This year’s navigation weekend now being run for the 11th time in this format, started eventfully, with an evacuation to Lithgow hospital. Mine was the first car to arrive at Bell station on a mild and slightly overcast Saturday morning and as is almost universally routine practise after a 2 hour drive from Sydney, the first thing you do is wander off into the bushes to answer the call of nature. One of…
Walls Lookout accessed from the Pierces Pass Picnic Area is one of the most exciting vantage points into the Grose Valley. The sheer size and beauty of the cliffs make it an incredible location, and an even more exciting abseil! https://goo.gl/maps/p5V3LEB1dH62 We were lucky enough to have on our trip Peter Baxter who is an IRATA level 3 (Industrial rope access supervisor) so it was a great opportunity for skill development. We stepped…
Given the objective of trip was ‘look for Frank Walfords Cave’, I think we can call it a success. On the other hand, if the objective had been ‘find Frank Walfords Cave’…. As advertised, we did a fair amount of stomping around in thick scrub, close to various clifflines. We found…
Another lucky break with the weather, with the previous day being a bit too hot for this walk, and the day after with heavy rain. The weather forecast for this Sunday was for “a shower or two”, which was accurate; one shower at Woy Woy at 8am, and much heavier rain at 11pm. But in…
Tim and I met Ankit at Westmead Station and headed out towards Windsor. We had dinner and met Geoffrey at the historic Macquarie Arms before setting out again towards Culoul Range Fire Trail. The road was passable for our 2WD sedan with only a couple of minor bottom scrapes. We found…
Photos here : https://goo.gl/photos/dA766LTDVoxTtuh7A I love Namadgi National Park! An easy drive from Sydney down the freeway to Canberra, reveals a mountain filled wilderness that keeps me going back again and again. And in the case of Mt Gudgenby, this was my second attempt. Previously I…
Contrary to the title of this trip, we never even glimpsed or set foot within any of the Bungleboori catchment! Day 1 Noone had signed up for Thursday of the trip so I headed off on my own to check out a cool cave that I’d seen whilst exiting Arethusa Canyon earlier in the week. I started…
Again, a full turnout for a nice walk on a nice day (with one unfortunate late withdrawal due to a sports injury). We met up together (mostly) at Central Station for the 1 hour train trip to Helensburgh, with Zeyu getting on at Redfern, Cathie at Sutherland, and Hiswaty caught up with us at Helensburgh. We then…
This proved easier than we had anticipated from the sparse descriptions available online, but still a spectacular trip. The day before we had run a beginners canyoning trip through the lower, tourist section of Macquarie Rivulet, and this trip followed the rest of the Rivulet, from the top of the Illawarra Escarpment at 600m to where we had started the beginner trip at around 200m. We did…
Eighteen people on a beginners canyoning trip sounds pretty demanding, but in fact we only had 11 beginners, with four old lags who volunteered to show people the ropes plus three people who knew the ropes but came along for the ride. Many thanks to one of those, Peter Baxter, who brought some superb camera gear and volunteered to be trip photographer. Some of…