G’day folks, I’ve put together a trip report with some photos of our trip through Hat Hill Creek this week. This canyon is amazingly underrated. Considering how easy it is to get to and to do, I’d highly recommend it to people. An easy half day, short walk, no abseils, nice cool swims. If you’re looking for a quiet spot to spend a hot summer day (if we end up getting some!) keep this in mind.
Short version for those of you not keen to read long stories: We left Sydney on the 22nd of December, we spent 10 days down the Kosi doing 2 multidays walks and a half day walk and we survived: nasty weather with heaps of rain, cold, wind and 2 super nasty hail storms, a couple of interesting off track sections (were we really meant to go that way?!?!), an “interesting” conversation with a wild pig hunter, deadly smelly self-walking socks (mine), a pair of crappy new model volleys – what a failure, nasty scrub (our legs still thank us for that), a sunburn, 3 brown snakes, heaps of annoying march flies and aggressive ants, tropical temperatures in Derschkos hut, and NYE with only ONE glass of wine each and half bottle of port to be shared among 3 (bloody Joe didn’t bring a thing!!!!) The good bits: absolutely stunning country, and that was worth all the above.
The half-day Monday canyon really worked well for me, so I’m definitely planning on doing some more easy canyons on Monday’s every couple weeks over summer. Let me know if you are interested in joining me and if you have any preferences on dates / canyons and I will see what I can arrange.
The above company of walkers met on the Friday evening and drove together to Newnes. On Saturday morning the group woke to the sound of birds and morning views of sandstone cliffs on all sides. Over a breakfast cup of tea we looked at maps and decided on the route we would take into the Red Rocks.
Trip Report – Royal National Park: Otford to Burning Palms Beach via Figure of 8 Pools Date: Sunday 30 October 2011 Party: Ben Pullicin, Naser Ghobadzadeh, Cathy Stansbury, Mei Zhu Chen, Lisa Fogarty, Katrina Veale, Elizabeth Wale, Parastoo Saharkhiz, Bruce Stafford, Peggy Huang
We decided on an ambitious double — Heart Attack and Surefire Canyons — which while physically next to each other meant we’d have a long, hard day ahead of us, with plenty of walking and a requirement for some reasonable route-finding.
There were some spectacular views. Some spots offered views that were so awesome we decided to stay for a while and engage in some random activities there. Mary ran a Pilates class, she claimed that these exercises are actually what she teaches, but speculation soon grew that she made these moves up-just to make us all look silly. We also found some good spots to do star jumps (T2 would be proud). And finally, some *flying owlings*; it’s the new owling (just as owling was the new planking), you heard it first on SUBW-A.
We started out on Saturday morning from Kanangra Walls in thick mist. The mist continued along Gingra Range and we eventually dropped below it as we descended to the Kowmung River via Roots Ridge. We arrived at the river around 11am and after a bit of photo-pfaffing we climbed up to Mt Fell on Scotts Main Range for lunch. Our plan was to head towards Lacy’s Tableland and then Bimlow Tableland. So we continued north along Scotts Main and then descended through some scrub to Butchers Creek.
A decision was made then to wait it out at least until the next Sydney- bound train came in half an hour, and if the rain had not let up, to abandon the walk and go to Brooklyn for a coffe and morning tea before returning to Sydney.
It was a dark and gloomy night; the clouds were covering the fast approaching full moon, creating a rather mysterious atmosphere. On this particular night, eight snow ninja’s decided to go to the snow for a weekend of skiing, since the end of the ski season was nearing.
The remaining 9 walkers, then crossed the Gladesville Bridge and followed me as I proceded to walk up Victoria Rd. Quick thinking from Anne saved the day, as she announced we were going the wrong way. Verification with the GPS concluded that yes we were heading direct to Parramatta rather then Lane Cove as desired. With a short back track we then found our next bridge- Tarban Creek Bridge.
