Myself and Saul caught a train to Mittagong, where we met Sarah and her partner James who had driven up from Canberra. The plan was to drive out to the start of the walk near Hilltop, then for James, who had only come for the first day to drive the car back to Canberra.
BWRS Navshield snuck up on us again last weekend — basically, 29 hours of running around in the trees, squinting at compasses and freezing your giblets off, in the hope of taking home the prized Navigation Shield. It’s like a rogaine, but you carry full overnight packs.
Trip Report: Epic canyoning fail … but a great walk on the Colo River to Wollemi Creek Date: Saturday 26 June Party: Tim Gastineau-Hills, Tracey Bullivant, Tim Vollmer, Stephen Sheehan, Pete Raines, Nigel Butler, Joshua Hill, Mary Merlo Trip report with photos and video: http://fatcanyoners.org/2011/06/26/epic-fail/
We started the day with a quick train ride from Sydney (chatting all the way). We arrived at Glenbrook Station and headed straight for the promised bakery. Delicious coffees, cakes and biscuits consumed by all while we enjoyed the sunshine in Glenbrook Park. At 10am we officially started walking. We checked…
Trip Report: Easy overnight walk to the junction of the Colo River and Canoe Creek Saturday 11 – Sunday 12 June 2011 Party: Tim Vollmer, Michelle Vollmer, Sky Reidy, Angie Bulic, Glenn Woerndle, Naomi Norris, Chee Wong and Nikita Rybak — Online with photos – http://fatcanyoners.org/2011/06/11/colo-river-canoe-creek/
When I was first grabbed by the idea of exploring all the passes of Narrowneck I knew of just eight. By the end of this trip a dozen had been completed, at least another two uncovered and few areas on this massive peninsula of sandstone have jumped out as spots worth searching for more.
We all met up at Wondabyne Station at about 10am and immediately set off up the steep track to the top of the ridge to the start of the fire trail. Skies looked a bit unfriendly but the rain held off. We then proceeded to the junction of the fire trail at the sidetrack to Myron Brook and Kariong Brook. There were many wildflowers in bloom including Banksias containing sweet nectar, which we sampled from a couple of flowers.
I’d been itching for an overnight trip for a while, and a conversation with Rocky got me thinking about the Wild Dogs, so I decided to organise a trip to check out a few of the places on Dunphy’s sketch map that had intrigued me.
On Saturday, the 28th of May, three awesome people- Scott Mcoy, Martin Londe and Chantal Bronkhorst- awoke at 6am to complete the most epic challenge of all epic challenges. The challenge was to abseil down Boars head and Malatia point without a rope. Were they successful? Yes, they were! (Note: When looking at the video of this trip, you will notice that there is a rope, BUT that is because rope was edited in afterwards. In addition, any references made to ropes in this trip report should not be commented on by anyone since I cannot think of a valid excuse as to why ropes are mentioned. If you comment on this your memory will be erased, so it is advised not to point it out.)
When an old friend of mine [a keen canyoner and cyclist] ran the Murray to the Mountains Rail Trail for the NPA in autumn 2010, in classic disorganised form I belatedly posted the trip to SUBW – in an attempt to bring some youth to the group. Alas, that failed – just too late and too far away, I guess. But a new year, another NPA trip, another chance! All I had to do was post it a little earlier…
After leaving Sydney during some misty weather, this turned out to be a beautiful day up in the Blue Mountains. The original plan was to do two abseiling trips down Malaita Point and Wall, but we decided to replace Malaita Point with Boars Head Rock trip and do Malaita Wall in the morning.
After meeting up at Strathfield Station, we headed off to Katoomba Station to await the arrival of the train with more walkers aboard. We got there 10 minutes ahead of the train which time was put to good use as a loo break. When all had been gathered at the Station, I gave directions to the car drivers how to get to Scenic World and Violet Street where we would all park before setting out for the walk together. Four of the five cars duly arrived at the parking spot and our passengers gathered to await the arrival of the fifth car, Robert’s. And waited. And waited. After about 20 minutes a call came from Trang, one of the passengers in Robert’s car, asking where we were! She said that Robert had gone straight to the top of Furber’s Steps instead of Violet Street, and there they had sat waiting for us wondering where we were! I then led the group around to the top of Furber’s Steps, and down we went into the valley. On the way there were great views of the Three Sisters, Jamieson Valley,and Katoomba Falls at full flow after the recent rains, and a photostop was arranged at a lookout; there were several in our group for whom this visit to the Blue Mountains was their very first ever, and they found the view awesome.
After weeks if not months of bad weather we got a sunny mild Sunday that had us in high, if somewhat nervous spirits as we headed down the track at 9:30am to ‘the base jumpers 200m overhang’ at Pierces Pass (one ridge east of Rigby Hill).
Glen, Adam and I began our weekend early, with a pre-trip bike ride on Friday afternoon along The Oaks Fire Trail (Woodford to Glenbrook). We then met up with Stacey at the Zig Zag Railway around 6:30pm and walked out for an hour or so to a campsite along Waratah Ridge. It was a surprisingly mild evening around the campfire, with cheese and biscuits, roasted veggies and various concoctions of noodles, rice and couscous.
Walkers: Taeko, Satoshi, Mutsuko, Charles, Alex J, Peggy, Bron, Ben P, Alisha + friend, Jerome, Elmore, Elin, Alex B, Terje, Laura, Dmitri,David K, Miriam, Gary, Jana, Marina, Claudia, and Bruce. (and one more whose named I have missed).
It was decidedly damp when we set off into the bush, but we decided to press on regardless. We picked our way down the ridge and into the creek, noting how high the water was. We eventually reached the first small drop, finding powerful currents churning down into a foaming, seething mass of whitewater, and no easy way apparent. We decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and regretfully decided to retreat. Besides, my family has strict rules on whose turn it is to almost drown (and this year is not my turn!).
Alexander Bertholds Ashley Burke Brian van der Gouw Charles Prime Chris Thornett Christy Scott Daniel Wesolowski Elin Andersson George Karpenkov Guy Tannenbaum Helen Smith Izabela Spaleniak Jana Röther Katie Bates Lisa Jonas Lucy Swinnen Mariacristina Merlo Melissa Freer Michelle Veney Robert Merlino Samanta Castellarin Sierra Classen
After a nice early start we set off through the scrub to find a way into our chosen canyon – Ashcroft Ravine. Our information was light in detail, but we managed to find a relatively straightforward scramble down into the gully.
Saturday morning treated us to clear sunny skies and a well known treat from cityrail – trackwork. After missing a couple of buses on account of our packs we were off to Blacktown and then Faulconbridge to start the hike. In Faulconbridge we loaded up on last minute treats and applied sunscreen with what claimed to be invisible zinc but had the look and consistency of wall paint.
During the 2 weeks of hot dry weather preceding this trip I envisaged the shimmering deep pools of Kalang Falls and Dione Dell and how nice it would be to jump into them on a trip after abseiling down dry cliffs in the sunshine. And so this trip was thus conceived. Yet the weather had other ideas and by the time we set off along the track to Kalang Falls on Saturday morning it was cool, grey and heavily overcast with the promise of rain.