by | Jan 28, 2008
Eight keen bushwalkers set off for the Blue Waterholes to spend the Australia Day long weekend exploring the Cave Creek and Cooleman Plain Area. We were very lucky with the weather, with Huey delivering not much more than a short shower on on of the nights. The caves on Cave Creek and on the Goodradigbee River were spectacular and we spent lots of time exploring these. The Cooleman Plain was also quite nice, with Seventeen Flat Creek providing opportunities for further cave finding.
by | Jan 28, 2008
We drove up on Friday night and on Saturday morning headed early down our first creek and before we knew it, it was narrow canyon followed by an abseil into a small amphitheatre with tall straight coachwood trees scattered around a leafy forest floor. The only disappointment about it was that it ended all too soon, becoming scrubby creek. We crashed and bashed and crawled and lurched with our 3 day packs down this creek for a while until finally it became true canyon once more, and with another short abseil entered deeper canyon and thus became our gateway to the Bungleboori.
by | Jan 19, 2008
On January 19th Adrian Blake and I drove down to the Geehi to have a look at some of the aqueduct intake stations. Our primary reason for this trip however was to search for the northern end of the “Goat Track”, which siddles around the Watsons Crags Spur from Siren Song Portal to Crags Creek Portal. The regrowth after the bushfires of January 2003 was so thick that we were unable to find any clues as to the whereabouts of the track. It was a very wet walk, with Huey dumping down the full eight inches… We did get some magnificent views though of the north face of Watsons Crags, and in the distance we could just see Reinhold Echidna as he scaled up those precipitous cliff faces.
by | Jan 18, 2008
Namadgi National Park makes up about 45% of the ACT and the beauty of it is that it has plenty of interesting daywalks close to Canberra. I drove out to the old Orroral Deep Space Tracking Station on the evening of Thursday 17th January and the next day walked the Orroral Valley Circuit. It is a 19km walk, along a fire trail for the first half, then along a grassy track for the second half. The nearby Orroral Homestead is worth taking a look at.
by | Jan 5, 2008
This was a tough trip. It was a solo trip, visiting a classic part of the western edge of the Main Range. The route was basically Charlotte Pass to Mt Townsend via Seamans Hut, then across the Townsend Plateau, climbing Mt Alice Rawson and the other unnamed peaks, then following the Abbot Ridge north to a saddle at 1480m, droppping down into Lady Northcotes Canyon, and then ascending the creek to Lake Albina before returning to Charlotte Pass. The whole walk is covered on the 1:25,000 Perisher Valley topo if you want to look over it.
by | Dec 26, 2007
Long version: We started late out of respect for Boxing Day, and did the easiest walk I could find within an hour’s drive of my house – starting with the Challenger track at Kuringai Chase NP (which wasn’t at all challenging), then the Flint & Steel track first to F&S bay and then to F&S beach (also very easy). We ate lunch at the beach – no jaffles or Hammer ‘n’ Tongs, but plenty of Christmas leftovers, and of course the obligatory cheese platter. Then some sunbaking (for those who tan)… or shade skulking (for me) and a very lovely swim before walking back to the cars.
by | Dec 23, 2007
The afternoon consisted of a walk up deep pass canyon itself then a stint of abseiling practice before beer o clock A post wedding party including several other subw members gradually made their way down to the campsite during the late afternoon and set up a short distance away. And so the evening went something like this: we drank, we ate, and discussed the number of useful things one can do with a jaffle iron (about 105 as it turns out). Tom G also told us of the story about a guy called moses, who it turns out climbed mount sinai in a pair of dunlop volleys. Apparently the story is based on the first historical documentation of this remarkable peice of footwear design. Someone then muttered something about having had enough to drink and going to bed, then staggered off in the vague direction of a tent.
by | Dec 23, 2007
I’d always wanted to have a look around Hidden Valley and on this trip we did just that. The drive from Sydney was via Goulburn and Nerriga, to the park entrance at Sassafras. Only the last 3.5km along the private road slowed us down, with a rather stony 4WD track forcing us to concentrate. Anne and I drove down on the Friday evening, had some jaffles and some Hammer ‘n Tongs, before being joined by Adrian on the Saturday morning. We had some more jaffles for breakfast then got going.
by | Dec 9, 2007
Party – Peter, Tom “Mr G” G, Dave L and Nicole, Greg and Kate, Rob H, Roger L, Marina, Su Li, Maria, Jo B, Ashley and Ann(e?), Albert and Kim, Lou Lou and Mitch, James B, Dave N
by | Dec 2, 2007
It had been raining a bit (or rather a lot) up the mountains just before the weekend – but that didn’t seem to deter any of the starters – but at the North Richmond Bakery – we thought it prudent not to do Claustral Canyon which most of the party intended to do (in two groups) and instead join a group that Peter Raines was leading down Why Don’t We Do It In The Road Canyon at Mt Wilson. So we drove to the mountain and met up with Peter at the fire station.
