A wedgetail eagle soared gracefully above us, effortlessly catching the light breeze as he looked down upon us.  “I wonder if he appreciates the magnificent views he has from up there” I asked no one in particular as I stared upward. “Probably not,” a fellow bush walker answered, “he’s just looking for his next feed”.  But from this lofty perch on the top of Pantoneys Crown I couldn’t imagine anything else – the stunning 360 degree views made the challenging climb to the top all worthwhile.  Since I first spotted Pantoneys Crown more than 30 years ago I wanted to stand on top and now I was.

Pantoneys Crown is a huge mesa standing as an island in the middle of the Capertee Valley, three and a half hours east of Sydney.  It is distinctly ringed by a dramatic escarpment which makes it both beautiful and forbidding.  Capertee Valley, the self-proclaimed ‘widest valley in the world’ is an expansive area surrounded by stunning cliff walls, filled with trackless national parks and beautiful grazing land.  Capertee Valley is one of the most spectacular unknown gems of New South Wales.

Through the wisdom of Dr. Google I had learned that the Upper Blue Mountains Bushwalking Club, or UBMBC for short, was mounting a rare expedition to the top of Pantoneys Crown.  This is significant because there are no trails to climb the Crown so you must go with someone who knows the way and you must get permission to cross private property to even attempt it.  Julie and I immediately paid our money, joined the club and on one recent Saturday morning met 14 other keen bush walkers and our volunteer leader for what became truly one of the highlights of our outdoor experience.

The return walk from where we parked our car to the summit and back was about 12 kilometres and a climb of almost 550 metres (1,800 feet in the old language) up.  It started off as a gentle but steady hike following a series of ridges and bush bashing through various sections of scrub and trees.  Occasionally we caught sight of the Crown looming high and far above us, both a reassuring and worrying sight.  The bugger was massive with its high vertical walls and it was a long ways away.

As we edged our way closer the track got steeper with the section below the escarpment particularly difficult for its steep angle and slippery footing on the loose scree.  While Julie and I were in the middle of the demographics for this group there were obviously some very keen life-long bush walkers (we were the only ones who didn’t live in the mountains) but the spirit and camaraderie of a bunch of strangers was obvious – we were bonding over a very special experience.

The climb up the steep escarpment walls proved the most technically difficult and the scariest.  At three different sections we needed to climb up exposed vertical rock, relying on finding good hand holds and new friends above and below us to help us up.  One section was particularly difficult but our leader pulled out a trusty tape (ropes are too heavy and so yesterday) which climbers used (notice that we are no longer bush walkers, we are climbers) to scramble up to the next ledge.

At one stage we walked around the base of a cliff, dizzy from the stunning views far below us, until we came to a small crack in the vertical face.  A couple of blind hand holds up the face, then a crawl through a little tunnel, a bump of the head and a skin of the knee before we popped out on top of Pantoneys Crown.  Phew, that was easy!

As we stood at the northern tip of the Crown looking down on the widest valley in the world Julie and I gave each other a hug – we knew we had just accomplished something very few people get to do and were admiring a view rarely seen.  But we had two more milestones for the day (besides getting back down which hadn’t been forgotten) – we needed to climb to the highest point on the Crown and walk the full length to have lunch at the far southern end.  And its more than an hour of hard scramble to get to that point.

You might think, or naively assume as I did, that once you get to the top of Pantoneys Crown it is fairly smooth and flat and an easy stroll to the other end.  In fact, just the opposite.  Some of the most interesting and varied walking was still ahead of us as we scrambled over strangely shaped pagoda rock formations, through thick bush reaching over our heads and amongst thick forests of trees and scrub to finally reach the summit which our trusty GPS told us was at 1,015 metres.  Julie signed the log book on our behalf and after a few moments to catch our breath, admire the wedgetail eagle above us and inhale the views all around us, we continued the bush bashing trek until we reached the southern end of the Crown.

From this breathless spot we gazed across the valley to the distant imposing escarpment and picked out a point called Baal Bone Gap which we had stood at many times before as part of our four wheel drive explorations.  From that distant point I had admired Pantoneys Crown and wondered if it was even possible to climb to the top; now I was standing there.  The cliff below our feet dropped 300 metres straight down and the valley below looked like a rough green carpet covering a rolling uneven floor.  Catch your breath; it’s all good up here.

We retraced our steps across the rough terrain of the top of the Crown, through the little tunnel, across a couple of exposed faces and down the tape which made a particular drop otherwise undoable, then a careful retreat down the steep loose scree to the thicker tree line and a more gentle, but exhausting, walk to the car.  What an experience and what a day!

We stayed that night at our property which is less than an hour away from the Crown, and spent the night sleeping in our shed, a first for us but a great option as the heavens opened up in a Bangkok-like monsoon.   The next day we were nursing some sore muscles but decided to return to the Capertee Valley to explore it in more detail and refresh our memories of this beautiful place.  We estimated it had been 15 years since the last time we had been down to the end of the valley but its grand views and rich fields deserved much more.

 

In climbing Pantoneys Crown we achieved something that was quite challenging and yet very special, saw some amazing views, met a lot of great people, and proved again what can be done with a bit of determination and effort.  Will we ever do it again?  Well, quietly, I’m already planning a return trip.