Obi Obi Gorge return by Great Walk Track

If you ever wanted to rock up and swim up a river through the middle of a most spectacular Gorge surrounded by unique rainforest this hike is for you. Obi Obi Gorge is a gorge along Obi Obi creek which flows from Lake Baroon. At the other end of Obi Obi Creek is Kondalilla Falls.

The hike starts descending from the of Narrows road adjacent to the Baroon Dam spillway. Google calls the area Kondalilla Falls National Park entrance although the the actual Kondalilla Falls is quite a distance away and accessed through a different road. There is a toilet just up from the car park where you start.

The national track starts out from a car park into the rainforest before reaching a turn off clearly marked towards Obi Obi Creek. When you hit the creek you well I need to boulder hop across to the other side of the creek to proceed along away before reaching a point where you will have to enter the water and start scrambling over rock obstacles down the creek.

Eventually you will hit a couple of very long swim leg adjacent to a waterfall that comes down off the surrounding hills. You move forward along the creek following the creek where you can all the way down through the gorge.

At the end of the gorge part you will reach an area where you will need to traverse along the side of the creek between muddy billabongs. You will have to start to orient take yourself towards the right hand side of the creek to enable exit from the creek into the Great Walk track.

The conclusion of a hike involves you taking the steep windy track up to Little Obi Hump which has great views of the valley and the area recently traversed up Obi Obi Creek. From there you descend down towards the car park where you started.

This track is rated hard because of the difficulty of hiking and climbing across rocky mossy rocks. There are also 300m long swim legs. Do not at any time jump into water that you are not fully aware of what is below you. Submerged rocks are everywhere. Leeches do live in their muddy areas at the sides of the creek.

One of my favourite hikes and a great one to do in the middle of summer. Allow 4 to 5 hours and I would suggest you take along something to float on in the river. Nothing like basking in the sun on a float as you are gently pushed down river.