[rare opportunity] Get Your Ass to Donkey Mountain – Experienced Hike

The title is a homage to the trip report from 11 years ago. Read the report here!!! The below contents are also shamelessly plagiarised.

Note: This trip is part of the Newnes Club Meetup. You must be approved to attend. This is the only official club trip running that weekend (you are encouraged to do your own things with friends). You must organise your own activities on Sunday.

Let’s go to Donkey mountain!!

Donkey mountain is an amazing rocky heaven, riddled with pagodas, soaring cliffs, incredible caves, canyons and countless rocky features.

To get to this wonderland you first must climb to the top of Donkey Mountain. This is a STEEP and arduous hill, so a HIGH level of fitness is paramount. However, this strenuous climb is totally worth it, because once we are up we can spend the whole day exploring the labyrinth of wonders.

Read Paul Ma’s reports here for the fun they had exploring this place.

See the below quote from a book for further convincing:

This is a great chance!!!!!! Donkey Mountain is usually inaccessible and we have organised special access to the valley 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 Join us, won’t you?

We will drop our gear at camp and immediately make our way here on Saturday morning, so that we can maximise the winter daylight.

This trip is for experienced off-track bushwalkers with navigation skill only. Since the fires and Newnes closure, Donkey Mountain has become very very overgrown. It is covered in Stinging Nettle et al. and you need to be ready for this.

YOU WILL NEED:

• Head-torch – Very important. If we get stuck in the dark you will have a horrible time descending
• Water – Bring AT LEAST 2L of water.
• Emergency Blanket
• Lunch – You must provide your OWN lunch.
• Snacks – We’ll be doing a lot of exercise, so make sure you bring lots of snacks to keep your energy levels up! Bring things like nuts, fruit, dried fruit, lollies, biscuits, chocolate, muesli bars, etc.
• Bush bashing clothes – rain jacket, long pants, gloves, sunglasses, etc. There is lots of stinging nettle.
• First Aid Kit – If you have one.

In your comments, include:

• Your off-track hiking experience
• Why there is a feature called “Jenny Craig” on the below map? (Read Paul Ma’s blog post linked above)
• If you have a car that will make it into the valley (AWD/4WD)

map of the area:

Geoff Fox’s famous sketch map of part of Donkey Mountain