Travelling separately in two cars, the party drove out to Newnes on the Friday night of 12 November and on Saturday morning we all met around our breakfast fire. It was shaping up to be a warm weekend so we chose a route into the Red Rocks that incorporated a cool but dry canyon. There had been plenty of recent rain so there was fresh rainwater water to be found high in the Wolgan Capertee divide.
With Fiona bailing out due to too much Saturday night action, the four of us met up on the train to Wentworth Falls where where we started our walk. The first leg of our trip was following down Jamison Creek all the way from the station to the magnificent Wentworth Falls and further down the Slack Stairs and the old Hippocrene Falls track. We left ample time to watch and photograph the stunning waterfalls and finally settled at the Hippocrene Falls for an early lunch and some of us went for a cold swim, too.
This very belated trip report is for completeness of the record, and was a (P)BT as neither the President nor the Vice-President were in attendance! However, the Honorary Junior Vice-President, and a range of ex-presidents were there to help carry on the tradition. Apologies for any poor recollection!
I’ve put the trip report for the beginner canyoning weekend up on the Fat Canyoners Club site. Coming out of the weekend we’ve only had one participant get operated on (that I know of) and have located the one person we lost for the whole weekend, so I can now safely call it a success. For those who missed out on this trip, there will be a similar beginner weekend in the next couple months. As for those who were on this trip, I look forward to seeing you on more trips as the canyoning season gets into full swing.
After a very early Saturday morning departure and a bakery stop in Cooma, we headed up on the Kosciuszko Express, noting the grassy patches near the village and a complete lack of people on the slopes. On the chair up Pete sat next to a ski patrol employee, who out of politeness asked where he was going. Since we hadn’t really discussed it beforehand, Pete said he had no clue, and then promptly managed to get his backpack caught on the lift while unloading! I wonder what the patroller must have been thinking as the attendant stopped the lift and tried to free the bag…
Suboir president Bjorn “The Piker” Sturmberg had bailed the day before (claiming his decision was unrelated to the weather) following three others who did the same during in the week (although at least they were a bit more honest about their softness, hence no naming and shaming). We’d squeezed into two cars for the trip, but unfortunately one was a two wheel drive. The dirt road didn’t disappoint, with plenty of potholes, a flowing stream crossing the road, and a slippery section that had even my Forester feeling like it was on a slip-and-slide. Driving as far as the first private property fence in Little Capertee Creek we parked, did some last minute rationalising of pack weight, then set off along the creek.
We couldn’t have asked for better weather, with a crisp blue winter sky bathing the mountains in sun as we set off. The plan was a couple spectacular abseiling routes overlooking the Jamison Valley, where a total of 12 drops of up to 45 metres lead down to the rainforest below.
Michelle had been nagging me to organise another easy overnight trip after Orange Bluff and given it was my birthday over the weekend I thought it was a perfect time to oblige. It didn’t take much thought to realise Splendour Rock was the perfect trip, providing a lovely high camp site, incredible views, limited ups and downs and less than 10 kilometres each day from Green Gully.
Despite a long-time desire to spend a bit of time knocking over the passes of Narrow Neck – which are steeped in more bushwalking history than just about anywhere else in Australia – my trips always seem to overlook the area and involve more remote locations. Determined to rectify this, and conscious that I only had time for a day trip and was still nursing an ankle weakened by a sprain on my trip to Pantoneys, I decided to organise a run through of a few good ones. The plan,…
After meeting up at Woy Woy Station we drove in Fiona’s care up the F3 and the Pacific Highway to Nabiac (near Taree), then Gloucester. On the way we stopped at the pretend Ayer’s Rock Roadhouse near Karuah. It was here I realised I had left my sleeping mat behind, so I purchased a little rug as a substitute at the Roadhouse. In fact the Roadhouse had all sorts of oddities for sale, including metre-long strips of candy.
Yerranderie is about as close as possible in the Blue Mountains to the middle of nowhere that you can drive a car to. It’s about 5 hours drive from Sydney and more than 100km and over 2 hours drive from the nearest town, Oberon.
Heading out of the city on a cold somewhat wet Friday afternoon Fritz and I sailed through the traffic, spirits high due to post-exam enthusiasm and anticipation of spending 5 days bagging some of the most interesting peaks in the Yodellers.
The weather couldn’t have been better for this year’s navigation weekend! We were a bit late arriving at Bell due to the usual faff getting out of Sydney but by 10am we were away. Before we left the beginners learned how to cite a grid reference and how to orientate the map.
With a visitor from the States (Dale) in town, who in just a few short weeks has already seen some of the best Blue Mountains canyons, the hastily-made plan was to see a very different region and canyon. Plus, pack in a few caves and be back in Sydney for Mothers Day, what more could one want? Well, a good sized group is always nice and we were lucky to get David and Glen on board a day or so beforehand.
We met together at the shops at North Side Strathfield Station, and waited a bit in case a couple of (eventual) no-shows appeared at the last minute*. While there we were approached by some other walkers who turned out to be participants in a walk organised by another group, “SPAM”, to Faulconbridge. We then headed off to Katoomba and Narrow Neck. On the way we stopped briefly at “Scenic World” (the home of the Scenic Railway) for ice cream and use of their loos. Then it was off down the steep grade of the Golden Stairs.
Currockbilly Mountain in the southern part of Morton National Park may be described in a single word: scrub. It can also be described in two words: thick scrub. In three words you’d probably say thick wet scrub. If you want it in more than 3 words (a lot more), well, it goes something like this.
Even with the usual poor planning – a trip decided on less than a week out – a spanner managed to get thrown in the works when I came down with an appalling stomach bug on Friday night. After a rather unpleasant night, and a morning in bed, I finally made contact with T1 a couple hours before we were due to meet up to let him know that I was going to have to bail. After some convincing that I could at least spend a quiet day at the base camp if my belly didn’t come good I finally decided to push through and go ahead with the trip.
The combination of short notice, Monday canyoning and wet weather meant I ended up doing the trip on my own, which was fine. It gave me a chance to have a nice sleep in, do some shopping and catch up with a friend as well. As for the canyon, all up it took just over 2 hours, taking the longer route via Edinburgh Castle Rock and having plenty of pauses for photos. A great little trip which while short is very scenic, and the abseil down the waterfall was lovely. The rain made everything look prettier, and ensured I had the whole place to myself. Definitely a good pic for a quick run through on a relaxing day off. The only downside is I think my Volleys have finally worn out completely, but they’ve had a good run.
Thankfully Gaping Gill is the shortest canyon in the Claustral system, so despite our lazy start time of 9am, which was blown out of the water when T1’s Nokia which mistakenly set his clock back for daylight saving, making him an hour late, it was a great day. The late start was fitting given the trips organisation had been haphazard at best, with T1 and I lending out gear to Kat and Nicole, and forcing Seb to spend several hours frantically calling everyone he could find from Suboir on Saturday in an attempt to get his hands on a harness.
T1 and I made an early escape from the city on the Friday afternoon, getting to my place by about 5 so we could pack the car and head off. The drive up the mountains was wonderful, the weather forecast good, and we were at the start of King Pin Fire Trail by about 8.30, a good hour ahead of the second car load. We set up the tent, scavenged a healthy pile of fire wood and lit of great little fire. The wine soon came out, and by the time Jiri, Cat and Bjorn arrived we were more than a little merry.About midnight it was off to bed, with the alarm set for six.