Geronimo Canyon (video)

 Geronimo canyon with Wollemi wanderers. I made a video since I dropped my phone in the last section of the canyon and lost all my photos. The trip was amazing though and the water was so cool. Couldn't join Horseshoe canyon the next day.

 

Taffy's rock

 

Dates: 17/10/2020

Participants: SUBW and me

The day didn't start well as the train didn't stop at Cowan station - where I was supposed to stop to meet the trip leader, Aidan. However, he picked me up at Hawkesbury river station, we had to catch up with John and the rest of our group as they already began walking to Jerusalem bay, part of the Great North Walk.

From Cowan Station, we walked to Jerusalem bay, which I already walked for my first solo walking trip. 

 

The scenery hadn't changed much since then. The only thing was, flowers were blooming and this brought a new perspective of the national park to me! 

We quickly regrouped with John and the rest at the bay. I followed John down to the water and John thought that he spotted a snake but it turned out to be an abandoned hat!

After a quick break, we continued our way along the Great North Walk. We got up from the bay to the path that would lead to Brooklyn Dam. 

However, instead of following that path, we walked into the bush along a fainter track. 

Along the way, there were a lot of rock piles stations, I wonder what are their usage? 

We quickly made our way to a lookout, John said that we were at the centre of the universe, awesome! 

 

We found a group of small boulders near by

After that, we arrived at another lookout, this time to Taffy's rock, where a group picture was taken, using my camera, what an honour! 

Taffy's rock located on the hill on this picture

 

Nearly there!

We arrived at Taffy's rock just right for lunchtime, I had a big egg and mayo sandwich while enjoying the view looking down to the river.

 

Taffy's rock is a rememberance for a bushwalker that had passed away. 

For me, a nice view always makes lunch tastes much better. Although the sky was cloudy, I still enjoyed a relaxing day out with the club.

 

Back to the station

Illawara Tunnels

 

Date: 10/10/2020

Participants: SUBW and me 

 

I joined Bruce on another day trip, this time we went to the Illawarra region to explore some tunnels. The group met at Central Station to catch the 8:30 train to Helensburgh. The ride from Central along the Illawarra train line has always been one of the most scenic rides along New South Wales south coast.

We took our group photo at the station and began our walk to the first tunnel - Cawley Tunnel.

According to Bruce, it is the second of the original 8 tunnels in the South Coast region train line. We crossed a rail bridge and walked along Cawley road, passing a locked gate. After walking along a track, we arrived at the tunnel entrance. The tunnel was quite damp and muddy, but it was so cool compared to the hot weather outside. We didn't use our head torch for the first tunnel as there was enough light for the short walk. Bruce also said that there were some mushroom farmers who grew mushrooms in this tunnel. 

 

 

After a short break at what seems to be like a car park, we followed another bush track to the road bridge over the train line, arriving at the second tunnel. 

From the outside, the second tunnel looked shorter than our first one, but before exploring it, we checked out the waterfall which was on the other side of the bridge over us. 

There was a family with children who were playing around the pool where the waterfall was going down beneath us. The second tunnel was wetter than the first one, we kept ourselves dry by sticking to the wall. At the end of the tunnel, there was a dam and another pool. 

 

 

We climbed up a steep short track to a bigger trail to the third tunnel. 

The third tunnel was also the Old Helensburgh tunnel. We saw a lyrebird at the end of the short tunnel! The tunnel was very dry. 

We went to our fourth tunnel - the Metropolitan tunnel, which was also the location of the old Helensburgh station, unfortunately, it was close as there was too much damage done to the glow worm population inside. After a short toilet break at Helensburgh station nearby, we went along the Hacking Fire trail and had lunch at a clearing spot. The group had to cross the Hacking river after that. For me, I chose an easier part further up, but ended up in a private property! Lucky for me the fence was open so I joined the group shortly after. 

We went straight to Otford lookout, one of the endpoints of the popular Coast track. 

After another group photo at Otford lookout, we headed to the Otford tunnel, also the longest one on this trip, about 1.5km! The path to the tunnel branched off from the road to Otford station. 

Bruce explained to us the reasons for his choice of day to did the walk. On this day, it was the centenary of the closing of the Otford tunnel to trains in 1920, the other reason was that this day was his birthday! 

The group sang him a happy birthday when we reached the end of the tunnel. It was really dark inside the tunnels, and very cool as well. It wasn't a dry tunnel either, one of the people in our group, John, spotted a few Yabbies in the stream running through the tunnel. 

We headed down to Stanwell Park Beach after the last tunnel and had a break for about half an hour before going to Stanwell Park station. 

