Author Archives: rachel

Colo Passes 11a & 13 (15-16 Dec 20018)

It was the case of the shrinking trip. A week before we had 7, by Tuesday it was 6, Thursday down to 5. 5 minutes before we were meant to meet in Windsor on Saturday morning we were down to 4 when I got an sms from Alex informing me he had just woken up… and he wasn’t parked just round the corner. Given the weather forecast (hot with potential severe storms) I wasn’t too unhappy with the small group. Since Tom was in doubt to complete the trip (after all we were due another person to pull out…) we decided to take 2 cars in case Tom needed to bail out early.

I was loaded up with much of our shared gear as well as my packraft which made navigating the off-track sections awkward. As there had been storms the previous two days the rocks in the creek were wet and walking on them was akin to walking on ice. The slippery conditions made for slow progress in the creek.

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Treacherous conditions in the creek

We had various forays up onto the sides to get around some of the larger boulders, ultimately ending up above the junction of our first creek and the main one. Sweat was pouring off us with the humid conditions so after a drink and some scouting we backtracked a bit and found a way back into the creek.

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Almost canyoning

I managed to pick up a couple of footpads on the true right which eventually brought us down to the Colo River around 12:30pm.

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Preparing to launch

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The crew on the water early on

After lunch and inflating the flotilla launched. Bill was quick to get some fishing in – obviously having practised casting from a lilo a few times before. It wasn’t long before he had a reasonable sized bass but decided we had a bit too far to go in the heat to keep it for dinner.

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Bill fishing from the shore

We were in no hurry to get down to Canoe Creek so we drifted where we could, enjoying the flow particularly in the earlier sections.

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Early rapids

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Bill of the king of the lilo!

The lilos probably had the better run through most of the rapids – there seemed to be lots of lilo sized gaps and not so many pack-raft sized!

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It’s a hard life

The promised storms developed and hit us briefly. After about 5 minutes of heavy rain it cleared to a lovely afternoon, and we were feeling pretty happy with our decision to be out there.

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The storm about to hit us hard

Talk turned to who would be at Canoe Creek – we were meant to be meeting another SBW group, but it was unclear from a series of text messages that morning whether they were still coming. Alex had said he might catch up with us later in the day. My money was on no one being there, but second choice was just Emmanuelle, Vivien & Justine.

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More victorious lilo rapid-running

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Not quite as smooth for the pack-raft!

The last section of the river as we approached the Canoe Creek junction seemed to take a while with the series of rapids growing longer and requiring more clambering over. Sadly Bill’s lilo decided it had enough at this point and popped. His fishing rod & reel not wanting to miss out also decided to malfunction (snap / fall off).

Eventually we came within sight of the corner and I could see Emmanuelle standing there waiting for us. After some good-natured castigation at our late arrival (51 minutes after happy hour!) we set-up for the night, then settled down to happy hour at the somewhat controversial time of 6:30pm. Vivien’s group had similar shrinking issues to mine having also gone from 7 to 4 (only Andrew had made it in addition with V, E & J).

We had moved on to dinner by the time a distinctive figure with his classic-felt bush hat appeared carrying a boogie board. Alex had indeed eventually caught up with us – after 7pm! We had a pleasant evening, but not around the campfire due to the ongoing park fire ban.

With only a short walk out the next day there was no designated get-up time and Tom & I managed to sleep through till 8:30am. The morning was whiled away with swimming, napping and general laziness. After a cooling swim we set off at 11am. I’d forgotten how steep the Canoe Creek track (Pass 13) was and with my heavy pack I needed a couple of boosts from behind to get up the steeper sections.

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Cooling swim before the steep climb-out

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Taking a breather after the steep section

We finished off the weekend with a late lunch at the Colo Riverside (with air-conditioning! 36°C outside according to the car). An excellent weekend in the bush. (And Tom survived).

