Thursday October 17th was a terrible day for bushfires in the Blue Mountains. It was very warm, very windy and very dry. Several large bushfires broke out in parts of the Blue Mountains and spread very quickly.
In Sydney, we could not help seeing a huge plume of smoke spreading to the east from the mountains. Continue reading
It was forecast to be a very hot day. It would be nice to get out into the bush. Rik and myself thought that a trip down into Glenbrook Gorge would be suitable. It would also allow Wendy to come along too. She has been recuperating from an injury.
We walked the short distance from the Glenbrook entrance to the Blue Mountains National Park to the start of the Gorge and then continued through it looking for a nice pool to have lunch by and have a swim. Continue reading
Rik and myself went on a quick trip through the beautiful Dalpura Canyon. The canyon was nice as usual but the real purpose of our visit was to see the wildflowers on the ridge out. October is a good month for this.
Instead of climbing out the regular way – via the ridge to the west of the creek – we chose to climb out onto Dalpura Head to the east of the creek. This was a good choice. The ridge is very spectacular and the way out was about as easy as the other more common exit ridge.
This exit also gave us a chance to walk around the massive Dalpura Cliffs and to see from above the Lost Pillar – an amazing and very spectacular detached pinnacle that is naturally of interest to rock climbers. Continue reading
Its been a tradition for 40 years now for the SUBW president to lead a party of bushwalkers to the beautiful and wild Kowmung River on the October Long Weekend.
Three days is a good time to spend on the river and October is a good time of the year to be there. The three day time period allows for one to walk in and one day to walk out and then the middle day to be spent walking along the river. And October? Often (but not always) good weather, often the weather is warm enough for swimming in the river, and post winter – the grassy banks are at their finest. Continue reading
I recently spent two days walking along the northern part of the Coastal Track in Royal National Park. This was a photographic trip.
There are many great subjects for the camera. The wildflowers of course. The rock platforms, the heath, the creeks, the birds and lizards. The beaches and dunes, the cliffs. Continue reading
A large group of headed down to Deep Pass Clearing for a party. The purpose was to celebrate three birthdays. And what a good place for such an occasion! A great campsite – a grassy clearing nestled between cliffs and pagodas.
Deep Pass Clearing is an official campsite in Wollemi National Park. The actual “Deep Pass” is a low saddle on the ridge a half kilometre to the south.
Digi Dave and myself were heading up the mountains for a party weekend at Deep Pass. We decided to head up a little early to give us time to visit some of the lookouts of the Upper Mountains to look for some good photo sites.
Narrow Neck from Boar Head
The Cooks River is my nearest river – and the cycleway along it is part of my cycle route to work. Recently I have been playing around with a small drone – a DJI Phantom, which fits a Go Pro camera. My testing ground to fly the drone has been the parks along the Cooks River.
This is my first attempt at shooting a video from the Phantom. I have been playing around with camera settings a bit. The video suffers a bit from “jello” – a rolling effect.
It will be interesting to see what this combination (drone and Go Pro) can do in filming selected places in the bush.
Ian Brown has produced another great calendar of photographs of the Blue Mountains for next year. His “Wild Blue Mountains 2014 Calendar” is now available. You can order copies via his website – www.windycliff.com.au.
Ian, as well as being a very talented photographer is a long term Blue Mountains resident and is an active climber, bushwalker and conservationist. His photographs are works of art and the result of a labour of love.
Martin Pfeil had organised a weekend to Colong Caves. This limestone cave system lies deep in the wilderness of the Southern Blue Mountains. The main cave at Colong has been reported as the longest and most complex single cave within NSW and the third longest in Australia (This was written in 1984). More recent exploration and surveying by Alan Pryke of Sydney University Speleos has shown the cave is much more extensive than previously thought.
To visit the caves you need a permit from the NPWS, and the unfortunate recent action of a rogue caver has made getting these permits much harder. Thanks to Martin for his persistence in this matter.
