The weather forecast said “a snow shower or two” for Blackheath this day, but it was more like “a snow shower or ten”! Even so, the weather on departure from Sydney gave little clue as to what to expect; it was cloudy with sunny breaks all the way to Leura. After leaving Katoomba however, we looked out and saw a heavy snow shower over Mount Solitary and the Hampton Ranges, so it gave an idea of what we might expect. The ride…
Emma on the first pitch On the way down I thought I’d try abseiling down tandem style with Emma and then my brother. This was the first time I’d done this so we created some rules to follow to ensure we didn’t have any accidents. The first…
We all met up at Woy Woy Station, with Siva and Tharani driving up (and who were surprised to find that the train is faster than a car getting to Woy Woy from Sydney). We split the walkers into 4 per car, and then set off for the walk start at MacMasters Beach (the suburb not the beach itself). Then Siva…
Hoping to get 13 people (since it was a Wicked Witch walk) 12 signed up but at the start we only had 8; two absolute “no shows”, and two others (more about that at the end). Most of us met up at Central Station and set off on the train to Leura. At Leura we met Owen who had dressed up as a wizard (or was it Gandalf? See for yourself). It was…
Koombanda Canyon runs from Bells Line of Road down to an abandoned mine, from where an old road leads up the Darling Causeway. Effectively, the trip cuts the corner between the two roads. We met at Bell on a cold Saturday morning on the weekend of the winter solstice, did a car shuffle and headed off into the bush at 8.30. It was…
Martyn had dreamed of visiting Gospers Mountain in the middle of the Wollemi National Park in the NSW Blue Mountains for the last 20 years, and a SUBW (Sydney University Bushwalkers) party with some experience in the area held promise. He had sought permission from the landholder, undoubtedly assisted by a past common contact and being a local Kandos boy himself. The weather…
With exams looming as well as not the best weather, only 4 people applied and turned up. Still, it was worth a chance as although it was raining in Sydney, it appeared to have eased off over the Central Coast. So after the train trip to Wondabyne (where we noticed other walkers both getting on AND boarding the train (overnighters). we set…
It was a rather overcast morning when we all met up at Berowra Station, and we took the train back to Mt Kuringai Station, the start of the walk. On the platform at Mt Kuringai there is a clear view of the Blue Mountains, so we tried to see if we could spot Ashley’s Navigation weekend group, but we couldn’t see them. After crossing…
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…
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…