Macquarie Pass National Park VKFF-0298

After activating Roberston National Park on Easter Monday, my partner and I headed down to nearby Macquarie Pass National Park, VKFF-0298. This park is located on both sides of the Illawarra Hwy descending down from Robertson to Albion Park. We first headed down the pass to do the Cascades Rainforest walk. Sign for the park at the bottom of the pass.

There is a car park and picnic area here, sign at the start of the Cascades Rainforest walk.

The walk is only about 1 Km each way and suitable for families. You follow a walking track, but easy enough to drop down into the creek in places.

Lots of fan palms.

Not a lot of water in the creek after a prolonged drought.

The walk ends at Cascade Falls. I have seen it better, the lack of rain shows.

Returned to the picnic area at the start of the walk. You could probably set up and activate here, however on Easter Monday the place was busy with picnicers and children running around, so gave it a miss and headed back up the mountain.

There are not many places to pull off into the park... I eventually found a parking spot with a locked gate. Forgot to get a photo, however Google Street view shows it, near a Welcome to South Coast NSW road sign.

Operating spot, map from Protected Planet

Past the gate found an open area on the right with a fallen log for squid pole support. Shack on the tarp.

Got on 40 m on 7.144 and spotted myself. Started with a SOTA contact, VK3ZPF on VK3/VT-046 Mt Tassie. Then worked the usual park hunters. There was a bit of a pileup at times.

VK3PF
VK4TJ
VK4/AC8WN
VK4/VE6XT

VK3AHR

VK3DAC
VK3UCD
VK2VW
VK3BSG
VK2FSAV
VK4FDJL
VK4FARR
VK4SMA
VK3MIJ
VK3MDH

An S2S contact from VK5PAS/p Paul activating VKFF-2892 Knott Hill Native Forest Reserve. Paul had a good strong signal and moved off to work park hunters.

Continued on 40 m

VK4RF
VK4HA
VK5WU
VK3NAD
VK5FMWW
VK3SQ
VK3ARH
VK3HRA
VK5CZ
VK3TKK/M
VK2HHA
VK3PI
VK5FANA
ZL1TM
VK4HNS
VK4CZ
VK3BYD
VK5FLEA
VK4NH
VK4DXA
ZL4TY/VK4

As starting to get late and still having a few hours drive home, packed up, and stopped briefly for a pie at the nearby Roberston Pie shop :)