Day 1 - It's all about the sleep
Kerrie and
I got up at 3:30 getting things ready to pick up Rochelle and Sam at 5:00. Only half an hour late wasn’t too bad and we
left Algester service station at 6:00. We
took it pretty easy driving and had compulsory toilet stops, mainly my fault
due to coffee consumption. The boys’ car
was pumping music and I can only think the same thing was happening with the
girls (different music though). This
didn’t stop the guys (for simplicity sake, when I refer to the “guys”, it is
inclusive to boys and girls) from sleeping most of the way.
Lunch spot |
We made it to Burning Mountain just after 15:00. Not the greatest camp site but only a couple
of cars there. So we only had to share
with several million flies.
Not the best shot, but at least showing some of our friends. |
We decided
to hike up the mountain before we set up camp to see whether we could score the
prime site, which currently was taken up by a lone car.
Burning Mountain is named for the underground coal seam
that has been burning for over a few thousand years.
It is cool place with extremely hot air coming out of vents in the
ground.
Testing the hot vents |
This time around we didn’t see
as much steam as last time, as the weather is pretty hot, which also didn’t
draw any animals this time around. We
couldn’t stay too long as the fumes were pretty overpowering.
Getting back to the car we had no luck with the prime site as
it was still taken. We set up at the
next best spot and went to bed early after a sausage sizzle.
It was lovely listening to the passing trucks and occasional
coal trains rumbling past, but soon sleep took us anyway.
Day 2 - Up in smoke
We all
slept pretty good, even with the passing traffic (Rochelle didn’t even hear
that) and we were on our way at exactly 8:00.
Arriving at our campsite just ready for lunch, we were not
too impressed. The sites are mainly dust
and dirt, but what the heck, we are not going to spend too much time here
anyway. But that was just the
start. Soon a van with two French guys
and one woman turned up blasting music and smoking funny tobacco. There is also a distinct lack of water i.e.
there is no way of tapping into the rain water tank. But on the plus side we are surrounded by forest filled with beautiful birds - black cockatoos, crimsom rosellas etc.
Not to worry, we set up camp and were entertained by the
antics of the French. The kids went in
search of water and found the camp site down the road pretty empty but no water. After a vote we decided on not moving, as it
would be all too hard.
Next arrived a friendly woman in a camper van who proceeded
to sit on her mat having a bit of a puff as well. What is this, are we in Nimbin? A single guy is our next neighbour, surprisingly he seems
pretty normal, i.e. don’t see any smoke puffs and no music pumping. Not to despair, our next neighbours pull up in a Jucy van
and in no time we are witnessing some yoga action.
The kids have decided to go in search of water at Blackheath
and have missed our last two arrivals.
Now I am having a beer to attune to my new surroundings.
OK, I may not be Einstein, but I came up with a new
equation:
WB2 = SNOOZE (Whacky Baccy to the power of 2 = Very Sleepy)
Cheech, Chong and friends were all in bed by 18:00. It was extremely quiet. Everybody else was in bed by 19:00, which
left us as the noisy ones until 20:00.
Then all lights were out.
I am still trying to figure out how our puffing neighbours, three guys and one girl,
could sleep in a small van with a single mattress, and that being filled up
halfway with stuff. I was going to ask
how that works in the morning, but Kerrie said to just leave it to my
imagination.
Day 3 – Bath time
5:30 and my alarm wakes me out of an awesome night’s
sleep. I was rearing ready for an
adventure day, and it didn’t disappoint.
I went for a morning jog looking for a path up into the
mountains, but with no luck, so I ended up going down the country road crossing
paths with a fox and wallaby.
I came back to early action in the camp. Sam was giving the Thunderbox a good workout
with an upset stomach. Kerrie was
whipping everyone else into gear to get ready for the day. I was totally awestruck so I set down to have
my second coffee.
Today was Medlow Bath day and on our walk to the rock
climbing wall we came across the historic bath at the top of the cliff. It would have been an awesome place to relax,
enjoy the views, drink a nice class of wine and cheese and crackers. We could only dream about that.
Relaxing in the old bath |
View from near the bath |
Followed by some pretty hair raising cliff edge walks and
stairs. I guess it doesn’t matter if the
fall is 50m or 200m the result would be the same. So we just moved on having fun.
A huge landslide gave us a big challenge and we tried to get
across it a bit further down, only to turn back again in defeat. But we gave it a good shot.
We left the boys to their climbing (Sam still with movement
in his inside) and headed off exploring.
We soon came upon some magnificent views,
We got back to the boys just in time to see them finishing
off a multi pitch. It looked awesome
seeing them up on the wall, but a little scary too. But I have faith in the boys’ ability.
