Rachel Grindlay

Another weekend, another SBW trip. Wow. I love them, but organising 2 overnight, relatively rugged trips, in the space of 3 weekends is hard work. I’d been to Ettrema two previous times, in 2007 – the first multi-day bushwalk I’d organised without Tom, and in 2010 – the first time I’d met our now good friend Rich. The two previous trips had followed the same route – down Myall Creek, along Ettrema Gorge and up Transportation Spur. This time I’d planned a different route. Despite advertising the trip as ‘largely exploratory for leader’ (apparently a definite turn-off for many in our club) and ‘Walkers must be proficient scramblers, with a head for heights’ I’d had quite a of interest. Numbers had settled at 7, which is probably as big as you’d want given the relative paucity of campsites.

Saturday started rather disastrously as my car ran out of petrol on the Hume somewhat short of our meeting point at Sutton Forrest. Oops. Eternal thanks to the other car who bought a jerry and drove it back to us, and to Tom for taking his life into his hands to fill up on the edge of the Hume with about 30cm separating him from the traffic hurtling past. With that little hiccup ironed out we were only running an hour later than scheduled. We started walking shortly after 11am. The leader demonstrated her inability to navigate and converse, by marching off down the road in full conversation, while her husband kindly pointed out we were meant to be in the bush…. Aaah. The joys of being leader.

We had a bit of scrub to deal with, and we overshot the side creek we were trying to get in by, but it didn’t take too long before we were in Bullfrog Creek. I was pleased that there were pools of water even in the upper reaches. I had been hoping for lunch by a swimming hole but settled for shade and a shallow pool.

There was a bit of scrambling and the handline came out for one drop before we made it to Ettrema Gorge. Nerriga topped out at 39.9°C about the time we hit Ettrema so it was no surprise that the first semi-decent pool we got to had everyone in it!

From there we made our way down the creek, scrambling, swimming or jumping as seemed fit.

We had seen another car near the entrance to Bullfrog but we were hoping the occupants weren’t going to be at our intended campsite. We got to Isoceles Pool on a bend which I recognised from one of Tom’s trips. I got the thumbs down from Alex which I was surprised at as he had been depth testing the water and it looked good for jumping… but then I realised it was because he had seen people.

But I recognised the first person I saw, we’d met at the SBW Christmas party. I knew another SBW group had planned to be in Ettrema over the long weekend, but they weren’t meant to be here today. Given the weather it didn’t surprise me that they weren’t at their intended campsite on the tops.

Fortunately the campsite was large enough to accommodate both groups and we had a lively time around the non-existent camp fire (park fire ban and besides with the weather…). To the bemusement of the longer-term members in the other party Alex pulled out the SBW Song Book from many years ago and proceeded to provide some entertainment. Thunder and lightning rolled around for quite a while lighting up the night. Most of us had gone to bed when it started raining quite heavily. Much relief that the flies had all been put on tents!

My group was meant to set off at 9am but I knew we were unlikely to hit that when I only looked at my phone at 7:50am. I couldn’t believe we’d slept so late – probably in part due to the overcast sky. Eventually we got away about 9:20am. It wasn’t long before the first jumping opportunity…

It was a lovely relaxing day. Rock-hopping, interspersed with swims (and jumps), and with an unambitious schedule there was no particular hurry.

I had floated the idea of heading down to Jones Creek that afternoon, before walking out via Myall Creek the next day. However, there was vocal support for camping at Myall Creek, and none for Jones so we stayed at Myall. There was a bit of scratching around for enough sites for everyone but I think we were all accommodated reasonably in the end. We had an excursion up Myall Creek to the swimming hole to fill the afternoon. I soon regretted it as, of course, then the questions started about how we were exiting the next day. “no, we’re not climbing the face of the waterfall” “yes, we are going to traverse across to the top of it” “no, you’re not going to die”…. Hopefully the distractions of many jumps took the focus away…?

