To get up to the Pines Picnic area from Morriset exit of the F3 takes about 20-30 minutes going through Martinsville.
So its an left hand exit at Mandalong Road, then up Deaves Road to Martinsville Road, and a left on Martinsville Hill Road (at the firehall) which runs into Watagan Forest Road. About 8kms into the Watagans from Martinsville you'll come to the Pines Picnic area and the Water Tower Picnic area, there are also some campgrounds adjacent to them. Near the Old Mount Onley HQ is the turn off onto the Wollombi Forest Road which takes you right down the other side to Watagan Creek Road. Watagan Creek Road intersects the Great North Road at Laguna where you turn right and go about 6kms to Wollombi township (and the Tavern).
Its fairly standard firetrail stuff all the way through the Watagans (sticking to the route I have decribed). The total distance from Martinsville to Laguna via the Watagans is 35kms. I would estimate you could do that in an hour but stopping for morning tea or nature breaks would stretch it out abit and who's in a hurry. The campground areas up there will be crowded over the holidays and there will be dirt bikes and 4wds on the roads, its a popular area.
Dave, yes another way is to go via the Calga exit off the F3 (which turns onto Peats Ridge Rd) and George Downes Drive and merges at Bucketty. That way is pretty much pavement all the way from my reading of the map, but I could be wrong.
Reading the Great North Road notes:
http://www.greaterbluemountainsdrive.co ... n-road.pdfthere are other possible diversions along the way (like the "Finchley turnoff into Yengo National Park. Although narrow, the circuit around the Finchley and Boree Tracks is quite negotiable by 2WD and not to be missed if at all possible. Follow the signposts to the Finchley Trig lookout, then a little further on to Finchley Aboriginal Area. The trig gives a stunning panorama over the bushland of Yengo National Park".
I would not want to be returning down the F3 on any of the holiday days but going up should be ok particulalry if we get going early. Coming back down the Great North Road into Wisemans Ferry should not be an issue as there wil be no main road type traffic till Windsor area.
So can we agree that this area, (loop) are the destination/route, and just work out whether we want to use the Watagan firetrail options or the Calga pavement sector up to, or back from, Wollombi and the Great North Road?
We seem to have four vehicles: Jenko, gi-frog, DaveG, and glend.
Gi-frog can't go on Monday the 25th because he is marching. The Easter Monday is actually gazetted as Tuesday the 26th of April due to Anzac day falling on the Monday. So we have the option of Friday the 22nd, Saturday the 23rd, Sunday the 24th, and Tuesday the 26th. I assume people may have family related activities on Easter Sunday (the 24th), and it's also likely that some of the venues we might want to visit may be closed on that day - so I suggest we drop the Sunday.
So Friday, Saturday or Tuesday? I can go on any of these (but my preference would be Saturday). What say you?