However! There was a bushfire nearby - after checking the news I found out that it was in Kangaroo ridge! We couldn't take the train back all the way back to Central so the group had to separate and took different buses back. On the bus, I could see fire along the highway! There was a couple of people laughing at the situation who later got yelled at by another passenger on the bus. I wonder what was funny about this situation? Though, the trip had been exciting to me, a full day of exploration!

Totem Pole Walk

Date: 3/10/2020 - 5/10/2020

Participants: SUBW and me 

 

Day 1:

I went with SUBW on another trip to the Wollemi for the long weekend! Before that, I'm happy that I finished all my assignments prior to the trip! Aidan, the trip leader, offered me a lift from Richmond station so I decided to get there earlier and had breakfast at McDonald's which was next to the station!

We began walking from Newnes campground, the first quarter of the day was very easy. We walked along the fire trail which followed the Wolgan river in the Wolgan valley until we reached the Rocky creek and had lunch there. The walk was long and we didn't take any break but it was still easy because we were walking on the fire trail. We passed through the ruins walk, the ruins of the abandoned Newnes town never stop amazes me.

We found many ruins along the fire trail

The Wolgan river

A goanna trying to hiding itself among the trees

The walk was lovely 

Having lunch 

After having lunch at Rocky creek, we crossed the creek to the other side, with shoes and socks in our hands. 

We crossed the Wolgan river next, before reaching a part where the fire trail ends. 

That was also the end of the easy walking part.We took a turn and bush bashed up to make our way to our camping creek.

The bush was very thick in this area of the Wollemi, and there were a lot of Needle plants lying around as well. Along the way, when I was trying to scramble up some rocks, my pants ripped! I had to continue walking in pants that were falling apart, which annoyed me quite a bit. In this part, we also didn't take any break to make sure that we arrived at our campsite before dark. 

There were a lot of ascending and descending with rocks everywhere! 

I was actually felt quite happy when we reached a gentle part, still very dense, but had very few rocks. We walked and walked until we reached the creek. I haven't felt this tired for a long time! I also had a cut on one of my heels, maybe that's why it felt harder to walk.

We reached our campsite beside the creek just before sunset. So lucky! 

We set up our tents and quickly did a water run to fill up our bottles. For dinner, everyone gathered and we had a long chat while looking at the starry sky. I forgot about all the tiredness and the cut on my heel .

 

 

 

Day 2: 

 

Crossing the river back and forth

We started the day at 8:00 am.

 As we were gonna go back to the camp, we decided to leave our tent and packs at the campsite, bringing only small packs. We headed to the Wolgan River and began our walk to find the totem pole, the main part of our 2 days trip. 

The sun immediately hit us with its intense hit. 

We walked along the river for 2 hours before reaching what seemed to be like a large rock pile with a smaller rock attached to its sides. Aidan - the trip leader, recognised that this is the totem pole. The formation looks very interesting. We headed back after having snacks and drinks at the rock. 

Before we reached our camp, because we were right beside the river, we decided to take a dip. The water was so cool and clear, it relieved the intense hit that the sun hit us. 

I sat on a rock and dip my leg in, we also found a huge huntsman spider.

We had lunch at our campsite before packing up and going back. 

Crossing an enormous log

This time, Aidan decided to take another route back, staying beside the river instead of climbing up the ridge again. The scrub was still very thick, but this time, there were rocks! We had to cross the river back and forth a lot of time, and I scratched my knees during one of the crosses as I tried to jump to a rock. Climbing up the rock was no easy, however, I started to get used to it now. We ascended and descended back and forth as well. We also had to walk in the river for quite a bit. This is my first time walking in a river, it felt very nice. Everyone was tired and it took us 5 hours to cover 5k. Well, it is expected since this is an off-track, bush bashing walk. 

 

Found another totem pole?

We reached the end of the fire trail and hurriedly walk to our campsite for the day before it got dark. 

After all those bush bashings, the fire trail felt extremely nice, we crossed the river and creek again, reaching the campsite just before sunset again. 

We set up the tent and had dinner while talking out the shooting stars that we saw. I enjoyed moments like these a lot. 

 

Day 3 - last day: 

 

This was an easy day going back to the car park on the fire trail. We started the day a little bit earlier, taking our time to pack everything and hit the trail. 

I enjoyed the view while walking - it took us a really short time, only roughly about 3 hours back to the car. We saw an iguana on the way back as well! 

Another fun trip ended, my favourite part was walking in the Wolgan river! The water was so cool!