Galong Creek (8 Dec 2018)

It was a beautiful day, if perhaps a little hot for most Wild Dogs walks with the forecast predicting 28°C. We got our climbing out of the way early. Caro wanted to show Warwick the iron pots of Ironpot Mountain so we went up before hanging a right and heading down, down, down. We were treated to views of a wedgetail eagle soaring just above us. The spur we took was easy going and we enjoyed morning tea on the banks of the Coxs River (once the cows had wandered off)

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Easy spur down to the Coxs River

The initial sections of Galong Creek were pretty standard creek walking. A few snakes here and there, a pig and a fairly active echidna. Despite walking along (or in) the creek it was still pretty hot, and a few of the party members took the opportunity for ‘swims’ (probably too generous a term) as we went.

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Caro having a dip

After lunch we hit the pink granite, with lots of small waterfalls and scrambling.

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Granite gorge walking

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The blue brigade heading towards me

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Think we might have a compulsory wade coming up

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Scrambling up one of many waterfalls

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Alex tackling the same waterfall

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Climbing around the next one

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Looking down

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Time for a swimming break

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More granite walking

One of the highlights was a Powerful Owl which flew under the canopy not far above my head. We were able to watch it for a few minutes before the smaller birds chased it off.

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The creek got narrower and steeper

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Wouldn’t want to be stuck in here in a flash-flood

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The group contemplating the next climb

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More climbing

Eventually the granite relented and then we just had a short walk back to the cars. We finished the day with refreshments in Blackheath. A great day out.

The Pondage (27-28 Oct 2018)

It had been over 6 months since Tom & I had done an overnight bushwalk around Sydney*, so we chose something fairly easy to get back out into the bush.

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Tom pagoda scrambling near Baal Bone Gap

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What do you mean I have to go down there?

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No I don’t want to hold this position while you get your camera out

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Beautiful fern gully

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Where on earth are we? and how do we get around this pagoda?

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2 hours of walking… definitely in need of a snooze

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Beautiful part of the world

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Sunset viewing

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Camp. It was a bit cooler on Sunday

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Impressive cliffs

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Feeling small

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Tom & J in a field of native irises

*I had done K2K in 2 days, but this was the first one we’d done together since April.

Traverse of the gods (29 Sep 2018)

I’d been plumping to do this walk for most of winter but the weather conditions hadn’t come to the party. Finally on our last weekend living in Blackheath we got a reasonable forecast so off we went. We hadn’t managed to get out much in recent weeks so it was nice to be striding out along the Mt Banks firetrail in the sunshine. It wasn’t long before we were at the spot where we needed to descend to the half-way ledge.

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The half-way ledge we’re planning on traversing

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Early days and pretty easy going

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A slightly slopey/loose section… at least for Tom! Apparently he was “careful” (and therefore I wasn’t)

Early on things were pretty obvious. There weren’t too many choices – just keep following the ledge. Generally it was fairly easy going, only one slopey section that made Tom nervous. Then we hit a big gully where there were many options.

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ok, so that’s where we’ve been… now where are we going?

We got to explore many different ledges before finally hitting the logbook (and therefore hopefully the right height!).

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rock formation

Entering the “Devils Throat” and the narrowest ledge of the route to date. We may have done some other narrow ledges unnecessarily while we were trying to find the correct level.

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Finally we’re at the ‘devil’s throat’ at the right level… now it gets narrow

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Lovely views of the Grose Valley

On the other side of the Devils Throat was a narrow ledge. The easiest (?) way across was to sit on your bum and ease yourself over. It was more awkward than it looked but dry for us so no great drama.

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Tricky narrow bulging ledge to get past (is more awkward than it looks)

From there we scrambled up on to the tops for lunch – somewhat later than it might have been had we picked the correct route to start with.

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Yes Tom you need to mantle!

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Well-earned lunch!

From there it was a relatively easy traverse around onto the Mt Banks summit track. A great short day out.

