| Elevation Gain | 415m |
| Length | 15km |
| Type | Return trip |
With a few trails under my belt, I thought I would take it to the next level. This time I’d tackle a 15km run.
The trail is a about 50min drive from Central Sydney to the area of Fiddletown. Fiddletown is a quaint rural community and location of many the plant nurseries and honey traders.
The trail report
The Marramarra Ridge trail is located on some quite back roads with parking about 50m off the road down a fire trail. The trail starts off as a continuation from the above said fire trail and is pretty much fire trail the whole way. The trails are made up from a very rocky and sandy base. Being largely exposed to the sun I would not recommend for a midday run during summer and even starting around 9 am in August I was happy I had applied sunscreen for the run.
Challenge wise the first leg is only moderate difficulty and passes through forested areas and a few farm properties. Being a fire trail the route was pretty wide and relatively easy to navigate. With only a few forks in the road it is still recommended to take a phone with a map to make sure you don’t get lost. Alternatively, we’d recommend using the Alltrails app.
What stood out the most was that this is one of the quietest trails around Sydney. There was no-one in the car park or on the trail. This is a refreshing break from some of the fairly busy national park trails around Sydney. The first leg includes 3 sections of steep descent. This foretold of the soon to be brutal return leg getting back up these descents.
3 Descent Sections
After the 3 descent sections, the trail meets a river which I ran alongside for about 10 minutes. At the end we were greeted by a lone picnic table in an underwhelming finish to the first leg. The end of the trail finishes with a basic picnic table beside a river. While the surrounding forest is nice there are few spots to warrant taking a lot of photos. This is not a trail for avid nature lovers, and this is perhaps the reason for the lack of traffic on the trail.
The return stage is awfully hard. 3 long and steep ascents are required. Only the fittest of trail runners will be able to complete this without resorting to walking at least some sections. From this perspective, the trail offers a fitness check for the would-be trail runner. I found the return pretty grueling. Each ascent I would strategically start off with small steps in a very slow run. However, quickly the lactic acid built up and I was reduced to a walk each time. Be sure to take extra water on this run.
Getting back to the car park is a welcome end to the trail. Glad I reviewed the checklist and brought a change of fresh clothes.
Key take-outs:
• Hard Trail – bring sufficient water, especially on a hot day
• Fire trail is largely exposed to the sun so apply sunscreen
Recommended post-run café:
• Cafe Sasanqua for some avocado toast and coffee
