We all met at Richmond McDonalds carpark at the early hour of 6:30am and departed in convoy to the clearing on the side of the road where the start of the Better Offer Track is. For Stella, Joy and Jingle this was their first abseiling canyoning trip. Once we donned our gear it was about a 20 minute walk to the rock outcrop that overlooks into the Grose valley. Not far…
As the weather forecast in Sydney and surrounds was in the mid thirties, we thought it would be a good idea to head to a wet canyon, even if it was still pretty early in the season. We gave Alex Allchin (President, Bushwalking NSW) a ride out to Mt Wilson where he set off into the bush for a solo 11 day walk (he’s got a tracker with him and I understand he’s currently on a ridge over Nayook Creek), before we had a brief discussion and settled on our canyon for the day. While the…
Because the walk was listed 3 weeks before the walk day, it was not too surprising that there were some dropouts in the week prior due to sickness. Still, every time someone had to drop out, I was able to replace them off a wait list. So, thanks to those people who gave me sufficient notice that they could not come. Most of…
An early start was needed to do long gully so I proposed a relatively early meeting time to be at Hungry Jacks Marulan. I carpooled with Marc at the Bunnings crossroads carpark with Marc driving his Subaru forester. We then drove down to meet the rest of the group at the Southern bound Hungry Jacks in Marulan. Eve got…
Trackwork on the Northern Line caused a slight change of routine for me, needing to drive to Gordon Station and picking up Candice at Wahroonga on the way. At Central we got off that North Shore Line train and waited on the same platform for the Blue Mountains train to Mt Victoria which was only 5 minutes behind (unusually starting from North Sydney due to more trackwork at Central). Here we…
The Friday morning started off with my Samsung mobile phone dying as it stubbornly refused to recognise that it had a SIM card installed. With a vital need for a working mobile phone for contacting walk people later that night, the morning was spent buying and then figuring out how to work an Apple iPhone. So the…
As can be seen, a good turnout including some who joined up in 2nd Semester. We all met up at Woy Woy Station and I got everyone onto the bus for Umina Beach. All that is except Gong who had dozed off on the train and forgot to get off at Woy Woy, so he got carried on to Gosford! It was fortunate for him that I had decided to drive to Woy Woy instead of taking my local train there, so I was able to collect him off a Sydney bound train 5 minutes after the bus had gone. So I,…
In the leadup to this trip I was expecting subzero temperatures at Newnes on the Friday night and a frigid but clear night on the Saturday. But in the end surprisingly mild conditions awaited us at Newnes when we arrived late on the Friday evening. A train delay meant that my carload arrived rather late, and it was midnight before we settled into our sleeping bags. Next morning…
6 people was not a bad turnout for a saturday walk in the middle of exam period. I originally had 11 sign up but 3 pulled out for health reasons, and 2 just pulled out – didn’t give a reason. At least there were no “no-shows”. It was not really “mid-winter”, being just 3 days after the winter solstice (June 21), but that’s the name given to the festival at Katoomba on the closest saturday to the winter solstice. (Some people…
Some mountains are so remote , they can remain on your “to do” list for a long time. Such is the case with the Cobberas Mountains in far north east Victoria. Although the area can be accessed by road, it’s a long way from pretty much everywhere. But the Queen’s Birthday 3 day long weekend allowed just enough time to drive down there, have a go at the summit of Mt Cobberas Number 1, then get back home again. Having found…