Thoughts of the year ‘2023’ always brought up images of the future. Picture BladeRunner. The idea of the year ‘2023’ seems somewhat surreal. It’s hard to fathom that we are 23 years post the Y2K bug. No less than 22 years after the collapse of the twin towers. Two decades have passed since the start of the Iraq war. Someone born at the start of the Global Financial Crisis would now be sixteen years old. For me personally, these significant events have always served as points of reference in time. However, the sheer amount of time that has passed always remains hard to comprehend. Regardless, here we are in the year 2023, and whilst it is the future, it may not be the future that I had imagined. The world generally faces the same challenges as before. Inflation is running away, not unlike the early 90’s. The world is no closer to solving the climate crisis. The divide between the poor and the rich continues to increase, with the taxes of the middle class subsidising the livelihoods of them both.
There had certainly been a long hiatus for us between hikes, simply for lack of time. Life feels like it’s passing at an exponentially blistering pace. This perception also seems to be shared between my peers and friends. I don’t know if it’s simply a result of age, or the commitments that inadvertently present themselves transitioning into full-fledged adult-hood, but what persists is the feeling. The feeling of always playing catch up with father time; of looking back at the week on a Friday and wondering ‘what did I even do?’. Don’t get me wrong. Retrospectively, it’s easy to point to the achievements, to highlight the evidence of targets hit or milestones reached on a macro scale, but what downright frightens me, is the loss of the details. Not dissimilar to dreams, memories are inherently grainy; they summarise immense periods of time into an overarching feeling, or at best, flashes of vague images.
So, it was decided that we would hike New Year’s Day. What better way to start the new year than with a walks and chats in arguably our favourite place in the world?
Getting There:
Burramoko trail is located in Blue Mountains National Park. The trail is readily accessible by car, with two-wheel drive access at the end of Ridgewell Road. There is ample parking here too, so just plug into your GPS and drive!
The Hike:
This is a wide there-and-out fire-trail. Mountain bikes also permitted, so be ready to share the path with cyclists. Groups and mountain bikes are limited to eight in number. I would consider this trail moderate to easy, with approximately 262m of elevation gain.
The trail starts at the carpark, with the area to the north-west distinctly cordoned off as an asbestos contamination area.
The trail continues north-west, and remains quite high and consistent in elevation. You are very much surrounded by dry sclerophyll forest and scrub, typical at these elevations in the Blue Mountains. However, scenic vistas occasionally poke through the bush, mostly to the west, where the vast expanses and vertical sandstone cliffs of the mountains never fail to make one (and one’s problems) feel insignificant.
In between the intermittent vistas and views, the absolute explosion of colour of Australian native flowers kept us entertained. I was on a mission to photograph every single type of flower that I came across. This certainly didn’t help our pace to the destination, as I would be stopping every few meters to take a close look at the (often tiny) flora. Botany and identification of plants is something I wish I was better versed in. What was notable though, was that particular areas of the trail would feature different types of flowers, where one flower would completely dominate a stretch of the path.
The destination is of course, the famous Hanging Rock. Here again, the views are endless, and it’s the perfect spot to sit down, have a quick picnic, and watch the shadows cast by clouds on the valleys below.
I don’t think it unfair to say that this fire-trail is a bit monotonous. Having said that, horses for courses; it’s a perfect trail for those who want to run, or cycle, or focus on their pace and splits over a relatively level terrain. This is exactly what we did on the return leg of the trip. Trying to get our heart rates up and our split times down. I think retrospectively, this would be a great mountain biking trail, which is what I would do if I were to ever to return. Beyond that, it was the perfect way to kick off the year, and set precedence of how our year should (hopefully!) continue. Full of hikes, nature and self-reflection.