Starlight Trail

I chose this walk because I cam across some amazing photos of Russel’s Needle – climbing to it’s amazing summit and camping on the Nattai River was the original objective of this delightful walk. We started the walk at the end of Nattai Road along a relatively easy trail. The trail shortly connects with the Ahearn Lookout Trail at the junction and signpost for the Starlight Trail (which is what we did on Day 2 to return from the river). The track down to the Nattai river is relatively easy (400m decent) with nothing overly technical or difficult. We did it with 3 complaining teenage kids, which was more technical than the route itself 😉 Once at the river, we cooled down and made the decision to scrap the Needle, because we mis-timed things. We only started the walk at midday, arrived at the river at around 14:30 so getting to the Needle and back to the campsite would not work – so we pressed on to the campsite at the very sandy and picturesque Emmetts Flat. This was a lovely place to spend the night, albeit we were camped alongside other visitors, I think this place gets busy. The next day we walked up the Starlight Trail, all in all (much to the dismay of our whinging teenagers) about 3 to 4 hours of ascent back to the car park. I’ll be back here to do the Needle … and a much earlier start (and no teenagers!).