Beyond the Black Stump

“Beyond the Black Stump” is a phrase that I’ve heard (along with “Out Woop Woop” etc ) to mean “in the remote outback” so when I heard of a New Year’s Day run with the same name, I was intrigued. I gathered that it had been a staple run on the calendar for many years and so there was usually a decent crew of runners heading down from the Central Coast to do it, along with many Sydneysiders. 

Beyond the Black Stump Route

For various reasons, many of the usual suspects decided not to run it this year, so there was a much smaller presence than usual, not helped by the fact that people were starting at various times, depending on how long they thought the run would take them (though I guess the fact that people started at various different times does fit with Covid precautions). 

A few people I knew were setting off at 6am but that seemed far too early for the 1st of January (especially as it was a rather drizzly day so there was no pressure to get back before it got too hot and sunny) so there were just 5 of us that headed off from Berowra Community Hall at 7am. 

The very start of the route winds through hilly undulating streets - and we did take the odd wrong turn or two, but luckily, one the of the men running was a local guy and so he kept us right, and so we soon got onto the muddy firetrail through Berowra Bushland Park. After a few kms we turned onto the single track of the Great North Walk route which ducked up and down, weaving round trees, rocks and various slopes but did give us some nice views out over the creek to our left. We were heading to the ferry at Berowra Waters, but the trail was one of those deceptively windy ones, so that everytime you got a glimpse of where you were going to and thought that you were almost there, you'd weave away from it again :-) 

The ferry is an interesting ride as it runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (with a 2 hour down period every month for maintenance) and is free. The creek is only about 200m across, but the ferry runs on demand for cars and so you are never sure whether you will have to wait until you are actually there by the water's edge. Two of the guys were "just" doing the 15K run option so they didn't cross the creek but carried on along the circular route back to Berowra, but the other 3 of us enjoyed the views (such as they were on such a grey day) as we rode over. 

On the ferry going over

During the first section of the run, I had found that I had to run relatively hard to keep up with the guys (why do men always start their runs fast and fade later? testosterone or something?) but once we got off the ferry we had over 3km of constant uphill on a sealed road, and roles became reversed as I had to consciously hold back as I could hear them puffing and panting so that we could all run together. There was no pavement and no grass verge but luckily there was also almost no traffic.

 

As we neared the top of the climb, we passed some ladies walk/running up it who'd started a good half an hour ahead of us, and then some of the 6am starters pounded past making the most of the long downhill back to the ferry! After turning off the main road, we ran along the tarmac until it ran out and turned into another firetrail....and then just carried on along said firetrail, until we left all signs of civilisation again and were back in the bush. 

This 4km of firetrail seemed a lot further as there were some rather steep descents interspersed with flatter sections and a couple of small climbs, but the run was broken up by greeting all the runners we now met coming the other way. There was no way to get lost as the trail just carried on with almost no branching until it finished at the "Ruined Castle of Calabash" - which is not exactly much of a castle by European standards!!! 

The official turnaround is by touching any part of the ruin (so we clearly had to go to the furthest part) and then we returned to the ferry by the same route we'd just come. It was a slightly less sociable run back up the firetrail as although Jay and I were running and chatting together, Darren (who'd started by leading the way and setting the pace from Berowra) now kept dropping back, so we waited for him at the top of each incline. I thought that he might pick up his pace once we reached the flat tarmac again but I still ended up waiting to check that everything was OK when we reached the main road again. 

Touching the "ruined castle"!

I knew we'd be able to all catch up as we waited for the ferry at the bottom so I let my legs go on the long downhill run there which was quite fun. The only issue was the lack of pavement and the blind corners. Each time I thought I must be rounding the last corner down to the ferry/cafe, another one appeared, but luckily there were few bikes out and even fewer cars, so I could enjoy the tranquility of the empty round and the beauty of all the overhanging trees. 

Although it was starting to drizzle, it was also rather humid so we refilled out waterbottles once we were off the ferry and then turned the opposite direction to the way from which we'd come earlier. The paved road became a bush track (again part of the Great North Walk) but by this time there were more people out stretching their legs and wishing each other Happy New Year. One lady surprised me by telling me that I "looked amazing" after I wished them well for 2021, which was lovely to hear, but I suspect far from the truth!! 

The single track then turned away from the creek up some steps and into a very steep climb (hands were necessary to haul yourself up in places). For Jay and I it was like the blind leading the blind, as neither of us had run here before and Darren had dropped back again. We figured that although we were winding back and forth, we must be going in the right direction as we hadn't spotted any turnoffs, and once we crested the ridge, we did descend down to a creek and then climb up the other side again, as the route description had promised. 

We knew that we must "avoid following the Great North Walk" turning to the left towards Cowan but that was about as much of a clue as we had as to where to go. Luckily we started to catch up with more of the early runners and so this reassured us that we were going in the right direction. On reaching the top of the second climb, I appeared to have also lost Jay, but by this time it was actually raining and so I just wanted to get back to Berowra as I knew there would be shelter there so that I could wait for the others to finish. 

Refuelling at Pie in The Sky

The run finished with rather a long section on road, but a lady we'd chatted to on the ferry (who actually remembered seeing me finishing C2K as she was out walking there with her husband!!) drove past me and reassured me that I was going the right way. When I got back to the Community Hall, there were several other Terrigal Trotters hanging around and chatting there as they'd been part of the early contingent, so although it was nice to catch up with them, we started to get rather cold and so, as soon as the others had finished, we all drove to Pie in The Sky for very welcome hot pies and coffee. We all agreed that it was a great way to start the year!