K2K in two days (8-9 Sep 2018)

I have walked the Kanangra to Katoomba route twice before – once as a 3 day trip back in 2007, (& photos) and then last year in 1 day. To complete the set I needed to do it in 2 days. The idea was conceived only a few weeks earlier when Jo & I were doing another SBW trip, and so it ended up on the SBW Spring Program. We had hoped to get enough people to do it in two groups, walking in opposite directions, with a car swap. We got up to 9 at one stage but in the end we had a party of 6, so only one group. Which was fortunate since that meant we all fitted under the shelter shed when we arrived in the rain at the Kanangra Walls car park on Friday night.

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Misty Kanangra Walls car park early on Saturday morning

We were rudely awoken by a fellow SBWer “Kanangra Bill” who was up before the birds (or at least well before my alarm). Nicci & Bill were off even earlier than us. Our group got away at 7:20am. It seemed the bulk of the rain had bucketed down in the early hours and we were hopeful the cloud would lift during the morning.

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Enjoying the views from the plateau

Thick low cloud and wet vegetation made for a fairly quick pace (as there was nothing to look at), countered by needing to take care with the wet surface underfoot. There was no question of stopping for too long as the cold quickly set in.

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We got very excited as we could briefly see something

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Gordon Smith Pass was a little slippery

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Coming into Gabes Gap

Geoff & I had similar motivations for doing the walk. We’d both done K2K in a day in recent years and had loved the ridge walking but wanted to redo it with more time to appreciate the views. The others hadn’t done the full route so were just wanting to experience it for the first time. We’d all been as far as Cloudmaker before so I wasn’t too upset about the cloud since we’d seen those views before. My dreams of having lunch in the sun near Mt Moorilla Maroo taking in rarely seen views was not to be. With the cloud still very low we settled on lunch at Dex Creek. Our spirits were buoyed when we saw glimpses of blue sky in the direction we were heading – the cloud was lifting! We were so cold though that most of the party was packed and ready to go before Jo had even finished eating her lunch.

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Lunch at Dex Creek

Sadly the lifted cloud didn’t last long and we were soon back walking in the midst of it. The navigation between Dex Creek and Mt Amarina was surprisingly straight-forward. The foot pad was pretty clear to follow other than one spot near the Eastern end of the Cloudmaker summit ridge. Possibly everything being wet made it easier to see on the ground.

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Pretending we can see anything

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Atmospheric ridge walking

By the time we got to Mt Strongleg we were no longer walking in mist so we had a break to take in some views. Then it was the steep descent down to Kanangra Creek. Reports from the previous week had said there was no flow in the lower section of the creek. We deliberately aimed off on the spur to the NW at the bottom so we’d hit the creek high up where it was more likely to be flowing.

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Taking a break before descending Strongleg

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The cloud started lifting as we descended

We hadn’t needed to worry – Kanangra Creek was flowing strong and clearly right until the junction with the Coxs River. I was quite surprised, as while there had been a bit of rain in the previous week and a dump the night before, the creek gave no indication it had been dry only a few days earlier.

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The trials of being chased by the bushwalking paparazzi

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Well-equipped camp at Konangaroo Clearing

The other reason I’d wanted to do this route was to camp at Konangaroo Clearing which I hadn’t done before. It’s a very large space but fairly undulating so a few people took a while to find the right spot for their tent.

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Sunday morning at camp

We got away from camp at 8am on Sunday with crossings of Kanangra Creek and Coxs River to immediately challenge us.

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The crystal clear water of Kanangra Creek meets the murky Coxs River

Unusually for me I went for a crossing with shoes on as the Coxs was murky and knee high at the deepest. I’d spent all of the previous day with wet feet so I figured my socks and shoes were already damp. Half the party gamely went for the bare foot option.

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Crossing the Coxs River

1.5 hours later we were all at the top of Mt Yellow Dog happy to see the sun and feel a bit of breeze. The large cairn which had existed there last year was no more.