But no time to dally we were off to do some more
exploring. Up and down we go bashing
through the snow (hang on, that’s wrong, it’s 30 degrees and no snow). Next stop the cave house. It was the ruins of an awesome cave converted
into a house. Some obscene graffiti prevented
us taking more photos. Rochelle’s caving
instincts started to kick in and she was exploring ways on how she would be able
to go deep into the mountain.
Soon after we found the huge hydro hotel (a monstrosity of
colonial construction) and lost our path, so we walked about 1 km back and forth
for a while until we found where to continue.
Not long after we stumbled across another historic bath, oh how good it
would be if it still held water. Tash’s
knee was swelling up from some sort of plant stings and we were starting to get
sunburnt. All was good and we were
having fun.
But this was not all we also examined the remnants of an old
flying fox that serviced the bath from the hotel and found the three
brothers. Sorry, three sisters, the boys
trump (not as in the US president) you.
They may not be as tall as their siblings but in a much nicer setting in
the bush.
We decided to have lunch with Lachlan, Ham and Luke (the
names given to the three brothers).
Three brothers |
Now it was time to race back to the boys for some girl power
climbing action. Rochelle was out the
front when she came across a black tailed, yellow headed, great ferocious brown snake
(didn’t know what type of snake it was so came up with a new name). After our new friend vacated the path we
moved on.
Sam set a top rope for the girls. Meanwhile
a storm was closing in, but that didn’t bother the girls to smash the climb.
Luke managed another ascent and Sam was looking forward to
his banana that we would get on our way home to plug up his problem.
The storm never eventuated and we got back to camp around
17:00 for showers, afternoon tea and some games. The campsite was almost empty with only a
couple of other camps. But we were not
disappointed, another Cheech and Chong, this time from the Northern Territory
set up camp beside us. Maybe this will
help to keep the mossies out.
Not long after dinner, all apart from Rochelle and Luke went
to bed and we had a solid night's sleep only hearing poor Sam vomiting in the
middle of the night some time. As he
felt a lot better afterwards we soon were back asleep.
Day 4 – A bit of a juggle
We woke up reasonable early and Kerrie had us running around
like chooks with their heads cut off getting things ready for our canyoning
day. The plan was to do Jugglers canyon
and if we have time, maybe Grand Canyon.
Kerrie is always the optimist.
It was very pleasant as we headed down the track towards the
canyon and we had no trouble finding it.
Soon after dropping into the creek we needed to use our short static
rope to scramble down a slippery slope.
Although this canyon was rated 4/10 it did not
disappoint. We ended up doing 5 abseils
and 3 hand over hand rope descents.
I was the only one slipping and crashing into the
water. Once again I was the coolest dude
in town.
Just before the last abseil was an awesome opportunity for
lunch. This left a bit of a hair-raising
abseil to the end, which we managed perfectly.
We dropped out of the canyon around 14:00, a bit later than
we thought due to the number of abseils and we decided to leave Grand Canyon
for tomorrow.
The hike out was pretty awesome too, along the Grand Canyon
walking trail and then up Pilcher track back to the car. Pilcher track was pretty steep and the sun
was beating down on us, but we marched on and made it to the car by 15:00.
Sam was pretty buggered because of being sick yesterday and
had a bit of a rest, while Luke, Rochelle and I went to get some firewood. We headed left out of the camp ground, but
couldn’t find anything suitable so decided to go down the valley instead. As we passed the camp ground we spotted the
fire brigade putting up a fire ban sign.
Well, I guess we didn’t need to get any wood after all. The fire ban is only in place from midnight
tonight for 24 hours due to the hot and windy day tomorrow.
Ended up having some nice neighbours with a couple from the
guys’ rock climbing gym turning up. Otherwise
there are only another couple of campers.
Now we are just sitting back relaxing and preparing dinner. It turned out another to be another quiet, uneventful night.
Day 5 – Oh, that’s just grand
Off we went on our Grand Canyon adventure. The Grand Canyon walk must be one of the
nicest walks in the Blue Mountains. It
took us about 20 minutes to get to the anchors for the abseil into the canyon
proper. It looked very mysterious, a gaping
hole into nothing. Sam was the first to
venture down and we could hear sounds of amazement coming up through the
opening. As we all abseiled we knew
why. It was a great free fall abseil into
a spectacular canyon with high walls.
Although it was a dry landing we decided to put on our
wetsuits as it was pretty cool in the canyon and we could also see lots of
water blocking the path ahead.
