The Upper Grose - where no-one goes!

And now I know why!

Our attempted traverse of 5km of the wild upper reaches of the Blue Mountains' Grose River the other day was probably doomed from the outset. We probably should have started at daybreak, and should have done it when there were a few more hours of evening daylight on offer.




In the end we had a very close call with a possibly very uncomfortable benighting. And it was one of the most arduous day walks any of us remember doing. Progress down the river was slow and difficult. The rocks were super-slippery, and massive boulders and frequent waterfalls made exhausting bush excursions necessary. No trace was found of the legendary Engineers Track, which was once there, and would have assisted greatly.









With three hours of daylight remaining, and more than half of the river section still to do, a heroic decision was made to gamble on finding a shortcut out of the place. Elder statesman Harold told us of the historic mine site up above, just at the bottom of the cliff line, and with a good walking track out through the cliffs above. We just needed to make it there by 6pm nightfall.

That's when it got really interesting! The scramble up through the bush was horrendous. Really steep, riddled with monstrous thorny 'lawyer vines' trying to cut us to bits, and it took about two hours to get up to the cliffs. Then we progressed along the relatively level last few hundred metres, knowing that at any moment we could encounter impassable ledges that would stop us in our tracks.

Indeed there were some last minute obstacles that had us doubting there would be a happy ending to this adventure. Amazingly, at 6:00pm sharp, there was the mine, and our deliverance!



We walked out along the track by torchlight, and compared our scratched limbs over fish and chips at Blackheath.

Picture 5 courtesy of Meiha Cheung

And then there were four!

It was finally the big day: the 10th annual bushwalkers' 42km Marathon Walk.

I thought it was going to  be a record turnout at first. The scenic and relatively flat course produced 12 enrollments. We were walking from Circular Quay to Maroubra, via South Head and Harbourside and coastal tracks. Lots of public transport around, easy food and drink availability, interesting sights galore.

Come Sunday morning there were seven starters. Five others had become suddenly unwell, or decided hard pavement walking just wasn't for them. It was a fabulous day for walking. A break in the rains we'd been having, clear blue skies, and beautifully cool.

We took lunch in a shady spot at South Head. You can see North Head in the background of the top picture.

Soon we were at the Gap, and the anchor of the wreck, the Dunbar.

Still seven of us as we arrive at the two-thirds mark: Bondi Beach. A lot of buses pass by Bondi Beach.

And sure enough there's only four of us after that.

Unusually, it's still daylight as we arrive at the destination beach: Maroubra.



All a bit too easy really!





Photo credits to unknown kind tourists for some images

Grey Huntsman

You'll know by now that I love my creepy crawlies. This one came visiting recently. He's a Huntsman Spider. There are quite a few species of these, all big, beautiful, and completely friendly. I think this one is a Grey Huntsman (Isopeda vasta).

Green Square 2017

Green Square was just a station on the Airport Line for quite a while. But there was a plan for a magnificent new suburb with 40,000 people.

I heard that things were happening there now, so did a quick tour of inspection. There's lots more to come, but some interesting things have appeared, and a town centre is indeed taking shape, right alongside that railway station.

One's the Infinity building, said to be described by some as a doughnut, a rollercoaster, or an armchair.


And there's the public library, mostly underground, and very avant garde. I spent a while searching for the free magazines to read, before finding them upstairs, in the cafe. Which is quite logical really.


I'll head back in a year or so for another progress report.

Pulpit Rock the long way

The legendary Thursday Survey bushwalkers were out in force again recently. We were surveying a new (for most of us) route in the Mount Victoria area of the Blue Mountains.

We started along the historic Berghofers Pass track on the Mount York Road, and spent the next seven hours traversing various terrains to work our way round and back to Mount Vic, with Pulpit Rock as the official destination.

At the appropriate point we crossed the highway and headed up the safety ramp and on to Mount Victoria proper (the mountain, that is).

Looking back down on the highway we just crossed.

Terrific views and easy off-track walking, heading generally southward along the ridges. 

One of which was a fairly narrow (almost but not quite 'knife edge') ridge.

Eventually it's down onto the scenic hobby farm area around Blackheath Creek. Then along the road for a while, and into the bush and up the Little Zig Zag Track, heading north again.













And on to pulpit rock. A great day out!

Image credit: Freda Moxom

Crossing the bridge on renewables

Otherwise known as 'Let's vote out Gladys and her troglodyte government'. It's State Election time this Saturday, and as your fearless correspondent is a staunch supporter of renewable energy and a member of Solar Citizens, he was happy to participate in a fun little piece of electioneering on the Nepean River at Penrith the other day. See here: Crossing the bridge on renewables

The great ice cream riot

The  schoolkids' climate strike was over. They'd rallied at Town Hall, marched to Hyde Park. Every one of them had behaved impeccably. Now they were dispersing. Some spotted the ice cream van parked there in Elizabeth Street. The vendor turned out to be onside with the students and their cause, and was giving away free ice cream!  Even so, it was all orderly and well-behaved.

And there was the Riot Squad parked over the road. (Just in case!)