When an old friend of mine [a keen canyoner and cyclist] ran the Murray to the Mountains Rail Trail for the NPA in autumn 2010, in classic disorganised form I belatedly posted the trip to SUBW – in an attempt to bring some youth to the group. Alas, that failed – just too late and too far away, I guess. But a new year, another NPA trip, another chance! All I had to do was post it a little earlier…
After leaving Sydney during some misty weather, this turned out to be a beautiful day up in the Blue Mountains. The original plan was to do two abseiling trips down Malaita Point and Wall, but we decided to replace Malaita Point with Boars Head Rock trip and do Malaita Wall in the morning.
After weeks if not months of bad weather we got a sunny mild Sunday that had us in high, if somewhat nervous spirits as we headed down the track at 9:30am to ‘the base jumpers 200m overhang’ at Pierces Pass (one ridge east of Rigby Hill).
After meeting up at Strathfield Station, we headed off to Katoomba Station to await the arrival of the train with more walkers aboard. We got there 10 minutes ahead of the train which time was put to good use as a loo break. When all had been gathered at the Station, I gave directions to the car drivers how to get to Scenic World and Violet Street where we would all park before setting out for the walk together. Four of the five cars duly arrived at the parking spot and our passengers gathered to await the arrival of the fifth car, Robert’s. And waited. And waited. After about 20 minutes a call came from Trang, one of the passengers in Robert’s car, asking where we were! She said that Robert had gone straight to the top of Furber’s Steps instead of Violet Street, and there they had sat waiting for us wondering where we were! I then led the group around to the top of Furber’s Steps, and down we went into the valley. On the way there were great views of the Three Sisters, Jamieson Valley,and Katoomba Falls at full flow after the recent rains, and a photostop was arranged at a lookout; there were several in our group for whom this visit to the Blue Mountains was their very first ever, and they found the view awesome.
Glen, Adam and I began our weekend early, with a pre-trip bike ride on Friday afternoon along The Oaks Fire Trail (Woodford to Glenbrook). We then met up with Stacey at the Zig Zag Railway around 6:30pm and walked out for an hour or so to a campsite along Waratah Ridge. It was a surprisingly mild evening around the campfire, with cheese and biscuits, roasted veggies and various concoctions of noodles, rice and couscous.
Walkers: Taeko, Satoshi, Mutsuko, Charles, Alex J, Peggy, Bron, Ben P, Alisha + friend, Jerome, Elmore, Elin, Alex B, Terje, Laura, Dmitri,David K, Miriam, Gary, Jana, Marina, Claudia, and Bruce. (and one more whose named I have missed).
Alexander Bertholds Ashley Burke Brian van der Gouw Charles Prime Chris Thornett Christy Scott Daniel Wesolowski Elin Andersson George Karpenkov Guy Tannenbaum Helen Smith Izabela Spaleniak Jana Röther Katie Bates Lisa Jonas Lucy Swinnen Mariacristina Merlo Melissa Freer Michelle Veney Robert Merlino Samanta Castellarin Sierra Classen
It was decidedly damp when we set off into the bush, but we decided to press on regardless. We picked our way down the ridge and into the creek, noting how high the water was. We eventually reached the first small drop, finding powerful currents churning down into a foaming, seething mass of whitewater, and no easy way apparent. We decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and regretfully decided to retreat. Besides, my family has strict rules on whose turn it is to almost drown (and this year is not my turn!).
Saturday morning treated us to clear sunny skies and a well known treat from cityrail – trackwork. After missing a couple of buses on account of our packs we were off to Blacktown and then Faulconbridge to start the hike. In Faulconbridge we loaded up on last minute treats and applied sunscreen with what claimed to be invisible zinc but had the look and consistency of wall paint.
After a nice early start we set off through the scrub to find a way into our chosen canyon – Ashcroft Ravine. Our information was light in detail, but we managed to find a relatively straightforward scramble down into the gully.