Good choice, we soon got to our first water hole and the “happy
camel” (that’s my new name, as I seem to need not much water and end up
carrying peoples stuff) was tasked to literally test out the water. I plunged in and the cold nearly took my
breath away, but of course I didn’t show it.
One after the other all went in for their first plunge, except Luke and
Sam who managed to bolder around the water.
That didn’t help them much as they soon got drenched as well.
We couldn’t believe the canyon, it just kept on going in
spectacular fashion with high walls, great pools of water, giant ferns and terraces
covered in green.
We all had great fun but were cooling down fast. Sam was pointing out that on his first day
down here he had a tummy bug, the second day he was heat exhausted and on the
third day he nearly suffered from hypothermia.
I wonder what he is in for tomorrow.
The final 30-meter swim was a good test of endurance,
especially when Kerrie asks you to stay still in sub zero temperatures to take
photos.
We made it out onto the main track and as we got out of our
freezing wetsuits a few touristy Grand Canyon trail walkers gave us a weird
look and kept on moving fast. I guess
they were a bit confused why there were people on the track that were shivering
at 32 degrees, half out of their wetsuits, some wearing jackets, some wearing
bicycle helmets and others being barefoot.
Who said we are normal? We also
decided to ignore the tourists and had a nice lunch while we were warming up,
before we headed up the track to our car.
We are all getting a bit tired, but it was just an awesome
experience that the photos don’t do justice.
The guys are back playing cards and are rejuvenating for tomorrows
climbing adventure. Kerrie and I are
kicking back and enjoying a little beverage.
We are all looking forward to a cooler change tomorrow.
Now we are all ready to cook our roast chicken
with macaroni. For some reason I think
it is going to be an early night!
Day 6 – Great for ducks
Well, the cooler change certainly came through, but
unfortunately so too came the rain.
A small river was going straight through our campsite
underneath our table. Ah well, if we wait
long enough, maybe we’ll have our own canyon.
Next thing we realised that Tash and Rochelle’s tent was
standing in an average size lake. So out
came the shovel and axe. We started
digging trenches that soon morphed into moats.
Their tent ended up on dry ground with enough fortification to keep out
a minor army.
Sam was combating the rain by staying in his tent, which
also started to float. No problem, we
were getting pretty good with this trench digging.
Amanda and Justin, our neighbours from Brisbane were so
flooded that we had to move their entire camp-site. Not even our trench digging skills could help
them.
The forecast was bleak for the next two days, so we decided
to head indoors. Kerrie took the clan to
a rock climbing gym where they met up with friends from Brisbane.
I decided to take some time out and chill at the
campsite. I was looking forward to the
nice and quiet, but it seemed everybody at camp was bored and when they saw me
alone, came over for a chat. Everybody
had a great day although it was wet. The
kids pumped at the gym and I read a book for most of the day (apart from when I
was entertaining guests).
But now we are ready for some more action.
Day 7 – We join the ducks
Unfortunately, the rain is still coming down. They say you sometimes have to fight fire
with fire, so why not fight water with water.
We decided to head to the Katoomba indoor pool, where we soaked our
dirty camp bodies for awhile, followed by immensely long and enjoyable
hot showers. Particularly Kerrie who shared
the showers with 6 eighty year old ladies that just finished water yoga. Lucky Kerrie.
All clean we went out and hit the town for some grocery
shopping and sight-seeing. By the time
we got back to camp it started clearing up a bit and it looked more promising
for tomorrow.
Day 7 – This is where the action is
The morning was nice and sunny and only the moats contained
water. Our river system through camp has
dried out.
The boys decided to go climbing with the neighbours at
Sublime Point near Leura.
The girls opted for a nice bush walk along the cliff tops
all the way to the Three Sisters.
Although the Three Sisters are overrun by tourists it only takes going
down the giant stairway to be all alone in the mountains. I was totally amazed by the giant stairway
and how they carved it out of the rock and attached the metal steps.
I finally was back in my favourite running area and enjoyed
a nice hard 5 hour hit out in some of the best scenery in Australia. The constant stairs are just awesome and I
respect the people who actually built them.
My run took me past spectacular lookouts, waterfalls and forest
glens. I was totally stuffed but also
felt more alive than for a long time. In
the end, all I could do is to make sure no one overtook me. With only the last stretch to go between the
points I managed to get lost and after half an hour ended up pretty much where I
left off. Another hour later I managed
to drag myself to the car, where the boys were waiting.
The girls had a great walk as well and all of us were pretty
worn out by the afternoon. With the
weather looking promising, we went to bed early ready for our next adventure
tomorrow.
