by | Sep 19, 2010
After a very early Saturday morning departure and a bakery stop in Cooma, we headed up on the Kosciuszko Express, noting the grassy patches near the village and a complete lack of people on the slopes. On the chair up Pete sat next to a ski patrol employee, who out of politeness asked where he was going. Since we hadn’t really discussed it beforehand, Pete said he had no clue, and then promptly managed to get his backpack caught on the lift while unloading! I wonder what the patroller must have been thinking as the attendant stopped the lift and tried to free the bag…
by | Sep 1, 2010
Suboir president Bjorn “The Piker” Sturmberg had bailed the day before (claiming his decision was unrelated to the weather) following three others who did the same during in the week (although at least they were a bit more honest about their softness, hence no naming and shaming). We’d squeezed into two cars for the trip, but unfortunately one was a two wheel drive. The dirt road didn’t disappoint, with plenty of potholes, a flowing stream crossing the road, and a slippery section that had even my Forester feeling like it was on a slip-and-slide. Driving as far as the first private property fence in Little Capertee Creek we parked, did some last minute rationalising of pack weight, then set off along the creek.
by | Aug 7, 2010
We couldn’t have asked for better weather, with a crisp blue winter sky bathing the mountains in sun as we set off. The plan was a couple spectacular abseiling routes overlooking the Jamison Valley, where a total of 12 drops of up to 45 metres lead down to the rainforest below.
by | Aug 1, 2010
Michelle had been nagging me to organise another easy overnight trip after Orange Bluff and given it was my birthday over the weekend I thought it was a perfect time to oblige. It didn’t take much thought to realise Splendour Rock was the perfect trip, providing a lovely high camp site, incredible views, limited ups and downs and less than 10 kilometres each day from Green Gully.
by | Jul 18, 2010
Despite a long-time desire to spend a bit of time knocking over the passes of Narrow Neck – which are steeped in more bushwalking history than just about anywhere else in Australia – my trips always seem to overlook the area and involve more remote locations. Determined to rectify this, and conscious that I only had time for a day trip and was still nursing an ankle weakened by a sprain on my trip to Pantoneys, I decided to organise a run through of a few good ones. The plan,…
by | Jul 18, 2010
After meeting up at Woy Woy Station we drove in Fiona’s care up the F3 and the Pacific Highway to Nabiac (near Taree), then Gloucester. On the way we stopped at the pretend Ayer’s Rock Roadhouse near Karuah. It was here I realised I had left my sleeping mat behind, so I purchased a little rug as a substitute at the Roadhouse. In fact the Roadhouse had all sorts of oddities for sale, including metre-long strips of candy.
by | Jun 14, 2010
Yerranderie is about as close as possible in the Blue Mountains to the middle of nowhere that you can drive a car to. It’s about 5 hours drive from Sydney and more than 100km and over 2 hours drive from the nearest town, Oberon.
by | Jun 1, 2010
Heading out of the city on a cold somewhat wet Friday afternoon Fritz and I sailed through the traffic, spirits high due to post-exam enthusiasm and anticipation of spending 5 days bagging some of the most interesting peaks in the Yodellers.
by | May 16, 2010
The weather couldn’t have been better for this year’s navigation weekend! We were a bit late arriving at Bell due to the usual faff getting out of Sydney but by 10am we were away. Before we left the beginners learned how to cite a grid reference and how to orientate the map.
by | May 9, 2010
With a visitor from the States (Dale) in town, who in just a few short weeks has already seen some of the best Blue Mountains canyons, the hastily-made plan was to see a very different region and canyon. Plus, pack in a few caves and be back in Sydney for Mothers Day, what more could one want? Well, a good sized group is always nice and we were lucky to get David and Glen on board a day or so beforehand.
