by | Jun 24, 2007
I made a last minute decision to go for a ski last weekend. The weather was clear, calm and fairly warm and the snow was powdery. Most of the ice from the long weekend is now covered (except maybe on the very tops) but the cover is pretty thin below 1800m. I went in from Guthega and had to walk halfway to the swing bridge before finding enough snow to (just) ski on. Another week or two and it should all be perfect:) Blue Lake is completely frozen and the ice climbs all look in good condition but not yet filled in by snow drifts, tho I didnt get up close.
by | Jun 11, 2007
The weather during the week prior to the trip had been somewhat inclement – and after a stormy Friday in town – we decided to leave on Saturday morning instead of driving to Newnes on the Friday evening. It rained overnight and was still raining heavily on Saturday morning – so more phoning around and we left later (9:30am) rather than earlier. A phone call to Rik at Blackheath in the Blue Mts was not encouraging (“its bucketing down outside, grrrrr……) – he was not keen to join us on the walk. We had an early lunch in the Mt Vic servo as we watched the rain teem down outside. This was not encouraging either. Nevertheless, we decided to press on regardless.
by | Jun 11, 2007
This trip was to compete in the annual ‘Paddy Pallin’ 6 hour rogaining event, run by the NSW rogaining association. I didn’t get a lot of interest from SUBW people wanting to compete so I’ll just tell you how much fun it was and how much you missed out on! You can see the results at www.nswrogaining.org. All up about 650 people competed!
by | Jun 1, 2007
We meet up at the Glenbrook rail commuter car park, noting that there were no other crazy mountain bikers willing to take the challenge that lay ahead of us. Considering this night was the first day of winter, we were surprised by the “relatively” warm air temperature by blueys standards.
by | May 27, 2007
The full compliment of 8 people turned out for the walk on a glorious sunny Sunday. After picking up people from the train at Woy Woy we drove up the hill and parked in Brisbane Water National Park. We headed first down a ridge that was capped with flat sheets of sandstone and saw a number of aboriginal engravings, including people, fish, kangaroos, and shields.
by | May 27, 2007
After a leisurely stop at Blackheath to buy last minute supplies and consume coffee and bakery products we drove down into the Megalong Valley towards Carlons Farm to start the walk. The weather was fairly warm; heading down Breakfast Creek we managed to startle a red belly black snake stretched across the path catching some sunlight. The creek contained a healthy flow of water and some rock-hopping skill was required on several occasions to cross over and follow the path.
by | May 20, 2007
Last week’s rain had gone by Friday evening, when 3 cars coming from different directions rendezvoused on the Putty Road beneath clear starry skies and welcome autumnal coolness. We consolidated into 2 cars for the drive out along a fire trail to our camp site, which was a cleared area beside the trail where there was room to park.
by | May 12, 2007
We started early on Sunday morning, so I could make it back home early to prepare a Mother’s Day dinner. So we met up with Bruce at Wondabyne station just before 9 am.
by | May 6, 2007
Alicia Corbett Ashley Burke Cameron Schmelitschek Daniel Ryan Elva Cha Ãve Vautier Jennifer Burnett Kim Corrans Laura Ashton-Ross Marcelle Gannon Martine Bardy Matthew Noone Meena David Meredith Dodds Nicole St Vincent Welch Pete Harvey Philipp Vorderwuelbecke Silke Walleser Yip Chung (Rita)
by | Apr 25, 2007
The weather wasn’t looking fantastic for this Anzac Day ride along the Oaks trail from Woodford to Glenbrook. We started at Glenbrook, where we squeezed onto the 8:23 am train along with 10-15 other mountain biker. We arrived at Woodford just before 9:00. It was overcast but fortunately it wasn’t raining. After a few hundred metres of bitumen riding we reached the start of the Oaks trail. The recent rain which had soaked the city meant the trail was wet, muddy and slippery.
by | Apr 12, 2007
Alicia Corbett, Megan Higgins and I had planned an adventurous route to take in Hannel’s Spur, The Geehi, Townsend Spur, Lady Northcote’s Creek and Watson’s Crags Spur over five days. We had an amazing trip, especially me, (literally) who tripped near Moira’s Flat and tore a lateral ankle ligament on my left foot. This injury forced us to turn back and overshadowed much of the rest of the trip as we limped slowly home. Thanks to Megan, an almost doctor, and to Alicia for helping me to make the decision to pull out. It was one of the hardest decisions of my bushwalking life. As a result my recovery time will be much shorter than it probably would have been had we have pushed on (regardless).
