Based on the number of leeches that attacked me the last time I led a tripout to Splendor Rock, Kosta and I decided to put a leech disclaimer in the advert for the 2012 Freshers Trip. Thanks to the glorious El Nino conditions, the friendly leeches of Carlons creek have gone forth and multiplied, seemily beyond any reasonable or polite carrying capasity. Nevertheless, it did not deter all of our SUBW freshers from heading out a few weekends ago.
The battle plan for this trip went something along the lines of: casual stroll along part of the great north walk, followed by a few beers, some dinner… In reality, the stroll turned into an epic 30km mission, enough to force any fresher to question the fundamental basic operating principles of subw.
Ulla, Lisa and myself set off from Evan’s lookout in a misty afternoon – the only thing you could see was a white wall – Lisa and I almost managed to convince Ulla that underneath the fog there were the 3 sisters.
Often they aren’t precise, in fact many aren’t designed to be, rather they are a simple way of giving just enough rough information to someone who knows how to use it to let them find a secret spot. They leave a little room for exploration, for navigation, for bushcraft.
Driving into Mt Wilson, it felt like we’d gone through a time warp. As we drove along the road we passed antique cars from the 1920′s while dirty, depression era people casually strolled along carrying century-old tools. A roadside stall sold fruit from stacks of wooden boxes. We actually seemed more out of place than they did, given some of the spectacular old building in the area like the tree fern surrounded church and impressive Turkish bath house.
It was about 4am as we drove into Glen Davis, pulling up at the campground in town and throwing down our sleeping bags under the verandah for a few hours of much needed sleep before a big weekend of canyoning. About dawn we were joined by a healthy swarm of mosquitoes who seemed determined to drive us from our slumber.
This summer has been such a washout that I’ve pretty much resorted to planning day trips with just a couple days notice when the weather forecast looks promising enough. This trip actually took that to the extreme, with the decision just a day before, but it paid off wonderfully when we woke up to a stunning sunny day.
Like most of summer, the week before this had been packed full of rain. So much so that the Colo River — which drains most of the canyon country — had hit about six metres the day before our trip. Despite this we decided to press on, choosing Galah Canyon for its relatively small catchment, spurred on by the fact that this was the first fine day in more than a week and we were guaranteed some impressive water flows.
We all enjoyed a quick trip along the magnificent coastline of the Royal National Park. Highlights included swimming in the freshwater creek near eagle rock and gazing in awe at the power and beauty of the waves smashing into the shoreline. Cya James
But head up north, into the Wollemi, and there are even more spectacular slot canyons in a remote and rugged wilderness area where the fittest, keenest and most experienced canyoners are still making new discoveries and carrying out first descents.
On Sunday morning we all left the city on the L90 bus to Palm Beach. It was showering in Sydney, but a quick text to Bruce on the Central Coast confirmed reasonable weather and to continue with the walk. It turned out to be a beautiful warm day!
Often when you go bushwalking in amazing places, you’ll want to take photos that truly capture the beauty of the scenery. That’s where the idea of a photography walk came from. To bring together people who share an interest in bushwalking and/or photography. And to help people take better photos of their experiences in the bush.
We had one non-swimer-PFD member with us, so Lower Gambie was enough challenge for Saturday. We did WDWDIITR on Sunday, it rained on us mostly the whole weekend. Pretty chilly even with 3mm wet-suits and 1mm steamer. I took 2 of my friends to their first canyoning experience. We spent…
G’day folks, Thanks again to those who came along on this easy walk on Thursday. I had a great time. I’ve put together a short trip report, a few photos and a video of some of the spectacular water jumps into the amazing waterhole we walked to. http://fatcanyoners.org/2012/01/12/paradise-found/
Despite the short notice and the fairly miserable forecast, two more intrepid girls decided to join the walk. It was 9am when Lisa, Lilian and I met up at Rosemead park to start the first long part of the walk, from Hornsby to ridgetop campsite near Berowra. Knowing that 22km would have kept us busy for a few hours, we didn’t waste a minute and set off for the fishpond where we joined the Great North Walk track. It is a beautiful track and we really enjoyed every single bit of it, even the steep ups&downs! Along the way we could admire plenty of wildlife: water dragons, goannas, cockatoos, bush turkeys, and even a chook (who knows where it came from!)
It was supposed to be a trip with six people but late the night before, one girl had to drop out because she injured herself during the attempt to climb a wall. So once again, it is not the canyoning that is getting us injured. So early on the Sunday morning, we all pulled over at our usual meeting point in North Richmond – all of us except Barnaby who was still missing. After trying to call him unsuccessfully and waiting for about twenty minutes, we decided we had to move on, discussing how much we hate it when people simply don’t turn up, especially in the light that I had to turn down several people due to numbers. Sorry to all those. We took two cars and headed up to Mt Wilson.
Nightmare Canyon was new to all of us, and proved to be a lot of fun, while Devils Pinch seems to grow more spectacular with each visit. Hopefully the natural beauty made up for some of my drunken rambling! Trip report and pics here: http://fatcanyoners.org/2011/12/31/nightmare-and-devils-pinch/
26th – Helen and I left Carlon’s Farm around 5pm on Boxing day, me having eaten and drunken non-stop for the past two days with family lunches. Helen having been very reserved and un-Christmas like in terms of food. What we both had in common however, were heavy packs laden with all the usual gear required for a five to six day trip with the exception paddles and rafts. With all the rain over December we were planning to paddle down the Coxs then spend some time in the Wild Dogs.
Catherine Stansbury Lilian Donoso Meredith Dodds and Yves Roger Butler and Luisa Ngeow Annie Cote and Barry Helen Smith Peggy Huang Chee Wong (Grand canyon only) Mariacristina Merlo Dave Noble Don Cameron and Elata Jo Boyd Pauline Foster Emma Hickey Lisa Jonas Amy Foster Denise Wong Gregory Symonds George Karpenov Ashley Burke Melanie Luxem Roger Lembit and Rowan James Bevan Albert Chetcuti Wendy Au Mitchell Isaacs + 2 Rob Hynes Dave Forbes Tom Gleeson
A small number of us also decided to use our spare time in the afternoon to do a nude trip through Empress Canyon. I know it has been done before by club members (I know of night trips), but has anyone done a brazen daylight streak on a weekend in summer before? It was great fun: http://fatcanyoners.org/2011/12/18/nude-canyoning/ I hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year and I look forward to walking and canyoning with plenty of you next year!