JOURNAL
JOURNAL
WILD BLUE MOUNTAINS
NAVIGATION COURSE TO DO 25 June 2023 After a day going through the theory, it was time to practice. Six teams of four went different ways and spent the day learning the finer points of navigation on Kings Tableland plateau. Although a windy day, it was so nice being outside!
KAMARAH RIDGE – CANYON COLLIERY 21 June 2023 A layer of frost was covering the landscape when we started walking along Kamarah Ridge. The sun melted the thin layer of frost; however in the shade, danger was lurking! As soon as Bill warned me that the rocks were slippery with ice, my feet parted company with the ground… Eventually I made it gingerly to the end of what I call “Kamarah Finger” with no further encounters with the ground. The […]
BROWNE’S PATH 15 June 2023 Brownes Path is another pass into the Grose Valley. It is named after Kevin Browne, the first Ranger appointed to the National Park and a former Group Captain for the Blue Mountains Rural Fire Brigades. Presumably he was using it to access the Grose Valley. Off we went along Bald Head Ridge which never fails to deliver on views! First stop was Bennett Lookout, a large rocky outcrop overlooking the Grose Valley. After taking in […]
CASTLE HEAD ABSEIL 10 June 2023 I had waited for the vegetation to regrow and rocks to fall down after the bushfires and heavy rains before contemplating abseiling Castle Head. When the club put it on the program, I took the chance! I was pleasantly surprised to see how the vegetation had reclaimed the area. The six abseils are not difficult but getting to some of them can be delicate due to the exposure: the fire-damaged small trees are not […]
A NICE GULLY 7 June 2023 This was a last minute trip to explore a gully in the Blue Mountains. A ledge and a hand line led us down to a gully which sheltered a nice rainforest. After exploring the gully and its mostly dry waterfalls we made our way downstream until we were stopped by a pool of water which, sensibly, none of us wanted to cross – this will be a summer project. We found an exit up […]
KEDUMBA WALLS NORTH HR 3 June 2023 The call came on Wednesday: RFS crews were needed to assist National Parks with a hazard reduction (HR) at Chester Road on Kings Tableland. The weather looked promising: light winds and no rain… Crews from RFS, Parks and Fire and Rescue arrived at the staging area. The briefing was finished by 09:00, the yummy Blackheath Deli sandwiches dispatched, and we were in our sector waiting for the burn to start. In the meantime, […]
JUGGLERS CANYON 2 June 2023 Kevin was in the mood for a canyon! I was in the mood for something dry: Jugglers Canyon fitted the bill! We drove on Pilcher Point Fire Trail to find the gate closed at the airfield! A quick check on the National Parks website: cars were not welcome but humans were! So we walked to the head of the Jugglers track. We were soon at the first (optional) abseil near the waterfall. Kevin indulged me […]
GUZZLERS ARCH 31 May 2023 Bill and John had tried to find the arch previously and ended up benighted by the vegetation. Armed with a 6-figure reference for Guzzlers Arch, we set off to Deep Pass. After climbing on the ridge on the other side of Deep Pass, the group organically split in two: one wisely followed a track, the other – of which I was – contoured the hill, the rationale was to follow a cliff line and have […]
THE ENGINEERS TRACK 24 May 2023 This was a spur-of-the-moment walk. Chris had never walked the Engineers Track so we obliged! After some kerfuffling, we finally found the track. It had been 18 months since I had last been there and the vegetation was doing its thing: growing! The track was in good enough nick but towards the Grose River it was anything but as Mother Nature was reclaiming what was hers!During the compulsory tea break we considered our options. […]
MGA NORTH 22 May 2022 MGA NORTH I came across this term last week when someone mentioned MGA North during an instructor training course. MGA stands for Map Grid of Australia. It is a projected coordinate system using a Transverse Mercator projection with zones 6 degrees wide and based on the Geocentric Datum of Australia (GDA). The projected coordinate system associated with GDA94 is the Map Grid of Australia 1994 (MGA94). While the map projection associated with GDA2020 is the […]
