Cathedral Ranges Sth Circuit

Day 2 of hiking the Cathedral Ranges.
Waking at 7am again, we stoked up the fire, defrosted from the 4°C overnight temperature, had brekky & a coffee and we were on the trail by 8 am.
Hitting the St.Bernard's Track (1.5km Grade 3), which conveniently began right at our campsite, we began the immediate ascent to the Jawbone Carpark. As per yesterday, we came across a Lyrebird again, this time just 4-5m away!
From the Carpark, we took the Jawbone Creek Track (1.4km Grade 4) and descended down into McLennan's Gully, before making the steep climb up to the Farmyard Campground, where we met some hiker's breaking camp. As they departed I found the nearby Geocache before taking the 300m Grade 3 trek up to South Jawbone Creek for some amazing views - possibly the best views available. I highly recommend this short, steep detour. After signing the nearby Geocache and taking many pictures we decended back to the Farmyard Campground and turned South on Razorback Track (2.4km Grade 5).
This track began in a low forest-like setting, winding alongside the ridge for around 2.2km, before we reached the start of the ascent to Sugarloaf Peak. At 770m elevation it became more of a rock scramble, with some quite challenging areas. This 600m long strech took us upto the Peak at 920m elevation. The wind picked up here, adding to the feeling of being on top of the world.
From here we struggled to find anything resembling a track to Well's Cave nd since watching various Youtube clips at home, I think its more a rock climbing effort to reach the Peak on Well's Cave Track. I signed the Geocache hidden at the Peak and our group started making our way down the Canyon Track (650m Grade5), which was quite exhilarating in one section where you crab down the steepest section on your bottom, hoping you don't slip. This section became a lot busier too, with many day-trippers choosing the easier option of Parking at Sugarloaf Saddle to make the short steep climb up to the peak and returning down the same track.
From here, it was a relatively peaceful trek back down to Sugarloaf Saddle to a carpark, but we still had 4.4km ahead of us. The Messmate Track (Grade 3) takes you through a beautiful, tall Messmate Eucalypt forest for approximately 2.5km or reasonably steep descent before it meets with Tweed Spur Road where it flattens out a little, and returns you to Cook's Mill Campground.
Having done 27.3km over the two days and accumulating 1330m of elevation gain, it's fair to say our legs were fairly weary and our knees were aching. I wish I'd done a little more hill prep work prior to attempting this walk, but we proved to ourselves it was quite acheivable with little training for this group of 40+ year old reasonable fit fella's, completing the South Circuit in 4.5 hours.
A quick beer was enjoyed back at camp, before rolling up the swags and leaving the Campground at 1:30.
I hope you enjoyed reading of our adventures and that it encourages you to attempt this hike.
PS - Stop in at the Buxton Pub on your way home - the kitchen closes at 2pm and their Buxton Burger is legendary!!!