by | Jun 5, 2022
What an eventful day! When we met at Windsor that morning, the plan was to head out in search of Clews Cave. But no plan survives contact with reality, and in this case, “reality” took the form of a deceptively deep puddle on the fire trail. Hindsight is 20/20 With a tyre deflator and a bit more right-boot failing to move the car, Ruby went to Putty Road to flag down a passing vehicle and returned mere minutes later with an F100 truck, whose driver kindly recovered us and saw us on our way. Being the…
by | May 1, 2022
Six of us met up at Central Station on its noisy platform 25 and set off to Helensburgh. Dila got on at Redfern and Catriona at Hurstville. All eight of us on arrival at Helenburgh had a loo break before I gave an overview of our plan before setting of with our first stop being Wilson’s Creek waterfall almost right next to the station. Crossing over…
by | May 1, 2022
I decided it would be a good idea to write my first ever trip report in order to give anyone who was thinking of heading to the Wild Dog Mountains or anywhere in the southern Blue Mountains an idea of the conditions. In the post bushfire landscape of the southern Blue Mountains one always expects it to be tougher going than usual. For this…
by | Apr 25, 2022
This walk was intended as an easy day out having a look around Brooklyn and doing a few short tracks in the process. It essentially replaced the intended walk along the Great North Walk which was cancelled as that track was closed. In the process I actually found a new track! The five of us met up at Hawkesbury River railway station during a short rain shower, which the radar showed seemed to be targeting Brooklyn in a narrow rain band! The shower didn’t last long so we set out for our first of 3 short walks. This walk…
by | Apr 20, 2022
A nice fairly easy walk in the Blue Mountains in almost perfect weather. The day looked very promising with Venus and Jupiter shining brightly in the pre-dawn sky when I woke up. And the weather turned out to be excellent, albeit a bit cool. Six of us met up at Leura Station after riding up in various parts of the train from Central. Then it…
by | Apr 10, 2022
In light of the recent rain, I wasn’t too keen on going far into the bush or doing an overnight walk, so I chose a long and gentle coastal walk that would be safe from the elements. I asked everyone to meet up at Circular Quay at 10 am (mentioned this about 3 times in the emails) to make sure we had enough time to catch the 10.15 ferry to Watsons Bay and was pleasantly surprised with everyone being there pretty much exactly at 10 am. Catching the…
by | Apr 3, 2022
Trip report for the SCASS X SUBW Walk of Art bush walk We had a great group of people come on the Walk of Art bush walk, with myself, Chloe (SUBW president), Angela, Danah, Peggy and Eric. After catching the train from central we had a short ride out to Hornsby station, where afterwards we walked for 10 or so minutes to the start point of the track. The track…
by | Mar 26, 2022
sheltering at Otford Station. Burning Palms-Otford, Royal National Park. This walk was transferred from the following Sunday (27/3) and checking the rain radar it looks like it was a wise choice, even though we got a few showers on the actual walk. Although 14 signed up we had two drop out sick, one slept in, and one apparent “no show” (who has since explained that he was in Covid isolation), leaving 10 to complete the walk. We met…
by | Mar 20, 2022
Umina – Pearl Beach – Patonga Walk. Nature threw up some unexpected challenges on this normally straightforward walk. A plan to get the bus to Pearl Beach instead of starting at Umina to avoid the high tide there was thwarted also. All the group met up at Woy Woy Station and headed down to the bus stop where the bus to Pearl Beach as just arriving. To my…
by | Mar 13, 2022
Sunday’s trip is a great sucess. The walk was perfect, view was spectecular, friends were made, tyre pressure was lost (it’s my car lol) However we did have some challenges:) First, the Carpooling Apparently we have 13 people signed up for the trip and 13 seats available. That means…
by | Mar 12, 2022
