My son Jamie dropped me at Brooklyn early on Sunday morning 21/06/20. Weather was cool overcast and 13 degrees Celcius. My FKT attempt was to move as fast as possible from Brooklyn along the Great North Walk trail over to Quarry Road trail head, Dural, calculated at approximately 40 kilometres. The Quarry Road trail head is a natural landing pad off the GNW, providing easy access for those from Western Sydney. The climb out of Brooklyn is steep to begin and then undulating for some kilometres along a firetrail. You really need to watch for the GNW signage because it is easy to miss them and I did at the first major turn, which you can see on my gpx track, having to double back. If you are unfamiliar with this trail it is highly recommended to reconnoitre sections before any attempt to save wrong direction. Once on top of the ridgeline the firetrail changes to single track, very technical, large boulders and iron handholds are not uncommon for steep descents. Beautiful views of Jerusalem Bay can be seen in this section. Climbing out of the bay I made my way over to Cowan train station and the next section. From Cowan, single trail continues through Eucalypt forest, over two major climbs with creek crossings and I arrived at Berowra Waters on the creek. Some of the climbs, such as the peak above Berowra Waters, affords fantastic views across the creek, make sure you take a break to take in the views!.
Berowra to Crosslands has a major climb out of Berowra, technical sandstone which can be slippy in the wet. Watch out for snakes as I have seen some in this area previously. The run into Crosslands is very nice across a 100 metre boardwalk which straddles marshy wetlands, watch out for the giant Goanna lizards on the tree trunks, I saw one during the run which was approximately 1 metre long. There are facilities at Crosslands because of the camping grounds and I filled up my softflasks. This part of the trail is quite shaded because of the tree cover which was a relief, because the sun did come out from behind the clouds which dispersed late in the morning.
I ran under the bridge at Galston Gorge and then made the climb up the single trail to a 4WD firetrail. I was all out of water by this point and there is no other place to fill up, no creeks or waterfalls. The firetrail took me through Tunks camping ground and I finally reached the trail head at Quarry road.
Potable water can be found at Cowan train station and Crosslands Reserve, I didn't find any other sources of water apart from natural waterfalls and creeks. In summer the waterfalls and creeks dry up meaning you would need to take all your water with you. In the summer there are snakes on the trail so it's highly recommended to carry a snake bandage. Intermittent cell phone coverage especially in the gullies.
This was an unsupported attempt, no assistance was given at anytime and it was completed alone. This is a great route to run in the winter, during summer it would be too hot, even if you ran very early in the morning, compounded by the very limited water resupply opportunities along the way.