We had a couple of weekends of nice Canberra winter weather. The previous weekend, a couple of my friends had posted about walking in Rob Roy National Park, so since I had a bit of time to spare that day, I thought I'd give it a go.
The start of the trail is at the back of Banks. It wasn't too hard to find, you could see the mountain and the trail from the road - a little intimidating!
The Australian Hiker site (which I usually check before a walk - thanks guys!) lists Big Monks as a grade 4 walk. Mainly because of the first km. With good reason! It is STEEP! It's a 1:6 gradient, and I can't overestimate how steep it is. It took me about 27 minutes to walk that 900m and my heart was pounding. There were a few times I had to turn around and walk backwards as it was hurting my knees. If you're just starting out with mountains, this is not the place to start!
But, eventually, I made it to the top of the steep part where there is a big Kurrajong tree. I sat there and caught my breath and checked out the already pretty spectacular view. I guess that's what happens when you get up high! I could see the Big Monks trig from where I was sitting, and while it looked close-ish, it really wasn't. But the walk was a little easier. Still mostly uphill, but along a rocky fire trail.
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| The Big Monks trig from the big Kurrajong tree |
I got to a fork where I could choose to go to Rob Roy or Big Monks. I wasn't sure I could make it to Rob Roy, so I chose the closer one. There was another steep part in the final summit, though not nearly as steep as the first part. When I got there I was rewarded with the most magnificent views I've seen yet. You can see all the way across to Namadgi National Park and Booroomba Rocks, and then all the way to Telstra Tower in the distance.
Not far from the trig there is another Kurrajong tree which was nice to sit under, and people had been doing some creative rock-stacking.
I sat on the hill for quite a while, enjoying the beautiful blue Canberra day and the magnificent views.
The way down was nice, with more of a chance to see the views, but quite hard on the knees, especially the last kilometre. I think I was almost as slow going down that hill as going up it!
Big Monks
Elevation gain - 914m.
Distance walked - 5.48km
Time to trig - about an hour (half of this was the steep first 900m).
Difficulty - hard. Mainly because of the first part.
Best part - spectacular views.
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