Mt Bimberi

Getting there

You can approach this mountain from a number of directions, however the most direct is the track starting at Pockets Saddle Road just after the Old Snowy Campground.

Route/Trail notes

Follow Pockets Saddle Road until you reach a locked gate. If you are in a 4x4 you can park on the side of the road. However if you are in a car you will probably be safer parking around the turn off to Old Snowys Campground (5 minutes up the road). Passing the gate you walk for roughly 15 minutes until you see a road on your right with a sign for Murrays Gap. Follow that and you will get to Oldfields Hut (pictured). Not long after you will see the road fork, take the left road to Murrays Gap. At the time of this walk being posted the fireroad was beginning to get pretty overgrown after the fork. It gets more and more overgrown as you go with lots of knee high grass. Eventually you will reach the valley that sits between Mt Bimberi (left) and Mt Murray (right). This valley was highly overgrown with tall grass and mud completely hiding any trace of the track. As you start bushbashing your way up Mt Bimberi you will eventually start to see the vague outline of a track with piles of rocks to mark the way. The 2nd half of the summit track is a lot more obvious and you will know you have hit the top once you find the huge trig station.

Permits/Costs

$6 if you chose to camp the night before, otherwise free.

GPS Tracks

No GPS available for this walk yet.

Comments

What an adventure! I camped the night before at Old Snowy Campground which is large, peaceful and filled with grazing Brumbies and Kangaroos. The fireroad has a fairly gentle - moderate incline and could easily be driven by any non 4x4 car up until you get to the hut had there not been a locked gate. From there it starts to get pretty overgrown which slowed my pace a fair bit because I was pretty careful not to step on any snakes. Getting to the valley between Mt Murray and Mt Bimberi I was surprised to find less of a valley and more a bog filled with high grass. I have seen blogs from people who have camped there in the past, and I can assure you there is no way I would camp there now. Hopefully NSW National Parks will do some work on that area because it is a snake pit currently. I bushbashed my way up the side of the mountain relying heavily on my GPS until I started to find a very faint track and piles of rocks that became more obvious as the track went on. Getting closer to the top the views are fantastic, makes the whole trip worthwhile. I attempted to climb Mt Murray afterwards but made a pact to myself that if I saw one snake I would turn back. After some fairly heavy bushbashing, no sign of any track, and almost stepping on a red belly black snake I decided to call it a day. Oh and one other thing, I recommend starting early if you do it in summer, gets you the maximum amount of Fly free time.
Vonsnrub on 11 Feb, 2021