20 years of no lilo

I was reminded the other day that I've been in Sydney for 20 years now. This was by way of a bushwalking trip down to the start of the Wollangambe Canyon at Mt Wilson in the Blue Mountains.

It was the same trip I'd done shortly after arriving here in early 1998. The really cool thing to do here is to take a lilo down to the river, and float down through the canyon for a few kilometres, then exit via another track.

On another occasion I'd set off  to do the lilo trip, but been talked out of it because of cool and inclement weather. It tends to be a bit cold in the water, even on hot summer days.

Anyway, a a nice little visit was had once again. The scenery is excellent. It's not a huge walk, but you do go down and up a few hundred metres, and some of my fellow walkers were somewhat tested on the uphill journey.

The start of the canyon proper.

Gooches Crater

Gooches Crater is a classic old favourite Blue Mountains bushwalk. It's a pleasant two or three hours in along the ridge tops north of Bell.

You start at the spot on Sandham Road just beyond the now unwelcoming private property that we used to be able to walk across. You sidle across to the east a few hundred metres, then join the good old main ridge track northwards.

After crossing the Wollangambe River (probably on a big fallen tree trunk), you clamber up again, and do a couple more kilometres northwards along another ridge. The tracks have become much harder to find, in the aftermath of the massive bushfire here three years ago (described here: 2013 adventure ) and under my expedition leadership, we wandered around a bit more than I'd hoped, before eventually finding our way into the Crater through the maze of hills and pagodas and ridges. It's not really a crater. It just looks like one.






















After lunch among the flannel flowers, we explored some nearby rock features, and then pioneered another route back, via Friday Canyon (as named by us on a previous expedition, pictured here), and Dargan Arch.











Another nice day out for the Thursday Surveyors!