It had only been 4 days since my last visit to Sassafras Gully, but this was an opportunist trip, organised at the last minute with the main objective to try and photograph Clarinda and Numantia Falls.
Clarinda Falls
Both these waterfalls are not very spectacular in normal flow conditions. I had been watching the Council weather station at Springwood and it had indicated about 28 mm of rain had fallen on the previous afternoon. So I thought a trip may be worthwhile. Continue reading
I spent an enjoyable day with Digi Dave paddling around parts of the Georges River. Digi Dave had his sea kayak and I was in my packraft. Our main objective was to see how far we could paddle up Mill Creek.
We set off from a Georges River National Park picnic area just opposite Mill Creek. On the far side of the river I was pleased to spot a kingfisher sitting on a branch. Continue reading
This was another nice day of canyoning in the Blue Mountains with Bob. It was sure nice to be down a canyon on a hot summers day.
We started off abseiling into a scrubby gully and found ourselves in a beautiful ferny glade. Some more steep descending brought us to another abseil off a chockstone into a great section of canyon. Continue reading
While on the Cooks River yesterday, I took this photo –
I think it says a lot. This is about 2 km downstream of a council installed boom across part of the river that successfully collects an enormous number of plastic bottles. Why not make a submission for container deposit legislation? You can easily do so by following this link. Please do so.
What have the birds along the Cooks River been up to. I went along the cycleway on my bike and took my camera to find out. Here are some pictures –
Sassafras Gully is a very pleasant and popular place for daywalks. But at the junction of Sassafras Gully and Glenbrook Creek there is a very nice campsite, next to a large swimming hole. I had been there plenty of times but never camped there. I thought I should remedy this.
It is a short walk to the campsite. I left Springwood about 1 pm and walked down Sassafras Gully via the very good track that starts from the end of Sassafras Gully Road. I stopped and ate my lunch a short way down the track – at the ruins of an old stone structure. I don’t know what this structure was – perhaps an enclosed picnic table? Online historic records show a building called “Rest House, Sassafras Gully“. This does not have a stone base, and from the photo looks like it may have been in the upper part of Magdala Creek – perhaps at Picnic Point or Fairly Dell? Continue reading
It had been raining a fair bit recently, with a big storm the day before. Looking at the weather radar, it looked like the rain was ending, so I caught a train to Waterfall arriving not long before noon. I was hoping the creeks would be up a bit, which would be good for photography.
Waterfall near the Kingfisher Pool
What is good for photography however, is not always good for walking. A lot of the first part of the track along Heathcote Creek was quite wet. I soon arrived at the Kingfisher Pool. There are plenty of interesting cascades nearby and I spent a fair while trying to photograph them. Continue reading
Last year, I had visited been on a trip to a new canyon first descended by Tom Brennan and party. My friends Bob and Doug were keen to visit this canyon and I was happy to visit it again.
It was a hot fine day as we headed up the mountains. After parking, we headed down a fire road and then into the bush to the start of the canyon. On the way we passed a fine cluster of Large Tongue Orchids. Continue reading
It had been many years since I had visited the Powerhouse Museum, and thought it was about time see what had changed, and also to compare the museum to the huge Deutsch Museum in Munich which I spent two very full days in on a recent trip to Europe. Unfortunately there are current plans to close The Powerhouse Museum and sell the land to property developers. This is despite increased visitation.
When I was young, I was a frequent visitor to the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, the predecessor to the Powerhouse Museum and located in an old building in Harris Street, not far from the present Powerhouse Museum. The old museum had many things to interest a young person interested in science and technology, andI think my favourite exhibits there were the computer that you could challenge to play O’s and X’s and the Planetarium. I also found all the cutaway motors quite fascinating. Continue reading
Recent heavy rain in the greater Sydney area meant that a lot of the river were running high. Dan was keen to come up from Canberra for either a canyoning trip or for some packrafting. One of his suggestions was to packraft the Coxs River. It had been a while since I had been down this river so I thought it could be a good trip.
One problem was that the river gauge for the lower part of he river (Kelpie Point) was offline, so we didn’t really know the river level. The gauge on an upper part of the river at Glenroy Bridge (on the road to Jenolan Caves) indicated the river was up, but not that much. Some friends had packrafted the Grose River on the Friday, and reported quite high water levels. Continue reading