Tom climbing up to the top of the waterfall to potentially jump didn’t make anyone less nervous as he made it look precarious. He had a photo from his 2000 trip of one of the guys jumping from the top. I did remind him that they were a lot younger and more foolish then, and I don’t think anyone was too unhappy (except Alex) when Tom decided to return the way he’d come.

Happy hour conversation was dominated by discussion of hyperbolic parabaloids (thanks to the ‘stacked flavoured chips’ aka pringles knock-offs that I’d brought). Then more song book entertainment. Eventually we banned the song book for the rest of the evening. I hope the other party enjoyed the half of the song book Alex had left for them at their intended campsite.

Day 3 dawned grey with a little rain. Not the ideal conditions for our traverse above the “pool of impending doom”. Fortunately the rain didn’t last and the rock was pretty dry by the time we got there. I quickly scooted over and dumped my pack and came back to offer assistance to those who wanted it. I was pretty happy when we were all across, except Alex who we’d left at camp still making tea. When he arrived and asked what we were doing about pack-hauling I could happily say we were already sorted.

The ascent of Myall Creek was a pleasant combination of rock-hopping, slab climbing and the occasional trickier section.

Despite having swims and several breaks we made good time. We had lunch in a side creek before the final ascent on to the tops, through the mandatory section of scrub, and then back to the car. A great way to spend a hot weekend.

 

Another weekend, another SBW trip… NSW got a brief respite from a week-long heatwave so we only had a warm weekend (high 20s?) rather than a very hot one (mid 30s). Regardless we were in the right place for cooling down, a creek with water albeit not as much water as the previous time the leader visited. Initially the creek was fairly easy going with a few pools and easily negotiated drops.

After a late morning tea (11:30am) we had to leave the creek to get around a larger drop. There was lots of traversing loose slopes, some scree slope descents and some hand-lining. By the time we all got back into the creek (1pm) it was time for lunch!

After lunch we were able to stay in the creek, with various scrambling descents. I managed to keep my pack dry all day. Most of the others didn’t bother (in one case probably with regret!).

At some point a grass tree stem was acquired and it provided a focus for charades. Many uses were identified for it from broomstick to boom mic to butter churner. Amazing how many hours of entertainment one burnt stem can give.

We got to camp around 4pm. Our leader was lagging behind a little. Turns out he’d not shut one of his dry bags properly and had been carrying an extra few litres of water in the dry bag. Oops. At least his food was in a different dry bag.

Most of us took to the very warm water and stayed in for a while. Alex decided he needed some flotation, so took his bag in and happily floated around on it for quite a long time… Funnily enough when your food is just in a grocery bag submerging it in water for hours is probably not the best way to keep it dry.

The next morning we made good time along the Shoalhaven soon reaching the compulsory swim.

Then it was into another creek, which was narrower than the previous day. Lots of scrambling ensued, including a couple of drops where we needed to use the hand line (thanks Alex for getting up without it).

It was some of my favourite sort of terrain; lots of choices and problem-solving to determine how you were going to get up the various drops.

We got to lunch at a waterfall which we apparently couldn’t get up. There was a scree slope on the true right, and a dirt bank on the true left. Neither looked great to me. Paul went off bashing up the left to investigate. After what seemed like hours later both him and Alex (who had gone right) were at the top of the waterfall. At which point Alex easily scrambled down it and we all then went up it…

Only to then encounter a much larger waterfall!

This time we did scramble out. It was more delightful loose slopes and rocks. We got so high above the creek that Paul decided we’d just go up to the ridge and traverse rather than do any more scrambling.

A couple of hours of easy walking had us back at the cars at 4pm.

The drama for the day wasn’t over though! Paul couldn’t find his car key. His pack was emptied and searched, and searched again. Just as he was about to give up hope the key was located in his billy. Phew!

A great weekend in the bush.

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)

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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…

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.

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!

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.

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.