TP4137 South Obelisk/Callawajune Urbenville, New South Wales, Australia
By Geocaching Australia on 01-Sep-09. Waypoint TP0990

I visited this one with friends. I've driven past this peak a few times over the years and wondered about it. Actually, there are a few in this awesome area I've been wondering about. Did you hear that Edinburgh Castle?? As we approached this beast it seemed more daunting than I remembered.. oh well.. let's give it a solid effort! Tooloom Falls Road was shut but we drove around and discovered another access. After parking our vehicles we started the up. It was flawless walking weather today. We aimed for the Picnic Point GC waypoint and wandered up a path of least resistance. The forest here is sparse with lots of grass which was a nice surprise as we didn't know what to expect. We arrived at the Picnic Point waypoint and WOW! A great view! If heading to this summit I highly recommend a stop here! We sat here for quite a while in the moment. We all lost a friend recently to cancer. He would have been with us this weekend. Only three of us ventured to the summit here but there was a fourth who was in our hearts and thoughts.

We arrived at the summit and laid eyes on the trig station. It's seen better days but it's a survivor. Lots of images taken then it was time to descend which didn't take long. This is an excellent walk and trig. There's also a bonus GC multi-cache here. Don't be deterred from giving this one a go. Just take your time and put one foot in front of the other while aiming for coordinates. No scrambling or ropes required.
Thanks for the cache

Rated: for Overall Experience

After scoping out the area last weekend I decided I’d like to tackle this one again soon. Once upon a time you’d say to yourself that there’s no rush to climb a mountain or explore a national park… they’ll always be there - but that’s not the case anymore. So many National Parks are closing their walks and mountains to visitors, so I decided to come back today and make an attempt to get to the top of the mountain.

I think the trek to the top can be summarised in four steps, all about equal length in distance - maybe not so much in time:

1. After leaving my car at S 28° 31.547 E 152° 30.543, I made my way to Point Carmel (as Google Maps refers to it) - S 28° 31.850 E 152° 30.518. This is simply a point where you can leave the vehicular track and start your climb upward. It’s marked with a small stone cairn at the moment.
2. A thin track from Point Carmel to a large rocky area in which there’s a small cavern isn’t difficult to navigate. You start in some thin Lantana and progress to a wooded area, climbing the natural stone staircase as you ascend.
3. From this area you keep going up, but the trail slowly disappears into thickets of grass, small grass trees and fallen branches. I followed a GPX track I found online, which have me a sense that I was climbing up the best way possible. Some areas were tougher than others. Eventually you’ll arrive at a large rock platform you can climb that has amazing views of the area. They truely are spectacular. You can peer down at where you parked your car and appreciate the elevation you’ve gained. This point has been submitted as Point Esme to Google Maps, keeping in line with the old lady names for the other ‘point’ on this list. It’s at S 28° 32.115 E 152° 30.628.
4. Once you’ve climbed back down from the ledge with the views, it’s up again, in a less wooded area - still no trail, but easy navigation to the summit. I found this the easiest part of the climb. The summit is littered with eroded rock.

The trig is at the top, albeit with a bit of a lean but vanes and post are holding strong. Plenty of peoples initials engraved on it. The latest date looks to be 2016, but there’s some people who have etched the year 1982 onto the vanes. The rock cairn must be holding the pole in well, as I imagine winds and storms could be quite violent up here. There’s only limited views at the summit, as vegetation has grown and is blocking some of the vista. You can also see many of the trees were sawn off up here a long time ago - I imagine a clearing exercise to assist with the trig being used, but most stumps have shot new branches and have grown back into decent sized trees.

I also read that there’s a critically endangered plant that grows up here, and on the mountain next door - but nowhere else. Phebalium speciosum. I think I actually found a couple of them, but they weren’t in flower so I can’t be 100% sure. They were just up from the little cavern located at the first set of big rocks you encounter on the trip. Apparently they have the ability to grow thick enough they can prevent Lantana from being productive.

It was a good hike - missed my hiking buddy though, it was a very quiet walk up the hill with surprisingly few animals. Just ants, a couple of crows and a few flies at the higher elevation. A good walk and another trig done.

Rated: for Overall Experience

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