Berowra to Mt Kuring-gai

Berowra to Mt Kuring-gai

Most of us met at Strathfield for the train up to Berowra, Luigi and Sarah joined the train later on and met us when we got off at Berowra. Heading over the highway and down the track we soon forgot how close we were to civilisation. The rain from the previous day had been replaced by a beautiful bright sky with only the odd cloud drifting through and most of us shed our jackets at some point or another as we followed the zigzagging track down to Cowan Creek. We paused for a brief snack at the rusted frame of an old boat before following the track along Cowan Creek. The path…

Mt Victoria – Lawson’s Long Alley – Mt York

Mt Victoria – Lawson’s Long Alley – Mt York

Most of the walkers got on various cars of the train at Central, with myself getting on at Strathfield for the long (2hours 20 Minutes) trip to Mount Victoria. On reaching Mt Victoria we set off for the unavoidable road bash to the NRMA service centre where we met up with Sheila who had driven up from Lithgow. Most of…

Devonshire Tea at the Ruined Castle

I’d been hoping to take a large group for a hike-in Devonshire Tea, and at one stage there were 15 people signed up so it was looking promising. Unfortunately there were lots of cancellations and a few no shows, so in the end we were just six people. We met at the Katoomba Falls kiosk and set off down the Furber Steps at around 10.15. I’d forgotten…

Macquarie Rivulet (lower section)

Leaving the house on the 9C morning last Thursday I was wondering if this  a good weekend for a wet canyon! However, on the day it was sunny, 20C and windless, so a beautiful day for it, despite the large quantities of 11C water coming down after the recent rains. We talked our way past the police diversion because of a crash further up the Illawarra Highway and parked at the bottom of Macquarie Pass at 9.30. Piling into…

Cowan to Brooklyn via GNW

Cowan to Brooklyn via GNW

“GNW” = “Great North walk”. At last, able to write this report after the disruption of 5 days without power last week, and unable to upload the walk photos as well. More luck with the weather on this walk; although showers were forecast the rain didn’t arrive until literally the last 2 minutes of the walk. Anyway, 12…

The trip began with a crazy morning

The trip began with a crazy morning

The trip began with a crazy morning… After picking Lauren up from the station we actually ended up playing a few rounds of cards before everyone was ready to commence with some walking. Before doing the planned loop around Centennial Glen, we explored a small track on the way down into the Megalong. It was…

Waterfalls walk: Empress, Vera, Hippocrene and Wentworth

Waterfalls walk: Empress, Vera, Hippocrene and Wentworth

Despite a dodgy weather forecast we ended up with a group of ten people, neatly fitting into two cars. In my car we had people from five countries and four continents, which lead to some interesting discoveries (did you know that Brazilian soap operas are popular in Mongolia?). The two…

Beginners’ Navigation Weekend

Beginners’ Navigation Weekend

In the 10 years that I have been running this trip, this year was the consistently wettest of them all. 12 brave souls gathered at the sopping wet gravel car park of Bell Station at around 9am on Saturday morning. Fortunately it was neither windy nor cold. Apart from the inside of the cars, the only place out of the rain was under the eaves of Bell station’s railway platform. As you’d…

Clean-Up the Gross Grose!

Clean-Up the Gross Grose!

It was definitely cold when we got out of the cars at Blackheath Station. I thought it strange that no one was waiting for us… I checked my mobile and it turned out that Ruby was still 40mins away… apparently I can’t read the time and David and I had left nearly an hour early! We kept ourselves busy, checking oil levels, refilling wiper water, putting my left indicator back in (it must have fallen out the day before). Before I…

Freshers Trip to Splendour Rock

Freshers Trip to Splendour Rock

After a week of intense rain and closures in Glenbrook due to the flooding of the causeway, the initially planned route down to Erskine Creek had to be changed. And so the 11 km walk over two days was changed to a 26 km return walk to Splendour Rock. In total, we were a party of 18 – with some of us deciding to catch the train on Friday night and stay at Ashley’s new place in Leura, and others arriving at Blackheath the next morning. After everyone…