Hole in the Wall Canyon – 30 January 2016

Dan and friends were coming up from Canberra for a weekend of canyoning. Wendy and myself joined him. The party was – Dan, Lauren, Sharon, Gabriel, Bridget, Wendy and Dave. The first canyon Dan wanted to visit was Hole in the Wall Canyon in the Wollangambe Wilderness. Dan, and the Canberra group had driven up the night before and camped near the Waratah Ridge carpark. There had been some thunderstorms that afternoon (and Wendy had had her power cut off for an hour or so). Wendy and myself joined Dan’s group on the Saturday morning at the carpark.

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I had visited Hole in the Wall Canyon not that long before, but it is a “showcase” canyon that I am always happy to visit again. Continue reading →

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Ian Brown Photographic Exhibition

An old friend, Blue Mountains based nature photographer Ian Brown, has an exhibition at Braemar at Springwood coming up soon. Should be worth a look.

Brown

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Wolli Creek – Nature Walk – 28 January 2016

I spent an enjoyable afternoon walking along Wolli Creek between Bexley North and Tempe yesterday. I was mainly on the lookout for any fungi, but I also spotted a lot of lizards and a multitude of millipedes.

Blue Tongue Lizard

Blue Tongue Lizard

It is very early in the fungi season, but there has been a lot of rain recently, so I thought it was time to check out Wolli Creek. There was a fair bit out, but most of the fungi was not that interesting – just white Amanta species (white mushrooms). Continue reading →

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Blue Mountains – Canyons and a Walk – 26-27 January 2016

Wendy had organised two days of canyoning in the Blue Mountains. Digi Dave and myself joined her. On the first day, Jan was also along. As the weather forecast was for cool and wet weather, we chose some drier canyons. As it turned out, on the second day we thought is was too cold for canyoning so we went to Medlow Bath for a walk.

The two canyons we visited on the first day were The River Caves and then Deep Pass Canyon.

The River Caves 

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We walked down the track to the top of the canyon. Once in the canyon we took our time walking through it. I think I walked down it and back up it twice – taking photos as I went. We had lunch in a nice cave at the bottom end of the canyon. Continue reading →

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Glenbrook to Grey Hat Falls Walk – 24 January 2016

I was hoping before setting out on this walk, that the water levels in Kanuka Brook would be higher than on a previous visit to Grey Hat Falls so I could obtain some better photos. Also, it was an overcast day – much better for photographing waterfalls.

Grey Hat Falls and the Crayfish Pool

Grey Hat Falls and the Crayfish Pool

So I left from Glenbrook Station, and walked to the Blue Mountains National Park entrance and down to the Causeway. Glenbrook Creek was flowing nicely but it was still easy to cross.  I then proceeded up the track up Camp Fire Creek to Red Hands Cave. Continue reading →

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Sassafras Gully – 22 January 2016

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

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 →

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Mill Creek and Georges River Paddle – 21 January 2016

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.

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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 →

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Blue Mountains Canyoning – 20 January 2016

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.

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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 →

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Cooks River Shame! Its well past time for Container Deposit Legislation

While on the Cooks River yesterday, I took this photo –

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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.

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Cooks River Birds – 19 January 2016

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 –

CRB19Jan16-1 Continue reading →

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