G’day all, Mitch, T1 and myself attended the memorial service for legendary bushwalker Wilf Hilder on Sunday (if you’ve ever climbed Walls Pass, walked on the route through the catchment between Mittagong and Katoomba, or done tracks like Lindeman Pass or Bruce’s Walk, you have Wilf largely to thank for it!) T1 and I also did some exploration of camp caves on Narrowneck, before doing a fairly epic tribute detour down Walls Pass and across Cedar Creek.
I remember collapsing onto hands and knees — fighting back the urge to vomit as the adrenaline surged through my body — before composing myself and pulling out my phone to call Michelle, just to let her know that I loved her.
In the beginning the Universe was created with Chantal, Jeremy-Vajj and Jiri in it. This made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move, since these intergalactic travelers would make many people feel inferior with their superior skiing skills.
Well, we met at Strathfield Station Saturday morning and drove up to Wentworth Falls for our customary stop at a Bakery/Patisserie. After indulging in too many calories we headed across to the Charles Darwin Walk. We walked the National Pass down to Conservation Hut where we stopped for a picnic lunch. After lunch we torpedoed along the Overcliff Track back to the town where we had left the cars.
After collecting the walkers in Sydney (and myself on the Central Coast), we then headed to Maitland for an overnight stay at Catherine’s parents’home, where we bedded down for the night in the loungeroom. In the process I discovered that I hadn’t packed my sleeping bag in my pack! Fortunately Catherine’s mother came up with an alternative, albeit more heavier than my down bag, but it worked well. Next morning, after breakfast and inspecting the resident chooks, we then set off along the New England and Golden Highways for an uneventful drive to Merriwa, where a stop was made for coffee and a few “extras”for the walk, such as chocolate. Then it was along the Golden Highway for another 8km then into Ringwood Road for the drive to Lee’s Pinch Lookout in Goulburn River NP. We arrived at Lee’s Pinch Lookout parking area and parked the 2 cars. We then set off SW along the road until reaching a small bypass loop (at approx point 215220 on Mt Misery Topo). Then it was a matter of just heading off into the bush. Goulburn River does have some easy entry points, but most are effectively blocked by private property. So generally entry invariably needs a bush-bash, as in this case. The walk plan for the two days was straightforward: enter the river gorge via a gully, walk along the river, where the going would be easy, although with a few river crossings, and exit back to Lee’s Pinch by another gully to the north, either the one explored on a SUBW trip by myself and Anthony Dunk in 2001, or another unexplored one a but closer to our entry point. I had also planned for enough time to allow a return via daylight following the Sandy Hollow Line via the very scenic Bylong Valley and the Upper Hunter Valley (including the northernmost part of Wollemi NP).
“….So, there we were, we had done the math. Emma added it all up and knew we would not make it in time for the next abseil (boars head). Chantal concluded that we would not be able to take Albert on his first abseiling journey. Astley thought he was gonna die there, totally alone. And that’s when this feeling came over us like a warm blanket…”
We made our way out to Oberon on the Sunday, at a lazy time, but were still in a pretty poor state, with a very hung over Stephen (his brother got married the day before) and Joshua increasingly worried that his jaw was infected after having a molar removed a few days earlier.
Only two brave SUBWarians choose to venture into the darkness of last Wednesday night. It was an overcast night that greeted us as we both ventured into the wilderness. Not that we’d hadn’t done the Oaks trail before, but we choose to ride the trail when most would rather not. The trip was planned to coincide with the full moon, but unfortunately a heavy layer of cloud had drifted across the blueys, negating the advantage we had with this timely adventure.
Well nine eager, but equally cold walkers met at the Circular Quay Ferry Terminal a little before 9am this morning to embark upon a journey to the other side AKA The North Shore. We alighted at Taronga Zoo and ambled up the road, successfully identifying our first path and off we went. After about 10mins of gentle walking did I notice that infact our group had now swelled to ’10’ with the arrival of Dimitri.