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Jo on Mt Yellow Dog

From Mt Yellow Dog the route was straight-forward if becoming more painful by the kilometre. A day and a half of wet feet wasn’t doing my feet any good and I was looking forward to lunch and a chance to dry them off.

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“only” 15km to go

We decided we needed some views for lunch since we’d been so deprived the previous day. So we had a late-ish lunch above Tarros Ladders. Everyone handled the ladders well – even the one party member who didn’t like exposure and didn’t realise he had to climb spikes until I mentioned it at morning tea…

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Jo on Tarros Ladders

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Jo & Jon with our route stretching out beyond them

I should have done something with my feet after lunch but didn’t so the Narrow Neck fire trail bash was not the most fun I’d ever had. Final count was a bleeding left heel, blisters under 3 toes and weird blotchy swollen ankles. I was in a much better shape after K2K in a day! Nonetheless we all survived and had a good time despite the weather.

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Geoff, Rachel, Yoon, Jo, Jon, Michael

Tom came down to meet us as due to a traffic snarl in the Harbour Tunnel on Friday night we hadn’t managed to get two cars out to the locked gate. We were happy to get into the packet of chips he produced! Then we reconvened at the pub in Katoomba for a celebratory beverage and some well deserved food. We were an amusing (?) site leaving the pub as we hobbled in our various ways back to the cars. A fun weekend but I think I’ll be doing a bit more training before my next K2K endeavour!

Embracing the wind! (19 Aug 2018)

While we’ve been living in Blackheath it was been very windy a surprising number of weekends. Our general approach has been to try and find walks to do on Eastern facing slopes but none of the things on my to-do list met that criteria. So we bit the bullet and headed off to explore Blackmans Crown.

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Rock Arch

The exploring of the outcrop was definitely made more exciting by the very strong gusts of wind. Having to pause half way through a somewhat delicate move while the next 50km/h blast passed made things a bit nervy.

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Narrow sidling

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Is that the way?

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Almost at the summit

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Tom’s lying down in this shot because it was too dangerous to stand up with the wind gusts!

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Lovely views

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Is he going to fit?

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Or is he stuck?!

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Quick trip to Utah 🙂

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And now what?

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Then we went looking for a cave in the snow

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Results of several snow showers

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Another snow shower

 

Lower Zambezi – Zambia Part III (5-10 Aug 2018)

After a few days at my school reunion (Part II) we were ready for the next part of our trip. We left Mkushi early on Sunday morning to drive to Kariba. We had a much better trip to Lusaka compared to the way up – a lot less traffic as we were earlier in the day. We had lunch at one of the big malls in Lusaka – they were very impressive – you could have been anywhere in the world!

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Lunch stop in one of the several large malls in Lusaka

Then we still had a few hours drive to the border post at Kariba Dam. The border formalities went relatively smoothly. As we were taking our hire car across the border there was a bit more paperwork. Everything I’d read on the internet had led me to believe we were going to be hit with large ‘taxes’ for taking the car into Zimbabwe but only US$20 poorer we were across – I’m not complaining! We finally got to where we were staying about 5pm – so an 11 hour day of travel. We got to enjoy sunset on the edge of Lake Kariba for a bit but then we needed to sort out our gear as we were starting our canoe safari early the next morning.

The canoe safari ended up being just me, Tom and 3 guides; Norman, KK and Thomas! (Thomas was a trainee, normally it’s just 2 guides to a trip with up to 8 clients). We started off with a shopping trip for any additional beverages we wanted and then we had a few hours drive to Chirundu.

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About to leave Kariba Town

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Looking down the Zambezi escarpment – very hazy due to seasonal burn-off

Just as we were about to start heading down the Zambezi escarpment one of the guides got the driver to pull over. It seemed the bearings on one of the wheels on the trailer had gone. After a bit of chat the driver and guides decided we’d just keep going. We made it to Chirundu safely though the wheel looked a little worse for wear!

