Motorway M1.
• Follow the Pacific Highway north for 4.7km.
• Then on the left look for the sign to enter Muogamara Nature Reserve.
• Follow the unsealed road for 2.6km to the Visitor / Field Studies Centre.
• The road quality is adequate for 2-wheel drive city cars.
• Google maps driving directions are HERE.

Arriving by train:

• There is no public transport link into the Nature Reserve, the closest station is 7km away at Cowan.
• You will need to post in the comments section below to a request a ride from Cowan station, and connect with someone offering a ride.
• Do NOT RSVP on this meetup page, and do not purchase an entry ticket to the reserve, until AFTER you have secured a ride with someone.
• The organiser does not organise transport.
• If you get a ride in the morning, we will make sure that you get dropped back at the station in the afternoon.

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GRATUITY

No meetup cost for this one.
But you should give $10 exact cash to the driver if you get a ride from Cowan station with someone on the day.

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BRING

• lunch, snacks to keep you going all day - there are no shops
• drink bottle, at least 2 litres - there are no water sources on the trail
• sturdy walking boots or trail shoes
• walking stick (not mandatory, but helps on steep sections with steps)
• sun hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, insect repellent
• dress in layers to put and take off as you exercise during the day, and have good warm jacket and long pants for the afternoon
• carry a rain jacket even if the forecast is for sunshine
• if you are going to be taking alot of photos with your phone, carry a spare battery pack and cable in case you run out of charge

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DISCLAIMER
By your RSVP to this event you agree to the conditions of membership and participation which you can read in the "WHAT WE'RE ABOUT" section HERE.