We gathered everyone together at Woy Woy Station and set out in the three cars (with just enough seats for everyone), for the 20 minute drive to the Little Beach Car Park, the start of the walk. Then a car shuffle was made, leaving my car at Killcare Beach. The walk took us initially towards Little Beach, and then branched off to become the Bouddi Coast Track. Starting in…
Although I ran this walk as “Explore Mt Jellore” I was tempted to rename this trip report “Jellore, The Hard Way”! It was a lovely blue morning after a cold snap had dumped 15cms of snow in the Blue Mountains the day before , which would have certainly affected our walking location in the Southern Highlands. So with…
With extensive trackwork affecting much of the Cityrail network over the weekend, I was pleasantly surprised with the turnout for this trip. The first challenge of course being to navigate through the ‘rabbit warren’ of Central Station and find the bus stop for the South Coast line. With this…
Dargans Creek Canyon is one of those easy day trips that had been left on the back-burner for ages: too short to be worth spending a full day on; a far enough drive to make it an slightly impractical half day; and no abseils, so no good for teaching beginners rope work. I’d been to the area as a kid — nearly 20 years ago I worked out — and leaped off the water jump into the lower dam (a somewhat terrifying rite of passage for local kids for decades). I’d even…
Q Station at Manly has the reputation of being one of Australia’s most haunted sites. From 1830s to 1984 the Quarantine station was used to process migrant ships suspected of carrying passengers and crew with contagious disease. This trip was attended by a variety of people from first timers to the very experienced. Many night…
Everyone turned up at Circular Quay (not a single piker!), and off we went by ferry across to Taronga Athol Wharf. On the way Scott pointed out Fort Denison and I explained that it had been built in the 1830s to keep out the Russians. Essi from Finland (Russia’s next door neighbour) found it interesting that the Russians would want to come here! Once at Athol Wharf we set off along the path to the HMAS Sydney memorial at Bradley’s Head. Here we…
First up, let me mention that Devils Pinch has eluded Sky and I on two previous occasions, so there was no way it was going to beat us this time. Warm & sunny weather was predicted for the weekend, and even though it was still pre-season apparently, there was no way I was going to waste it. I arrived…
The gauntlet had been thrown down, and the challenge had been accepted by a handful of hardy souls — to go wet canyoning in the absolute depths of winter — and so Aussie FreezeFest was born. Julie had been trying for a while to get some interest in a local version of what has become an institution in the US, but for some reason people kept coming back with silly comments like “canyoning is a summer sport” and “you’ll all freeze to death”. Valid points,…
This trip was originally planned as an early winter climb to the summit of Mt Gungartan, 2068m in the Snowy Mountains. However, other commitments meant that the walk was now pushed further into winter, and so the prospect of more snow and harsher conditions was likely. And, as luck would have it, a series of strong cold fronts in the forecast meant that things were always going to be unpredictable up there. Of course, that can be part of the fun, as long as you go well prepared. I’m pleased to say that everyone took the required gear list seriously, and everyone came well equipped for our walk into a wintery wilderness. After battling the Friday traffic, and with the daunting prediction for storm force winds and possible blizzards, our party of 5 made the long road trip down to the Snowy Mountains, stopping for refreshments at Marulan, then onto Cooma where we collected our snowshoes. Although not included in my original plans, the snow conditions meant that it would be near impossible to do the walk without them. They proved to be indispensible, and easy to use. We have since discovered some designs are better than others , but more on that later!
PARTY Amanda Walasik Anne Nguyen Ashley Burke Ben Pullicin Cathy Stansbury Chee Wong Christian Wilson Helena Miranda Huy Lam Lilian Donoso Maria Traversa Nick Coleman-Hicks Pam Ong Parastoo Saharkhiz Peggy Huang Sky Ella Reidy Tony Ruzek Yu-Chun Huang Yumi Hong
Four of us set out in Ben’s care for a trip up to Katoomba, where we met up with Zoe and Ashleigh, and then collected Lilian off the train. Then a short drive to the Victoria Lookout kiosk where we parked cars and headed off to Furbers Steps and down into the Jamieson Valley. There are…
After arrival at Cowan Station, with numbers lesser than expected, we all set out along the section of the Great North Walk between Cowan and Brooklyn. The walk crosses over the F3 Freeway and then a sheltered valley to Jerusalem Bay. It is evident that “improvements” in the form of extra cut steps and hand rails are intruding on what has always been a basic but attractive bush track. Anyway, after…
We started the day with a quick train ride from Sydney (chatting all the way). We arrived at Glenbrook Station and headed straight for the promised bakery. Delicious coffees, cakes and biscuits consumed by all while we enjoyed the sunshine in Glenbrook Park. At 10am we officially started walking. We checked…
Alfred and I made our way out to Kanangra walls late on New Years Eve, armed with plenty of food and booze, and the grand plan to do Kanangra Main followed by a two day effort in Davies. From the lookout we managed to spot a smattering of tiny fireworks exploding more than 100 kilometres away, before making our way down to Dance Floor cave where some wine was drunk, tales told and the new year ushered in. The next…
Catching the 9.18am train from Central, we arrived at Wentworth Falls station shortly after 11 and set off walking down the Charles Darwin track. The weather was sunny and pleasant for walking, there was ample time to appreciate the views before descending down the falls along the National Pass.
After no small amount of disorganisation on my part, almost all the people who expressed an interest in this trip instead buggered off down to Canberra and spent the weekend discarding their favourite possessions into the greedy waters of the Murrumbidgee River. But that’s another story. Suffice it to say that the same rabid weather system that allowed the canoe clubbers to risk life and sacrifice (several) limbs on otherwise calm rivers gave us some cause for reflection as we sped along Bells Line on Friday night …
Leaving Sydney on a Friday night we met in the Kanangra Boyd National Park at the start of a fire trail late that night. We unwillingly woke up with the sun, and after some preparation set off on a clear day at 7:30am. A couple of kilometres later we reached our turn-off and started along a walking trail into the scrub along the ridge top. After battling…
Ok, it may be a little belated and not that exciting…and i probably missed half the stuff that actually went on…but its probably handy to have some info before the showing of the video at the slide night tonight (with Dave’s editing capabilities and what not…). Oh yeah, in case you didn’t pick up on that …you can see the video of the PBT at the slide night tonight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTTMSX9JClI …
Needless to say I felt quite sure it was 1946 so I hunted out my old bushwalking log books only to find we were both wrong! It was 29 th January to 8 th February 1947. So much for the memory when you are over 80! I followed up by typing with my two fingers, the old log, copying the old black and white photos and sending a copy to both to Quent in Holtville and Vern in Toronto, Canada. I had…