The trip started with some trouble on my part in locating Felix and his crew at Lithgow, which in hindsight wasn’t really that hard to figure out… Hats off to those who got up early for the 3-hour train ride in. Once all 3 cars were on the same side of the station, we drove towards Newnes for some abseiling practice. Everyone did…
We left Sydney Uni at 1.30 on Friday. Heavy traffic and finding somewhere to refill a gas bottle in the mountains meant we arrived at 4.30, setting up camp along the river opposite the old Newnes Hotel. The pub looks much as it did when it served its last drinks sixty years back, with the front bar now serving as the camp office and kiosk. We camped…
Despite the poor weather forecast, our group met promptly at Springwood station under a wonderfully blue sky. From this point, we sauntered southwest through the streets of Springwood, until we reached the trailhead at the end of Sassafras Gully Road. We then followed the track downhill, making several water crossings until we reached Glenbrook creek. The water…
As we were packing up from lunch at Lost Rock (aptly named for us at least!) I got another call from Thomas, who was now way behind schedule, but still keen to push on so I told him we would wait at the base of Billys Ridge until 10:00am the following morning. I had previously been on the Uni Rover as far as Mt Savage and assumed the obvious foot pad and track markers went all the way to the river – in fact they both dropped out around Mt Lannigan and the final descent of Lannigans Spur was much slower going than I had expected. Unfortunately I…
The walk plan didn’t get off to a good start, with the possibility of showers forecast earlier, and also my home internet losing its connection twice (found to be due to a jumper cable link pulled by possums!) causing difficulty in contacting walkers (and prospective walkers). Then the…
We met at 9.30 on a warm but overcast morning under the Roseville Bridge in Forestville. At that point 22 people were registered. Seven people texted to drop out and we had two no-shows (you know who you are!), so thirteen of us set off down middle harbour. The Harbour to Hawkesbury track runs through big gum trees under some very pretty sandstone cliffs, with views across to the harbourside suburb of Castlecrag designed by Walter and Marion Burleigh-Griffin, who also designed Canberra. Castlecrag is…
Although I had expected a few drop-out because of the weather outlook, in fact we only had two people withdraw due to weather and health concerns. And indeed it did not look to be a promising day. Although there was a mere 2 or 3 spots of rain when I left home, by the time I was passing through West Ryde the rain had become heavy. Also the…
Although I woke to blue skies, the weather forecast looked a bit worrying, promising showers and maybe a storm. Despite that, 10 intrepid adventurers decided to take the chance with the weather. With the numbers reduced due to sickness, sleep-ins, missed train, and unfortunately one “no show”, 10 of us met up at Woy Woy Station, and we all bundled into David’s care and mine, eliminating the need for a bus trip. So we…
Just a brief report with thanks to the SUBW members who offered advice for our walk, and to those who came and made it a lovely weekend. We walked the classic Solitary traverse in the end, with a car shuffle that worked brilliantly thanks to our three drivers (Martin, Mark and Sean). We even…
Expected to be cloudy for the whole day according to the weather forecast, again they successfully fail to predict the weather, it was a bit of shade very early in the morning, the sky clear out once we arrive at springwood. As my aim was to organized a big beginner canyoning trip to let more firsttimers experience the charm of bluemountain exclusive features, it was pity that almost half group of people dropped out before the trip with whatever their reasons, 4 other members contacted me in the morning to quit because they missed the train. I personally…
We all met up at Thornleigh Station and headed off along the Great North walk (GNW), which for the first km goes along suburban streets, so the first (and only) non-reptilian animal we saw on the GNW was somebody’s cat. Then it was into the Eloura Bushland reserve which then reaches a concrete fire access road which leads down to the upper reaches of Berowra Creek. There we…
This was always likely to be a slow trip, as seven is a large party for Claustral and we had some relatively inexperienced trip members, including our guest, an overseas academic with interests in conservation biology who had joined us at the last minute. As trip leader I was happy to go slowly, as the previous time I joined a small, fit group through Claustral it took seven hours and I was really exhausted by the end. The plan…
The start of a new Semester always sees an influx of new members to SUBW, so it’s good to do a beginners walk to welcome them to the wonderful world of bushwalking. And, although not intended, I also introduced them to the wonderful world of leeches! The walk was to Stanwell Park Gully and the Wodi Wodi Track, south of Sydney. This area…
13 of us all met up together at Central Station for the train to Leura. Kang had a close call as she was lured to the wrong platform by the transport app, and on this morning the app was wrong! So we all set off for the 2 hour train trip to Leura, noting the bat colony at Clyde and a couple of Kangaroos in the grounds of UWS at Kingswood, and these were the only wild creatures – bar one- that we saw on this walk. Vanessa, who…
On 14/2/15 we planned to do Castle Head and Malaita Wall, we did neither of these abseils today, but still all had a very good time. We met up at Scenic World at 9am. We were on location for the Mailaita Wall abseil and Chee had done Castle Head a few times. The group made a decision on the spot that Malaita Wall was a more appealing option at this time. We were…
This trip had it all. Sweltering heat, thunder, rain, cool mist, snakes, an allergic reaction, great canyons, campfires and lots of abseiling. But first and foremost, the risks and dangers of what we do was slammed home as soon as we got back to mobile phone coverage after the trip because there came the shock news that on this same weekend on another SUBW trip, Helen Smith, a long time SUBW member, fell while en route to a canyon and was badly injured. All our…
Some more good weather luck on this walk. Although rain had been forecast for the morning, in fact it had past over overnight so we had a clear day for the walk. Maddie and I arrived at Central, got the train there and collected Tony and his niece and nephew David and Suan. When we…
The weather forecast wasn’t looking too good in the days leading up to the walk, and the predicted conditions of ‘consistent rain all day’ turned out to be highly accurate. Two people dropped out, leaving four adventurous souls to join me at Wentworth Falls, unperturbed by my early morning SMS-warning to them that they should ‘expect to get wet’. As the…
Eight of us met at Medlow Bath on a perfect, sunny morning to explore Hat Hill Creek and it’s canyons, following Tom Brennan’s excellent track notes. After some messing about we headed down the hill at 10.10, reaching the creek about 15m later. A few minutes walking down a not-too-scrubby creek brought us to the first constriction, which starts with a slide into a short swim. The constriction…
After Saturday night dinner at the Royal Hotel in Oberon, we camped at the sparsely populated Boyd River Campground and set the alarm for Sunday 4.00am. It was 5.30 before we headed north along the Mount Thurat Firetrail. Across the Kanangra Ck fords, and up past a marker cairn onto Thurat Broad Ridge before we turned east and descended to our target gully. Dave Noble’s…