Day 8 – Going up the wall
The morning looked spectacular and the boys and girls were
ready for some climbing action. The boys
went to Barden’s lookout to do some harder climbs, while Rochelle challenged me
for a trail run down and up Cox’s road.
It was a fun run down and a challenging run back up. I couldn’t shake Rochelle and at the end she
caught me napping and overtook me to beat me up the hill. We gotta work on tiring this girl out.
Meanwhile Tash had a nice walk with Kerrie to check out some
wells, which turned out mossie infested pools.
Back with the boys they were climbing some challenging stuff
before we had lunch on the lookout.
Then
we headed off across the road for Soft Parade where there was plenty of
climbing for the girls. Sam and Luke set
up some nice top ropes and the three girls did well.
I had a bit of a nap and enjoyed the nice mountain air. The boys also got some more climbing in.
The clouds started rolling in again in the afternoon but not
much rain. It was drizzling most of the
night but the forecast was for it clearing.
Day 9 – Hot and cold flushes
It started out cold with the clouds hanging low and a light
drizzle. It was about 10 degrees and the
boys were talking to Justin and Amanda where they should be going
climbing. They decided to check out
Shipley’s and if that is too wet go to a sheltered wall nearby.
I headed off with the three girls to do Hat Hill
Canyon. Yes, I know it sounds
ridiculous, not that a canyon is named after a hill, but that we would do a
swimming canyon at 10 degrees’ air temperature and goodness only knows what
unearthly temperature the water would be.
We dropped off the boys and soon after found the start of
our walk. We were all a bit cold
starting off down the hill. About half
an hour later I made a wrong route choice and we ended up on a ledge of a
cliff. We all decided that this was a
bad idea. It must have been really bad
for three women to agree on the same thing.
The adrenalin got everybody sweating and the cold was temporarily
forgotten. We headed back up the hill
and soon found the track, which was easy to follow into the canyon.
Soon after we hit the first pool of water we had to swim
through and everybody was freezing from the water that was very close to
becoming solidified. The canyon was in
three sections and the first one was already spectacular. There was a lot of scrambling and mostly
wading through chest deep water.
After the first canyon section we warmed up nicely only to
be immersed into it all again for stage two.
It was an exciting plunge down a hole into the creek and we were frozen
stiff again.
After the second section we came upon some nice caves and
what we suspected would be the way out up a steep creek bed. But the third section was still ahead. So we pushed on through some more awesome
canyon. In between we had our lunch in a
clearing with the sun beating down, before we had to turn around to get back to
the exit. It is mazeballs how much harder
it is to go up a canyon rather than down.
We got to the exit feeling like icicles. It felt good getting changed into our dry
clothes and we started to warm up a bit.
We struggled up the steep creek and soon were sweating like warthogs. Everybody was longing for a swim. We got to the top all pumped. Following the ridgeline out was a good
1.5 hour hike with some awesome views.
We
struggled up Hat Hill proper and had some fun taking photos.
It didn’t take long for us to cool down again
so we dashed off onto the road back to the car.
Both girls started to tire by now and just plonked into the
car. Once back at the campsite Tash went
straight for the tent as she was cold again and Rochelle had the giggles form
exhaustion. Yes, we finally have worn
her out.
Luke and Sam got back not long before us and were getting
the fire and showers ready. They also
had a great day climbing with Justin and Amanda and Sam even got some great
photos.
Day 10 – Mixed Bag
The mornings are getting harder, ie we are all tired and
sleeping in more. Luke & Sam
eventually got organised and set off for a multi pitch climb at Medlow Bath.
Alex took the opportunity for a restful morning – he drove them to the cliffs
then sat to read a book for a few hours. Justin & Amanda (our camping
neighbours from The Rock) also joined them. It was a rappel in and climb
out. All was good except Luke showered
Sam with rocks and Sam broke a hold off the wall!!! The girls had a sleep in and late breakfast
before heading into town to buy fresh rolls for lunch and to get some more
water and of course take advantage of the free wifi at the information centre.
We all then met up at the picnic area of Empress Falls for
lunch before walking down to do our final canyon of our holiday. Well – what a
fun canyon. Empress Canyon involved
numerous jumps, small slides and a bit of swimming. It wasn’t long before we reached the end of
the canyon and the highlight of the canyon – a 30 metre abseil down a waterfall
into the pool at the bottom. One after
the other we abseiled down with the water pounding us, but with smiles from ear
to ear. This was one of the most awesome
abseils and certainly a highlight of our holiday.
Another great thing was the walk back to the car was short.
It was then a quick trip via the shops to buy dinner and ice creams before
relaxing around the campfire.
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