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The wheel with the broken bearings in Chirundu

We had lunch on the riverbank while the canoes and gear got sorted out. KK found us some Baobab fruit to sample. They were quite nice.

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Baobab fruit – quite tart but tasty

With the guide to client ratio as it was Tom & I both got to go in a canoe with a guide which made things pretty relaxing as all we needed to do was paddle (sometimes) and they did all the steering. Norman told us he normally tries to split couples up in the canoes otherwise they tend to not enjoy the trip.

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Riverside scenery – luxury lodges and elephants!

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Photographer, baobab, fish eagle (in the tree) = match made in heaven

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Idyllic river paddling

The first day was fairly hard for non-conditioned paddlers like us. We did 4 hours in the canoes without stopping (~25km) so by the time we pulled into our island for the night our bottoms were pretty sore. I was beginning to wonder if I’d got in over my head!

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African sunset – camp night 1

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KK cooks up pork chops on night 1

I was more relaxed when I realised we’d done almost a third of the distance on the first day. Day 2 was another 25km day – but done over 3 stints so more chances to stretch out. We started the day with hot drinks and biscuits.

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Some serious wind shielding for the kettle!

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The hippos were always lurking

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River-level views were pretty good

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Elephant and cattle egret

We had breakfast after a couple of hours of paddling, then lunch a bit later. Hippos were ever present so the guides were always on alert to make sure we took the best route around them. Our lunch spot was down a side channel, and there was a large pod of hippos on the shore next to where we needed to go. Hippos want to be in deep-ish water when feeling threatened so a bit of slapping the paddles on the water got them all moving.

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We’re aiming for the tree on the right… just go to get the hippos out of the way first!

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And they’re off! including all the birds off their backs

As soon as they were in the water we zipped through the side channel entrance that had been full of hippos only moments before. We had lunch and a long break in the heat of the day before our final stint of paddling for the day to camp.

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Sunset – day 2

As we’d done half the paddling in the first two days the third day was fairly relaxed. We followed the pattern of the previous day but drifting more and paddling less.

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Morning tea stop day 3

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Sunset – day 3

The final day was only 8km so we covered that in about an hour. Then there were trailers to load at Mana Pools, more National Parks paperwork and then a long drive back to Kariba.

(If I was planning this trip again, knowing what I know now, I would have looked at a provider on the Zambia side as it would have saved us both driving time and border crossing time and expense. That is in no way meant to reflect poorly on the company we went with – more that we probably could have saved ourself a day or maybe more of driving.)

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And before we know it that’s the end

The drive out of Mana Pools was made unpleasant by the presence of Tsetse Flies which have a fairly painful bite. And similar to the March Flies in Australia they need to be well and truly squished to kill them. We were all pretty glad once we were back on the escarpment without them.

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Lunch stop on our way back to Kariba

Once back in Kariba we had border formalities to go back to Zambia (Siavonga). I thought maybe all these ‘taxes’ were going to come on the way out – but other than a K20 (A$2.70) road toll we got through unscathed.

Our original accommodation provider couldn’t take us so other arrangements had been made on the Southern Belle – a moored houseboat on Lake Kariba. Probably an upgrade from what I’d booked!

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The Southern Belle

For a while it appeared we might have the entire boat to ourselves, but there was another group of 4 guests. Of which 2 turned out to be the parents of one of my school friends who I hadn’t seen since 1994! Such a small world.

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Southern Belle relaxing

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Southern Belle lounge room

From Siavonga it was back to Lusaka. And primarily for the location north of the airport we stayed at a small ‘game park’ just out of town. Having done ‘proper’ safaris in Namibia and Botswana this wasn’t particularly exciting though they did have some gorgeous cheetahs.

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Tom’s found a friend

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Just a yawn right?

