Yileen Canyon

Yileen Canyon

We met at the North Richmond bakehouse early Sunday morning and car pooled into 3 cars to the clearing that is right on the turnoff of the Mt Wilson road. The 3 car drivers did the car shuffle leaving 2 vehicles at pierces pass and the other at the Mt Wilson Turnoff. Once all our gear was organized we set off along the Yileen canyon track admiring the views along the way. Down into…

Ruined Castle

Ruined Castle

Before I start on this trip report, I remind members that if you go to the Royal Easter Show at Olympic Park, you can buy woollen socks at retail outlets in the Sheep Pavilion. Last year they were $8 a pair. They are much more useful than cotton socks, which you shouldn’t wear on walks in wet or snow conditions anyway. They will…

New member walk

New member walk

As you can see, bigger than Ben Hur, and the demand was such that I had to put on a second new member walk this coming Sunday, and that’s full!. Obviously a demand for walks if more people want to run some. A trip this size is not normal, and required several frequent head counts along the way to ensure we didn’t lose anyone. Most people…

Beginner Canyoning Macquarie Rivulet

Beginner Canyoning Macquarie Rivulet

This is the third year we have run this introductory trip at the beginning of semester one. We had a record 24 members and one guest! Fitting six vehicles into the tiny Clover Hill Rd carpark at 9.30 on Saturday posed a few challenges, but with Marty skilfully directing traffic we were soon ready to hand out the very large collection of club gear that Ankit and Rebecca had brought with them. We divided…

Beginner Canyoning Macquarie Rivulet

Beginner Canyoning Macquarie Rivulet

This is the third year we have run this introductory trip at the beginning of semester one. We had a record 24 members and one guest! Fitting six vehicles into the tiny Clover Hill Rd carpark at 9.30 on Saturday posed a few challenges, but with Marty skilfully directing traffic we were soon ready to hand out the very large collection of club gear that Ankit and Rebecca had brought with them. We divided…

Otford – Burning Palms – Helensburgh

Otford – Burning Palms – Helensburgh

Luck was with us on this walk, with no rain (despite a prediction earlier in the week), and a quite low low tide in the afternoon. We also did the walk a day ahead of heavy sea swells on Sunday which would have made the walk along the rocks to Figure 8 Pool unsafe. Also, two days before the walk, a minor bushfire was reported on the Hacking River Fire Trail, right where we had planned to return to Helensburgh Station. It looked…

Barrington Tops – Corker Trail and Explore Plateau (+Mt Royal ..)

Barrington Tops – Corker Trail and Explore Plateau (+Mt Royal ..)

Despite promising cool temperatures up in the mountains, in the end our party was made up of just the two of us. With plenty of time and no major hurry, it was a relaxed start, leaving Maitland late morning, with Emilie driving up from Sydney and then me throwing together some last minute items. We stopped…

Umina-Patonga

Umina-Patonga

Planning this walk meant keeping a close eye on the local weather forecasts for several days beforehand, hoping that the originally forecast temperature of 29 degrees C would not rise. In fact it dropped to 27 degrees. Even better, the preceding days were marked with a cool sea breeze coming in locally after 2pm, so things looked promising. Also I…

Colo River Canyon Trip

Colo River Canyon Trip

This trip came about when we read a report from our mates the Fat Canyoners who had suffered a rare navigational mishap and managed to completely miss their target canyon. Judging by their photos, it must have been pretty traumatic for them as they remained fully clothed the whole trip. We were…

Bondi Beach to Malabar

Bondi Beach to Malabar

It is curious that on so many bushwalks into distant national parks we see few or no animals or birds, yet here we are on a walk in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs and we saw a few unusual birds. Read on. All the others except myself started the walk at Bondi. I had to join them at Bronte because of an unexpected occurrence at home just as I was leaving for the train. The first…