The hike started with all of us meeting at Cronulla Station. Our aim was to take the first ferry from Cronulla to Bundeena which was at 8:30am. I got to Cronulla Station at 7:15am with plenty to spare time in my my hand for a nice breakie. When I got off at the station, A familiar voice called my name from behind and when I looked, It was Sunny(a.k.a Our group’s lucky charm to keep Sunny weather). Then we…
by | Mar 12, 2022
The hike started with all of us meeting at Cronulla Station. Our aim was to take the first ferry from Cronulla to Bundeena which was at 8:30am. I got to Cronulla Station at 7:15am with plenty of spare time in my hand for a nice breakie. When I got off at the station, A familiar voice called my name from behind, It was Sunny(a.k.a Our group’s lucky charm to keep Sunny weather). Then we…
by | Mar 5, 2022
Newcastle – Fernleigh Track and Glenrock Conservation Area. This walk was always going to be touch and go because of the constantly changing weather situation. Thankfully the forecast a few days beforehand stated that the Saturday of the walk will be clear in the Newcastle area, with only a possiblity of showers late afternoon. As it…
by | Feb 20, 2022
Ruined castle in The Blue Mountains Nationa Park, 20/2/2022.. We all met up at Central (except April who got on at Glenbrook) for the 2 hour train trip to Katoomba. The plan then was to catch the bus to the top of Furber’s Steps track which left 6 minutes after the train arrived. This was…
by | Jan 18, 2022
Before this walk, the weather forecast said that there would be moderate showers in the Parramatta area. It was right on the edge for me to cancel the walk or not, so I decided to let the walk go ahead and see if anyone showed up. I texted everyone that it was due to rain, so it was up to them whether they wanted to come or not, and once I got there and waited for everyone, to my surprise everyone showed up! And, it turned out to only lightly rain on the walk, and there were no issues with mud or puddles either! We saw a surprising amount of wildlife on the walk, we saw two plovers (masked lapwing), a colony of flying foxes, a big water dragon, ducks and later ducklings, and other birds too! The river was high today, because it had just rained. I was…
by | Jan 13, 2022
I was nervous that the walk today might not go ahead, because all throughout the day it was pouring down rain. The weather report said that the rain was supposed to clear a few hours before the walk though, so I didn’t cancel it, and the weather report turned out to be right. At the…
by | Jan 3, 2022
With the holiday period quickly coming to an abrupt end, it was time to squeeze in one last canyon. La nina was even on holidays, so we could all pretend that it had been sunny the whole summer break. I often thought of just Mt Hay Canyon (Butterbox), when it came to ‘H’ canyons, so have obliviously plodded along in life with the GEM that is Hat Hill Canyon right under my nose! So I posted the trip, and had some last minute takers join us, making us a group of 7. Props to…
by | Dec 29, 2021
The Spit Bridge to Manly walk was indeed an iconic walk. We started at Spit Reserve Park, which is this really pretty park situated on a small peninsula jutting out into the harbor. The path wound through pretty forest and there were several quiet beaches along the way. There were a few lookout points along the walk that had fantastic sweeping views of the harbor! There were two sizable waterfalls, and we saw a few water dragons basking on rocks too! The weather was really nice too, it wasn’t too hot or too cold, and there was lots of sunshine! The walk had lots of little on-and-off inclines, and a surprising amount of stairs. Also, there…
by | Dec 19, 2021
The walk today was supposed to be walking from Spit bridge to Manly, but when I checked the weather forecast a few hours before the walk, all the weather sites said that there would be a thunderstorm at precisely the time the walk was supposed to be. Since not a lot of people signed up for the walk, and the thunderstorm was due to pass in a few hours, I thought maybe I could give rescheduling a go. Since I…
by | Dec 18, 2021
This was another Figure 8 Walk that got afected by the curse which seems so often to visit these trips there. This time it had nothing to do with the sea or safe access; infact it was the easiest access there I had ever done. No, it was an indirect result of the COVID19 Pandemic. Read on…….