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Rachel’s found one too

Of course when we got on the plane there was an article in the in-flight magazine about how these sorts of animal interaction experiences should be avoided due the exploitation of the animals, unhealthy breeding industry which it promoted etc. I’d like to think the story we got told was true – that the cheetahs had been found as orphans – they’d been at the property 6 years. I would’ve been happy just to watch them as we haven’t seen any cheetahs in the wild during our African adventuring, but as evidenced below we got quite a lot of interaction.

And thus ended our Zambian adventure.

Mt Mumpu – The Return – Zambia Part I (30 Jul – 1 Aug 2018)

The last time I was in Zambia was 1996. A lot has changed since then! For one I am 22 years older. Another, I am now an adult. This was one of the more stressful trips I’ve organised – information on the internet isn’t as easy to come by but more importantly my trust that things I had booked would work out was low.

The internet was full of death-inducing dangers of driving in Zambia. There’s not a big car hire industry in Zambia and I had booked with a relatively unknown (at least by internet recommendations) company. We arrived into Lusaka early on our flight from Johannesburg, having left home some 20 hours earlier. Reaching the front of the queue at immigration we were informed we needed to be at the desk next door. So we duly shuffled across, upon reaching the front of that queue we were told we needed to be in the queue next door. What? We’ve just come from there? Turns out there was a little window we’d missed where KAZA visas are issued. Eventually being served from that window, the lady then battled with the password for the special laptop, the printer, the print alignment etc. Forty-five minutes later we both had KAZA visas, and the luggage was only just out so no time really lost. Our car hire man was there, and we were whisked away to a dark, deserted car park (it was 9:30pm by this stage) to collect the car. It was a full 4WD Toyota Prado rather than the ‘medium SUV’ I’d booked. Bonus. It felt like the classic set up for a mugging. I was pulling out my credit card, licence, passport while Tom was being dragged around to inspect the car in the dark.  We survived the dark car park and soon I was driving to our accommodation for the night. That was all pretty straight-forward as well.

The next morning we had breakfast and then headed to East Park Mall to do some shopping. I was impressed by the mall. Unfortunately because it was Sunday most of the shops didn’t open until 10am, so we couldn’t get away until after then. The camping store I’d hoped to get a gas canister from had one sort with the screw (EN417) attachment but it wasn’t quite the type we’re used to. With no choice we hoped it would work. We picked up a local SIM card as well as some groceries and fuelling up the car. Tom took the first leg of the driving which wasn’t much fun as we had to firstly get out of Lusaka and then once on the main road there were numerous trucks going at variable speeds. It made overtaking a much more challenging experience due to the large variety of speeds being done, by the vehicles in front, the vehicles approaching on the other side of the road and the vehicles racing up behind you that were game to overtake multiple cars/trucks at a time. On the plus side the road was in much better condition than I was expecting with very few potholes.

Not finding anywhere suitable to stop for lunch Tom ended up doing over 4 hours straight driving, and lunch was eaten while we were driving. It was with great relief we finally got to my old school friend Nicky’s farm in Mkushi. I last saw Nicky in NZ when we were both 19 and we did a 2 week road trip around the South Island. A lot has changed since then! We had a lovely evening outside around the fire with Nicky & family (husband, 4 kids, 2 fur children) before crashing out. The next morning Nicky’s Mum & Dad & sister popped by – it was great to see them, as they had been wonderful hosts to me for several weeks in the summer of 1996/97.

Next stop was Ndubaluba to get a map for our Mt Mumpu mission. Abe gave us a map and the loan of a water filter, but the most complex thing seemed to be the driving directions! We hoped we had all we needed before hitting the road for Kundalila Falls. Despite suggestions we should pretend to be locals to get the cheaper fees I couldn’t bring myself to outright lie when asked what country we were from. So K150 each later we had our invoice – only 6 times the local rate! We wandered around to the look-out of the falls, then headed down to the bottom. The base of the falls was in the shade and despite being a bit sweaty by the time we got down there was no real temptation to go for a swim. Tom spent a while photo-faffing before we headed back up.

