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.
Spring is wildflower time in Royal National Park and its nice to spend a few days wandering along the coast. On the second day I was joined by Dan and Gab who had come up from Canberra.
This is a photographic essay mainly concentrating on the coastal rocks and flowers.
It was the day after the federal election. A sad day. A good time to escape to the bush. I headed up to Wentworth Falls and then down the Charles Darwin Track towards the big waterfalls of Wentworth Falls. The weather was as gloomy as my mood. A thick mist shrouded everything. Beautiful conditions!
No wind, calm and peaceful. A good place to be. Lots of birds flying about and chirping in the shrubs. Wildflowers out in abundance. Continue reading
We were having a party at Bronte in the park behind the beach. Friends from Hobart would soon be in town. We were meeting at noon. I arrived early, Very early. In time for sunrise and that allowed me plenty of time to wander along the coast with my camera.
I ventured from Bronte, first to Clovelly and back, then had breakfast a cafe, then headed north to Bondi. I took my time. Wandering on the rock platforms, Looking for patterns on the rocks and in the sand. It was a nice morning. Continue reading
Kim had her bike refurbished and was keen to take it out for a ride. I suggested heading out along Grose Road at Faulconbridge to Faulconbridge Point, a great lookout overlooking the lower Grose Valley.
On the train, we met up with friends Stu and Enmoore who were heading to Woodford for the Oaks fire trail. We talked them in to joining us on the ride. Continue reading
It was a nice weekend to spend up the mountains. I went up with John, Chuin Nee and Jasper, and up at Mt Victoria we met up with Dave Os, Keith and others to walk out to the Asgard Plateau campsite. There we met Don, who had walked in earlier.
This is an easy walk of about 2 km. After setting up camp, some of us walked out to the nearby Thor Head to enjoy the view and to stay around for the sunset. Pleasant relaxing times in a great spot. Continue reading
