by | Dec 12, 2015
Some came for the canyon. Some came for the camping. Some did a different canyon. Some walked in independently. All were part of the SUBW Christmas Dinner Walk 2015. You couldn’t have hoped for better weather for it. For a midsummers’ day, this is as good as it gets, clear blue skies and not too hot, not even down in Megalong Valley where it was just plain hot instead of the usual oven like furnace that you’d expect in Megalong in December. For those…
by | Dec 6, 2015
As I expected the walk to not take too long, I decided that we could all sleep in a bit and get the 9.25am South Coast train from Central to our destination, Stanwell Park. BUT, there was a problem: the 9.29am train does not stop at Stanwell park – I had completely overlooked that the South Coast Line has only a measly 2 hourly service to the “smaller” stations on that line! Therefore, I decided that we should go to Thirroul and then catch a north-bound train from there back to Stanwell Park – it would mean being 45 minutes late for the walk start and not an hour late. But then…
by | Dec 4, 2015
We arrived at the Newnes campground on Friday late in the evening after seeing too many Wombats and Kangaroos. On Saturday morning John joined us after sleeping a few hours on the way to Newnes. We left the camp early to enjoy the climb while the air was still fresh. Everyone was happy to be at the top of the pipeline track before 8.15am and we enjoyed the lookout for almost a hour. The sky…
by | Dec 4, 2015
Bonnum Pic is an unusual mountain with an unusual name. Noted on an expedition across the Blue Mountains by Francis Barrallier in 1802, he described it as “a mountain very remarkable on account of its pyramidal form”. And indeed it is. It’s a strange promontory of craggy rock pointing for several kilometres toward the Warrangamba Dam near the Wollondilly River, in the Nattai National Park. At it’s…
by | Nov 28, 2015
We met David at Claustral car park at 8.00am on Saturday morning. The parking was already full of people getting ready to do Claustral, I think 4 or 5 groups did it that day. We drove to Mt Banks picnic area and left the second car at 8.25am. From there it was a short walk via the firetrail and a ridge that leaded us upstream of the wet section of King George Brook Canyon. The upper…
by | Nov 22, 2015
Having been postponed from the previous weekend because of the wet weather, this Sunday was much kinder, with the forecast only being “a slight chance of showers”. The weather remained overcast and mild – and dry – the whole day. Meanwhile a communications problem caused a potential loss of contact with the walkers, as Telstra internet locally went down on friday night probably related to the extreme heat that day, and then the web-based email system also went off line for the whole weekend. Fortunately none…
by | Nov 21, 2015
Five members and a guest set off from the end of Somme Avenue, Wentworth Falls at 9.45. We followed the firetrail to the end and then headed NW before dropping into Franks Creek with a 14m abseil using an existing anchor at Katoomba 577697. From here we followed the very scrubby and congested creek for some distance before it became worthy of the name of canyon around 582701. Since there…
by | Nov 14, 2015
Leo collected Adrian from Redfern Friday at 3pm ….. and as a harbinger for Leo’s ambitious plans for the weekend, they crawled bumper to bumper on the M4 to Penrith. Leo had evidently not cleared his plans with Huey, and after heavy rain through Katoomba, dinner at the Imperial Hotel http://www.hotelimperial.com.au/ seemed a good compromise. The rain…
by | Nov 1, 2015
With 2 prospective walkers having missed the rain at Central – due to bus delays in the city – 5 of us assembled at Cowan Station for the walk along a section of the Great North Walk (GNW) to Brooklyn. To her dismay, Emily realised when she was on the train that her water bottle was still back in her car, so that required a trip up to the only shop in Cowan to get bottled water. Meanwhile it…
by | Oct 24, 2015
We all met just outside the national parks gate on Bobbin Head Rd in the morning, parking out on the street to avoid the park entrance fee. After a week of rain, it was great to have sunny weather. The walk started at the Sphinx Memorial (that’s right, Sydney has a Sphinx!) and quickly headed into the bush. After a…