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The photographer at work at Kundalila Falls

At the top the campsite was pumping! We had been warned that there was an Ndubs group there, so it wasn’t hard for me to pick out Mr Thompson (my ex-Geography teacher, now head of the outdoor centre). We had a most enjoyable evening with Mr T, and the Banani school group – including their presentations of Super Supper. It was our coldest night though – was very glad of my warm sleeping bag that I almost hadn’t packed.

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Kundalila Falls

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Views from the Kundalila Falls viewing area

After visiting the view point again in the morning, and with final tips from Mr T on Mumpu we hit the road. We made good time to Mkushi, but then it was a very slow drive out to Changwena Falls. We had a mud map of the route but we weren’t super confident in it. The key direction was to turn right at the Upper Lunsemfwa Primary School sign… we got to a sign, I thought I could make out the lettering so we turned. The road was increasingly sketchy and we were both desperately hoping we were going the right way because it wasn’t going to be much fun having to drive back out with no reward.

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The sign!

Eventually we became confident we were on the right road. We found the other turn-off with the bits of tape on the tree and soon we were at Changwena Falls along with the crowds. We had also been warned that a Duke of Ed Group would be finishing up there, so we weren’t surprised. What we were surprised at was the annoying bitey flies (bees?) that were everywhere, including in your ears and eyes and nose. That made our decision on whether to walk to the base that afternoon pretty easy – anything to get away from the insects! We scored a colour map from Josh, to replace the B&W one we’d been given by Abe, and then we were off.

What we would call a fire trail had been established to a base camp below Mt Mumpu so it was easy walking in the late afternoon.

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The firetrail to the base of Mt Mumpu

We passed a burn-off along the road on our way. Unfortunately one of the last things Mr T had warned us about was the possibility of fires and the danger to the car. While I wasn’t concerned it meant Tom had a sleepless night worrying about it.

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Seasonal burn-off next to the fire trail

After some quick photos of the mountain in the sunset light we got camp sorted. Our gas canister had been a dud as our stove wouldn’t screw into it far enough to release gas, so it had been ditched and we were back to cooking on the fire. It was a super windy night which didn’t help our sleep.

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Camp below Mt Mumpu (if you look carefully you can see the cave)

Tom was so worried about the car and out of control grass fires he wanted to bail straight back to the car. I was having none of it. So shortly after 7:30am we left camp on our way up Mt Mumpu. It looked exactly like the photos from 1994 🙂

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On our way to Mt Mumpu

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Starting to get steep

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The mouth of the cave

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A bit of scrambling keeps things interesting

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Bat guano. Mmmm.

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More scrambling in the cave

The section up through the cave was trickier than I was expecting. But then I realised most of my memories from the 1994 trip were just based on the photos and video. There was quite a lot of scrambling, a bit of pack passing and some grunting from Tom as we squeezed through a couple of the smaller holes.

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In the cave in 1994

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I can see the light!

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Looking back through the dark section

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Tom emerging from the dark, squeezy section

Once through it wasn’t quite over, we had to find our way out on to the ridge, disturbing some baboons who were quite vocal in their displeasure but soon headed off.

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Taking in the views

There was still a bit of work to be done to get to the summit. We arrived at 9:30am – 2 hours after leaving camp.

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The trig has been pushed over, with a cross in place at the summit now

I was hoping to somehow recreate the summit shot from 1994 but the Trig which had existed then has been pushed over hit by lightning.

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The 1994 summit party (I’m in the middle in the red/white striped top)

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The 2018 version – standing on the original trig spot

We enjoyed the views for a while before heading off the other side.

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Tom with views of the Irumi Hills behind

We picked our way down another ridge and found the walking similar to The Kimberley region in Australia. Spinifex-like grass which was slow-going at times, or fast if it had been burnt out.

