The weather forecast said “a snow shower or two” for Blackheath this day, but it was more like “a snow shower or ten”! Even so, the weather on departure from Sydney gave little clue as to what to expect; it was cloudy with sunny breaks all the way to Leura. After leaving Katoomba however, we looked out and saw a heavy snow shower over Mount Solitary and the Hampton Ranges, so it gave an idea of what we might expect. The ride…
Emma on the first pitch On the way down I thought I’d try abseiling down tandem style with Emma and then my brother. This was the first time I’d done this so we created some rules to follow to ensure we didn’t have any accidents. The first…
We all met up at Woy Woy Station, with Siva and Tharani driving up (and who were surprised to find that the train is faster than a car getting to Woy Woy from Sydney). We split the walkers into 4 per car, and then set off for the walk start at MacMasters Beach (the suburb not the beach itself). Then Siva…
Hoping to get 13 people (since it was a Wicked Witch walk) 12 signed up but at the start we only had 8; two absolute “no shows”, and two others (more about that at the end). Most of us met up at Central Station and set off on the train to Leura. At Leura we met Owen who had dressed up as a wizard (or was it Gandalf? See for yourself). It was…
Koombanda Canyon runs from Bells Line of Road down to an abandoned mine, from where an old road leads up the Darling Causeway. Effectively, the trip cuts the corner between the two roads. We met at Bell on a cold Saturday morning on the weekend of the winter solstice, did a car shuffle and headed off into the bush at 8.30. It was…
Martyn had dreamed of visiting Gospers Mountain in the middle of the Wollemi National Park in the NSW Blue Mountains for the last 20 years, and a SUBW (Sydney University Bushwalkers) party with some experience in the area held promise. He had sought permission from the landholder, undoubtedly assisted by a past common contact and being a local Kandos boy himself. The weather…
With exams looming as well as not the best weather, only 4 people applied and turned up. Still, it was worth a chance as although it was raining in Sydney, it appeared to have eased off over the Central Coast. So after the train trip to Wondabyne (where we noticed other walkers both getting on AND boarding the train (overnighters). we set…
It was a rather overcast morning when we all met up at Berowra Station, and we took the train back to Mt Kuringai Station, the start of the walk. On the platform at Mt Kuringai there is a clear view of the Blue Mountains, so we tried to see if we could spot Ashley’s Navigation weekend group, but we couldn’t see them. After crossing…
Most of us met at Strathfield for the train up to Berowra, Luigi and Sarah joined the train later on and met us when we got off at Berowra. Heading over the highway and down the track we soon forgot how close we were to civilisation. The rain from the previous day had been replaced by a beautiful bright sky with only the odd cloud drifting through and most of us shed our jackets at some point or another as we followed the zigzagging track down to Cowan Creek. We paused for a brief snack at the rusted frame of an old boat before following the track along Cowan Creek. The path…
Most of the walkers got on various cars of the train at Central, with myself getting on at Strathfield for the long (2hours 20 Minutes) trip to Mount Victoria. On reaching Mt Victoria we set off for the unavoidable road bash to the NRMA service centre where we met up with Sheila who had driven up from Lithgow. Most of…
I’d been hoping to take a large group for a hike-in Devonshire Tea, and at one stage there were 15 people signed up so it was looking promising. Unfortunately there were lots of cancellations and a few no shows, so in the end we were just six people. We met at the Katoomba Falls kiosk and set off down the Furber Steps at around 10.15. I’d forgotten…
Leaving the house on the 9C morning last Thursday I was wondering if this a good weekend for a wet canyon! However, on the day it was sunny, 20C and windless, so a beautiful day for it, despite the large quantities of 11C water coming down after the recent rains. We talked our way past the police diversion because of a crash further up the Illawarra Highway and parked at the bottom of Macquarie Pass at 9.30. Piling into…
“GNW” = “Great North walk”. At last, able to write this report after the disruption of 5 days without power last week, and unable to upload the walk photos as well. More luck with the weather on this walk; although showers were forecast the rain didn’t arrive until literally the last 2 minutes of the walk. Anyway, 12…
The trip began with a crazy morning… After picking Lauren up from the station we actually ended up playing a few rounds of cards before everyone was ready to commence with some walking. Before doing the planned loop around Centennial Glen, we explored a small track on the way down into the Megalong. It was…
Despite a dodgy weather forecast we ended up with a group of ten people, neatly fitting into two cars. In my car we had people from five countries and four continents, which lead to some interesting discoveries (did you know that Brazilian soap operas are popular in Mongolia?). The two…
In the 10 years that I have been running this trip, this year was the consistently wettest of them all. 12 brave souls gathered at the sopping wet gravel car park of Bell Station at around 9am on Saturday morning. Fortunately it was neither windy nor cold. Apart from the inside of the cars, the only place out of the rain was under the eaves of Bell station’s railway platform. As you’d…
It was definitely cold when we got out of the cars at Blackheath Station. I thought it strange that no one was waiting for us… I checked my mobile and it turned out that Ruby was still 40mins away… apparently I can’t read the time and David and I had left nearly an hour early! We kept ourselves busy, checking oil levels, refilling wiper water, putting my left indicator back in (it must have fallen out the day before). Before I…
After a week of intense rain and closures in Glenbrook due to the flooding of the causeway, the initially planned route down to Erskine Creek had to be changed. And so the 11 km walk over two days was changed to a 26 km return walk to Splendour Rock. In total, we were a party of 18 – with some of us deciding to catch the train on Friday night and stay at Ashley’s new place in Leura, and others arriving at Blackheath the next morning. After everyone…
Another very lucky break with the weather; just one day later and we would have been lashed with rain and strong winds. As it turned out we had an overcast but rainless walk. Eight of us met up at Circular Quay for the Manly Ferry, and sat out on the rear deck and took in the Harbour views along the way. At Manly…
With the theme song to “The Trap Door” still in my head, Michael and I made our way down Evans Lookout road avoiding the cars also heading down to the lookout. One of these cars slowed to a stop… it was Martin the third member of our small party. We jumped in and before long we where following the Horse Track into the Grose (which looked exceptionally blue today!). We spent…