I recently spent more time in Royal National Park – walking along the Coastal Track. I hoped for some stormy weather, but I was a day too late. There and been a big thunderstorm over the area the day before I set off. The weather I had was pretty fine – which made photography a bit difficult – but at least the wet, humid weather before I left meant that some fungi should have popped out.
This is a post about a landform feature that seems to me to be fairly common in sub alpine areas – but I have never been able to find a “proper” name for them (searching online for this geomorphological feature)
In Corsica, they are known as “pozzines” – and are a well known feature close to a certain part of the GR20 walking route. In http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozzine a “pozzine” is defined as –
Une pozzine est un trou d’eau observé dans les montagnes corses. Elles sont reliées par des canaux naturels creusés par l’écoulement des neiges fondues et se trouvent dans de vastes prairies.
And translating gives –
A pozzine is a water hole observed in the mountains of Corsica. They are connected by carved by flowing natural channels snow melted and are in wide meadows
Here is a photograph of the Corsican pozzines –
Pozzines near Lake Nino in Corsica
Given their description and how they appear – these types of small lakes or waterholes seem quite common. I have seen very similar waterholes in New Zealand and Tasmania. Continue reading
Alex Colley 1909 – 2014
Alex Colley lived a long life. He recently passed away at the age of 104.
I had met Alex a few times, the latest being in 2006, when I went to the office of the Colong Foundation to pick up a copy of the excellent book he wrote on the Blue Mountains – Blue Mountains World Heritage. The text Alex wrote is accompanied by very fine photographs taken by Henry Gold. At that time, Alex was still working as a volunteer in the Colong office.
Alex was a bushwaker. A Tiger Walker. One of an elite group of The Sydney Bushwalkers, who in the 1930’s would complete very long walks in very short times. With very limited maps and information being available, many of the walks he went on would have been exploratory.
Later in his life, he devoted a lot of time to protecting those wild lands that he loved. In particular, he worked on two major projects involving the Blue Mountains – realising the dream of Myles Dunphy for a Greater Blue Mountains National Park and then later, having the National Parks that covered the Greater Blue Mountains dedicated as World Heritage. We owe Alex a lot for this work.
You can read more at this page on the Colong Foundation’s Website. It has their tribute, as well as a tribute from the Sydney Bushwalkers. The Sydney Morning Herald has an obituary here.
Caro Ryan, from The Sydney Bushwalkers has posted this video of Alex –
A celebration of Alex’s life will be held in June 2014. Check the Colong Foundation’s Website for details.
We had encountered a fair bit of rain and had cancelled plans for more distant trips. After hang breakfast with friends at a cafe at Springwood – a few of us set off down the nearby Magdala Creek to walk to Fairy Dell.
I was joined on this short walk by Dig Dave, Chuin Nee, John and their young son Jasper. The rain held off for the most part. Continue reading
It had been raining for a day or two and I was hoping that Glenbrook Creek would be up a bit. Its only a ten minute walk to the creek from the National Park entrance at Glenbrook. There is a good track that starts behind the Visitor Centre of the National Park. The start is not obvious, you have to go along a service road a short way and look for a sign that is not visible from the carpark.
Once at Glenbrook Creek – it is only a few minutes more walking down to the start of Glenbrook Gorge. The rain and stopped so I set up my camera and tripod and started photographing the creek. Continue reading
I got up very early for this walk. By very early I do mean early! A train to Bondi Junction and then a short walk down to Bronte to arrive before the sunrise.
It was a beautiful morning. I was surprised by the number of people that were out and about when I got down to Bronte. Cyclists on training rides, swimmers in the surf and rock pool, many many joggers, groups doing set exercises in the picnic area – on a Wednesday morning. Continue reading
This weekend was Albert’s birthday walk to the Red Rocks.
I went up the mountains early with Digi Dave and we later met up with Roger and Jeremy at Katoomba. Before this we had been out to Narrow Neck to look for some reported pink flannel flowers that were in flower. We easily managed to find them – very close to the climbers carpark a short way out along the Narrow Neck Rd. These plants, Actinotus forsythii, are quite rare – and need two things for long dormant seeds to grow and then flower – a bushfire and then a fair bit of rain. I had last seen them a few years earlier at Kanangra Walls. When they do flower – its an amazing site. They burst into flower in profusion! Thanks to bushwalker and botanist Wyn Jones for letting me know about this flowering.
Claustral is one canyon that I try and do at least once every summer.
Bob was keen to do it as well, so we set of up the Bell Rd for the new Claustral Carpark. This is a bad place – surrounded by piles of rubbish, broken glass and the smell of turds. The sad signs that that seem to be present at every pull off place adjacent to a major road. Continue reading
Another birthday weekend – this time both Dan and Sarah had birthdays to celebrate – and wanted to celebrate in the bush.
Our original intention was to do a two day canyoning trip – down King George Canyon and then along Explorers Brook and back up lower Thunder Canyon – a great trip. But not one well suite to the weather forecast. We met up at Blackheath – and after some discussion and during heavy rain – we set off for Kanangra Walls – our walk was going to be to the Kowmung River.
Sarah had never been through the Bulga-Denis Canyon and was keen to visit that part of the Kowmung River. Continue reading
Don, with his daughter Elata were celebrating birthdays at a party at Ingar – a nice picnic and camping area in Blue Mountains National Park that is accessed via a fire trail from the Kings Tableland Road out from Wentworth Falls.
Jamison Valley from Sublime Point
I headed up the mountain early, on the Friday afternoon with Digi Dave and we headed out to Sublime Point at Leura for some sunset photography. Continue reading