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Easy walking through some of the burnt out areas

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Enjoying lunch in the shade

Other than deciding to go through a swamp for about 200m at the bottom of the ridge we descended the walking was very pleasant. We picked up the fire trail we’d come in on a bit further along and were back at, a now empty, campsite by 2:30pm.

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Back on the fire trail

We hadn’t actually been down to the Falls when we’d arrived the previous day. I didn’t really remember them, other than in 1994 I knew we’d swum there. They are stunning. Again we could have been in The Kimberley. We had a good wash, though didn’t stay in too long as the water was brisk. Unfortunately the annoying flies found us and eventually I beat a retreat to the tent.

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Enjoying a well-earned swim at Changwena Falls

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Tom ‘posing’…

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Some of the 1994 contingent enjoying Changwena Falls

We had a pleasant night around the campfire. I was surprised at the amount of rubbish that has been left around camp – Mr Solomon would have had our heads! I cleaned up most of the toilet paper and foil in the fire, but don’t think I got to everything.

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Camping at Changwena Falls

On the drive out we discovered the back of the sign was very clearly lettered! So if driving out there and in doubt – have a look at the back!

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The back of the sign

A fun trip, though going up the cave was a bit harder than I was expecting – quite impressed by my 14-year old self!

 

See the later part of the trip here: Lower Zambezi

Avoiding the wind! (7-8 July 2018)

With Friday off work I was keen to make use of my three day weekend however I didn’t get any takers for a full three days of activities. On Friday afternoon we hatched a plan with Toni & Smiffy to go out to Red Rocks for the weekend. I was all packed to go and then Tom & I headed into Blackheath about 6pm. Two minutes out of the car to go to the grocery store had me doubting the sense in our plan! The wind was bitterly cold, I think the BOM had the apparent temperature at -5°C and that was only the early evening. I’m not sure how much convincing Toni & Smiffy needed but it didn’t take that long to get agreement via text message to convert plans into day trips.

I’d been wanting to do Orang-Utan Pass for a while but Tom had been resisting my suggestions. It seemed like a good option for the day as it was on the East side of the ridge keeping us out of the 50-60km/h westerly wind. Unfortunately Toni’s gaiters ended up at our house instead of in the car so she bravely forged on with bare legs despite knowing we were likely to encounter a fair bit of lawyer vine. I didn’t take a heap of photos as the bulk of the day was either bush-bashing or else on the Grose Valley track to Perrys Lookdown which we’d walked several times recently.

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Smiffy photographing Tom crossing the crux of the route

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Tom carefully easing his way across the small ledge

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The logbook. A bit more traffic in 2018 compared to previous years (average seemed to be about 1 trip per year since it was placed in 1990)

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There was still plenty of route-finding to come

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Toni at the one spot we used the tape

We were happy to get back to the house and get the fire roaring. Sparkling red, cheese, and later on a delicious chocolate mud cake made for a pleasant evening inside out of the wind.

The next day the incentives for getting moving weren’t high as we could hear the wind buffeting the house. Eventually we settled on Jugglers Canyon since Toni hadn’t done it, and Tom thought it would be out of the wind.

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Toni on abseil

For the record Juggler still gets plenty of wind.

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The snaparazzi!

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Toni abseiling

We took a different route out from our usual one. I was quite surprised to find some handrails!

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Tom handrailing 🙂

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Toni coming up the handrail section

Since we’d started quite late it was unsurprising that it was well and truly lunchtime by the time we got back to the cars. We had lunch in Katoomba, the enthusiasm for post-lunch activities was limited so we called it a weekend at that. A satisfying one despite the bout of softitis that kept us inside overnight 🙂

Colliers Causeway (15 July 2018)

With overnight lows forecast of -5°C it wasn’t surprising there was quite a lot of ice about when I walked the Porters Pass – Colliers Causeway – Centennial Glen Creek track!

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Roadside frost

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Centennial Glen Creek

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The Grotto

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Icy winter wonderland

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Ice antlers

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Ice bubbles

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Icicles

 

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