by | Apr 9, 2007
Deua National Park is a large area of rugged mountain country along the Great Dividing Range southeast of Canberra. Steep quartzite ridges, beautiful stands of eucalypts and pristine creeks and streams are some of its key attractions. The above party of 7 spent the four day Easter long weekend completing a circuit through some of the most spectacular parts of this National Park.
by | Mar 25, 2007
From the conservation hut we descended down past empress falls and onto the Vera falls track (no longer officially maintained, and therefore declared closed) until we reached the turnoff to Roberts pass. The track led us through areas of moist undergrowth and occasional unavoidable pools of mud. As one may suspect in these conditions, our group soon came under the attack of blood hungry leeches.
by | Mar 25, 2007
This feels like it was probably one of those walks that was planned enthusiastically after a few jugs at a Canoe Club slide night. I do seem to recall something about us all taking a blood oath to ward away the evil piking spirits, but then Wilmo snapped his arm off at the canyoning weekend (or bruised his hand, or something) so clearly something thicker than blood will be required next time.
by | Mar 18, 2007
It started out, as these things tend to, at around sunrise on a Saturday morning. Once we had worked out what gear people needed to borrow and had it in their hot little hands it was time to send up an advance party to do Twister and Rocky Creek. With 5 people out of the way it was time to divvy up everyone else into cars. This proved to be a little more challenging that one would have hoped for, so we had to call in the reserve forces (much thanks to Jiri for taking his car up). Now we had this all under control it was time to head out.
by | Mar 11, 2007
Attendees: Lachlan Toohey, Thomas Roberts, James Sterney, Nelson Velazquez, Talitha Roberts, Kimvi Le, Daniel Ryan, Laura Ashton-Ross, Kim Corrans, James Griffin, Louise Kolff, Kike Gray, Kris Plain, Simon Lodowyk, Patrick Miller, Craig Wilmo plus many more. With a special thanks to Tom M, Dave L, James B, Peter H, Jackie for all the help with making it such a smooth day.
by | Mar 4, 2007
Marley Beach is 2hours walk south of Bundeena along the Coast Track [Topo 1:25000 PORT HACKING]. Big Marley also has a lagoon and large sand dunes behind the beach that frequently have rubbish left around them from park visitors. In addition to this, a lot of rubbish gets washed up on the beach that has been thrown off boats offshore. This project is important to preserve the sand dunes for nesting birds such as Terns or Dotterels and it is also important to protect the lagoon from pollution and the general area as it is recognised as an Aboriginal Site, once of the Dharawal Clan.
by | Mar 4, 2007
We all gathered together at Cronulla Station at 9:20am Saturday morning and was about to catch the 9:30 ferry to Bundeena. However, Sang had to find a proper place to leave his car, so half of us missed the ferry. We just relaxed under the sun by the wharf and waited for the next ferry. An hour later, we met up with the others at a cafe in Bundeena, and were informed that while they were waiting for us, they had consumed all the coffee in the cafe Amazing!
by | Mar 1, 2007
Mt Aspiring, altitude 3025m, towers over the national park of the same name in New Zealand’s South Island. Presiding over its part of the Southern Alps, west of the town of Wanaka, Mt Aspiring is sometimes referred to as the Matterhorn of the south, being of similar shape and formed by similar geological processes as its European counterpart.
by | Feb 18, 2007
Another fine and sunny day for another bushwalk that I’d hadn’t done before. Another long train trip was involved to get to the start of the walk at Wondabyne station, on the banks of Mullet creek. I use the word “station” loosely as the platform is shorter than a single train carriage. Martin got on the train at Berowra and Anthony was already at Wondabyne having travelling down from Gosford. The track starts at the south end of the “station” and leads up to the top of the ridge pass a quarry. From here it was an easy walk along a fire trail for a 1 km or so. We took a left side road and then to the start of the walking track that leads to Lysippus pass. >From here the track continue thru open gum tree forest covered in huge spider webs. We briefly stopped at Timotheus heights looking for any aboriginal artifacts hidden in the sandstone over hangs. Before reaching Timotheus heights, I ended up walking straight into a huge spider web complete with a spider in the middle. I’m not sure who was more frightened, the spider or myself.
