Five members and a guest set off from the end of Somme Avenue, Wentworth Falls at 9.45. We followed the firetrail to the end and then headed NW before dropping into Franks Creek with a 14m abseil using an existing anchor at Katoomba 577697. From here we followed the very scrubby and congested creek for some distance before it became worthy of the name of canyon around 582701. Since there…
Leo collected Adrian from Redfern Friday at 3pm ….. and as a harbinger for Leo’s ambitious plans for the weekend, they crawled bumper to bumper on the M4 to Penrith. Leo had evidently not cleared his plans with Huey, and after heavy rain through Katoomba, dinner at the Imperial Hotel http://www.hotelimperial.com.au/ seemed a good compromise. The rain…
With 2 prospective walkers having missed the rain at Central – due to bus delays in the city – 5 of us assembled at Cowan Station for the walk along a section of the Great North Walk (GNW) to Brooklyn. To her dismay, Emily realised when she was on the train that her water bottle was still back in her car, so that required a trip up to the only shop in Cowan to get bottled water. Meanwhile it…
We all met just outside the national parks gate on Bobbin Head Rd in the morning, parking out on the street to avoid the park entrance fee. After a week of rain, it was great to have sunny weather. The walk started at the Sphinx Memorial (that’s right, Sydney has a Sphinx!) and quickly headed into the bush. After a…
October in the Snowy Mountains has daytime temperatures that can still be cool and mild, the blowflies have yet to make an appearance, and the snow still lies in big drifts, giving the area a distinctively alpine feel. Mt Townsend, Australia’s second highest peak, (2209m) has been on my list of unclimbed peaks for a long time. Perhaps because…
The Wolgan Valley runs north east from the Dividing Range into the heart of the Wollemi wilderness. Numerous creeks rise on the Newnes Plateau east of Lithgow and run into the Wolgan River. A steep pass uses a series of switchbacks to bring the road from Lithgow down into the valley. It’s in…
This was an interesting exploratory walk which ended up being a good day despite some initial setbacks due to communication problems. For a start, it had to be postponed for a week due to the hot weather on the previous weekend. Four of us (myself, Bruce Li, Alex and Yang) all assembled at Central Station for the trip to Loftus. Unusually we…
It was the first time that any of us had been to Mt Hay / Butterbox Canyon so we could all share the excitement and anticipation of going to a place we had never been before. We had a last minute drop out so there were 4 of us instead of 5. Weijing and Shannon I’d just met for the first time, they are confident climbers which boosted my confidence. It was…
The name “Red Rocks” refers to a section of the Wolgan Capertee divide in the Wollemi National Park near Newnes in the Wolgan Valley. This SUBW trip to the Red Rocks covered the main scenic section of the Red Rocks, as well as Mt Dawson and an approach ridge and an exit gully. One thing…
I joined four other members of SUBW for the first canyon of spring We met for a hearty breakfast in Leura and were on the track a little after 10.00. Since my last visit in June NPWS has installed a big explanatory sign about the canyon, and has signposted a new entrance track avoiding the swamp. This brings…
Sunday morning arrived with blue skies and warm weather. Eight walkers turned up at Circular Quay just before 9am, with only one person sleeping through their alarm and unable to make it. Isabelle was running late and sprinted for the ferry, just making it on before it departed. We enjoyed…
I had never really done much walking on Narrow Neck. For sure I’d been down the Golden Stairs on long forgotten trips, but I’d never really even walked the full length (that I can recall) – unless you included the painful slog at the end of a K2K-in-a-day trip, during which darkness consumed us as we climbed up Tarros Ladders… And so,…
Spring in The Snowy Mountains is perhaps the best time of year, in my opinion. Lots of snow, nice weather, and less crowds. Snow shoeing is a great way to see the area without needing to know much technique, so I ran a snow camp in the Ramshead Range, behind Thredbo, over the weekend of 12-13 September 2015. However, some…
This was an interesting trip with a lot of new experiences and sights. 6 of the group had never camped out in Australia before. Two had never camped out ever. I think that the photos of this trip – already released – may have you intrigued you about this trip. Was the Echidna alive? (yes). Why camp…
Party: Katy, Lilian, Andrew, YiLing, Zhan and FelixCredit: Many thanks to Trevor Leaman (from the Nura Gili astronomy team) for his permission in using the star diagrams that appear in this report. Disclaimer: I have tried to include some additional information in this report. Much if…
The weather forecast wasn’t very promising with both the Bureau as well as the Norwegians predicting a mixed bag on Saturday and sure rain on Sunday. This brought back memories of a previous trip in the area and left me with only a small hope of seeing the area in good weather this time. Nevertheless, we…
We all met up on the tiny platform at Wondabyne Station, and another walker headed for Patonga kindly took a group photo before we left. Then it was the hard but fairly short slog up the hill next to the station, and then on to the fire trail which heads in the direction of Girrakool. The track…
Keith from the Colong Foundation organised a trip last a couple of weeks ago. I went out to have a first hand look; and felt that the photos I had seen didn’t show the true extent of the damage. David has put a little write up of the trip here: http://www.david-noble.net/blog/?p=8584. I think…
After we needed only 46 emails to sort out our car pooling and meeting arrangements we enjoyed our Friday night dinner at the Blue Mountains Hotel and continued to Dumphey’s Camp in the Megalong Valley. We were delighted to see that the camping ban that was in place last time I visited the area had been lifted and pitched our tents for the night. [caption id=”attachment_9052″…
The weather forecast for this day had changed almost hourly, from cloudy to “a few showers”to “morning rain” to “mostly sunny”, so it was hard to know whether to bring sun screen lotion or umbrella. As it turned out is was all of the above; read on. Most of us met up at Central with Cathie getting on at Sutherland and Josephine and Phil meeting us at Otford Station. Then is…