It is a decade since Doug and I walked into the Walls of Jerusalem with Jason who had not long completed his successful circumnavigation of Australia by sea kayak. The Walls were a quieter place then. Now there is a constant stream of bushwalkers heading in or heading out, the flow is almost uninterrupted! We started at 7:30 am walking up – the best bit of the track – the initial uphill section to the undulating plateau at about 1150 metres. Dozens of walkers passed us on the way out. When you are on the way out at 7:30 in the morning, I always wonder why you didn’t just finish the walk out the night before. At this time of year, it is dark until almost 7:00 am so, unless these folk started walking at 4:00 am (perhaps they did), they must have been within striking distance of the trail head. But, if the increasing creep of left wing authoritarianism in Australia has taught me anything it is that it’s not my business!
We passed the old trappers hut (1050 metres) and the track that goes to Lake Adelaide. A new (at least to us) sign at the trailhead advertises the route through Dixons Kingdom, down to Ball Lake and back via Lake Adelaide as a two or three day circuit. I imagine the circuit is quite popular. I also imagine, after reacquainting myself with the trail, that many hikers find it tougher than the track statistics would imply. I certainly did!
Past the Lake Adelaide junction, the track goes up a bit, down a bit, up a bit, down a bit, to the left, to the right, to the right and left, followed by to the left than right. In other words, it is surprisingly slow given there is no real elevation gain until the ascents to Herods Gate and then Damascus Gate. I kept looking at my Garmin watch and thinking “how is it possible that we are so slow?” Eventually, we passed the new (at least to us) campsite at XXX creek, just below Herods Gate. It was gratifying to finally come out into some more open terrain as we passed by Lake Salome. We had a brief stop here, sitting on a boulder in the sun looking down on Lake Salome and across to The Temple with King Davids Peak behind. As an aside, how is it possible that the woke crowd has not demanded that all these places be renamed? The Christian themed names of these places must be driving them bat-shit crazy!
Of course I had hopes of tagging the three highpoints around Damascus Gate: King Davids Peak (the highest and most impressive although the ascent is, as usual, up the gentle back/west side), Solomons Throne (which I had done before) and The Temple. Doug, who is eminently more sensible than me was planning on hiking up one of these only and chose Solomons Throne (called Halls Buttress on the topographic maps). I decided I would walk up Solomons Throne with Doug and continue along to King Davids Peak. All Trails shows a footpad along the ridge between the two.
Walking up Halls Buttress/Solomons Throne was like a mini-Everest expedition – there was an actual traffic jam! A group of seniors was slowly crawling up, with one fellow making so much noise I thought a cardiovascular event must be imminent. We managed to pass this group near the ridge top and soon were at the top of Halls Buttress and a magnificent view point. I walked up here at dawn on a frosty morning ten years ago and remember being impressed with the quality of the track. The track is stellar. Big boulders have been moved to make good steps all the way.
A young couple of backpackers who were ahead of us continued on to King Davids Peak their speed a bit of a wake up call to me that the walk between Solomons Throne and King Davids Peak would not be any quicker (and likely a good bit slower) than the track into Damascus Gate. The ridge between the two drops 60 metres and then gains 90 metres, and is about three kilometres return (not counting all the twists and turns). A son and his father who were just ahead of us were enjoying the view and later we would meet them after they traversed the ridge to King Davids Peak and descended the northern aspect to regain the track near Lake Salome. The seniors group stumbled past us, moving exceptionally slowly and shakily. One woman had an unusual (honestly stupid) pack design where most of the weight and bulk was carried on two enormous pockets on her chest. This might seem like a good idea to someone who has never scrambled before because, initially, it might seem that you are equalising the weight between the anterior and posterior aspects of the body. It’s not, however, a good idea, and impairs the ability to use your arms for balance and for minor climbing moves.
But all this is beside the point as I realised I had chosen the wrong door. The walk to King Davids Peak would take more time, energy and leg endurance than I had available to me – I am an old, out of shape, walker too! I should have chosen The Temple because I had never been up it before. I left Doug on top of Solomons Dome and hoofed it down the track to Damascus Gate and up the also amazing track on the opposite side of Damascus Gate that climbs to the top of The Temple. The Temple is only 50 metres lower than King Davids Peak and has a tremendous view of its own, including across Jaffa Gate to Mount Jerusalem. There is a good track up Mount Jerusalem as well (we did that with Jason back in 2016). Even better, there was no-one at all on The Temple. I could see Doug across Damascus Gate on Solomons Dome and texted him to say that if he let me know when he was leaving Solomons Dome, as I would also descend The Temple and we could walk out together.
Doug regained the main track perhaps a minute or two before me and we started the long walk out together. We were now passing hordes of walkers coming in, rather than out. What a busy place! I got back to the van at about 4:00 pm so an 8.5 hour day (including stops) to cover a meagre 14 kilometres, although there was a decent amount of elevation gain included. I had to resort to more Vitamin I that night (Ibuprofen) as my injured hip was aching. We were camped in our van beside Lake Rowallan and had a wonderful fresh water swim when we got back to camp. I like to think the “cold therapy” (although it wasn’t actually that cold) did something to help recovery!
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