Volume 33 Peak Hill near Brooklyn, Issue 2 Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park Autumn 2008 Crossing the Cox near Jenolan Creek, Blue Mountains National Park Photo: Bruce Mckinney Contributions of interesting and spectacular bushwalking photos are sought — you don’t want the same photographers all the time, do you? A small waterfall on Banks Creek near Berowra Waters, Photo: Roger Caffin Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park Walk Safely—Walk with a Club T h e Bushwalker The Official Publication of the Confederation of Bushwalking Clubs NSW From the editor’s desk. Volume 33, Issue 2, Autumn 2008 rom a scorching hot and dry summer straight into a cold wet winter - or ISSN 0313 2684 so it seems. We went on a late summer trip around the Jagungal FWilderness at the end of March - and one night got down to -7° C! The cairn at the summit of Mt Jagungal was sheathed in ice, although we only got to see it close up in the howling fog. Whatever happened to our balmy autumn Editor: Roger Caffin weather? Ah well, just have to dig out the fleece clothing. [email protected] Graphic Design & Assembly: Barry Hanlon In the news recently has been the demise of the New Zealand company Macpac. First the manufacturing in NZ proved uneconomic and it was moved Confederation Officers: to Asia. But the management types who took over the company didn't President: Wilf Hilder understand the outdoors community, and made a mess of it. Now the remains [email protected] of Macpac have been bought out by a different NZ company called Mouton Administration Officer: Noire (‘Black Sheep’), who also own the outdoors bits of that other NZ [email protected] company Fairydown. The new owners have commented that it is hard to fight for shelf space on Website: www.bushwalking.org.au the main street shops against the cheap Chinese imports - don't we know it! But rather than give up, they are going to open their own-brand shops. They Address all correspondence to: PO Box 2090, GPO, Sydney 2001 already have 6 in NZ, and looking to open in Australia. Well, we await this new development with great interest. The Confederation of Bushwalking Articles for Publication Clubs NSW Inc represents Clubs and members are encouraged to submit relevant articles, with a very approximately 66 Clubs with a total strong preference for those with good pictures. Both the author and the membership of about 8,700 author’s club will feature in the Byline - this is a good way to advertise YOUR bushwalkers. club. We will also accept articles from outside bodies where the articles seem relevant to members. Formed in 1932, the Confederation Articles may be edited for length and content to help fit into our page limit. provides a united voice on behalf of all Pictures should be sent at maximum available resolution: at least 300 dpi, bushwalkers on conservation, access and other issues. preferably in their original unedited form. JPG, PDF or TIFF formats are preferred. The text should be sent as a plain text file (*.txt), NOT as a Word People interested in joining a bush- file (*.doc). I repeat, please send the pictures separate from the text file; do walking club may write to the Confed- NOT send them embedded in a Word doc file. Pictures taken from a Word doc eration Administration for a list of file are simply not good enough. And, of course, the Editor is always interested Clubs, but an on-line list is available at in receiving bushwalking books and maps for review. All enquiries should be the Confederation website sent to [email protected]. www.bushwalking.org.au, broken up Please note that opinions expressed by authors may not represent the into areas. There’s lots of other good official opinions of the Confederation or any Club. The Editor’s opinions are stuff there too, including the bush- his own. walking FAQ. Roger Caffin Index Don’t you wish you were here? 2 Subscribe to The Bushwalker From the Editor’s Desk 3 Keep up with all the news and developments happening in the NSW bushwalking scene for Haughton and Hoddle Exploratory 4 only $10 per year. This is to cover posting and Growee River Explorations 6 handling: the magazine itself is free. Send your name and address and cheque or Kiandra to Kosciuszko 7 money order to Confederation of Bushwalk- Abseiling Upper South Bowen Creek and Yileen Canyons 10 ing Clubs NSW Inc, PO Box 2090, GPO Sydney 2001. Make the cheque or money order pay- Navshield 2007 Daltons Defence 12 able to the Confederation of Bushwalking Clubs NSW Inc as well - please don't abbrevi- Dot Butler—The Barefoot Bushwalker 13 ate the name! Fraser Island 14 Please indicate which issue you want your sub- scription to start with. We don’t want to dupli- cate copies you already have. Volume 33, Issue 2, Autumn 2008 The Bushwalker | 3 Paul Ellis, Shoalhaven Bushwalkers Photographs, Paul Ellis & Brett Davis n Saturday 22nd September 2007 I 8.30 am, but it was already 8.15 at joined up with 7 other members of Newhaven Gap, the old starting point for Othe Shoalhaven Bushwalkers for 3 walks in the Budawangs. We continued days hiking in the Budawangs. Three of us headed along the Braidwood Road Checking the map near the top of Mt Haughton towards Sassafras on Saturday morning, arriving at the NPWS car park at 7.50 am. southwards, past the track to Folly Point, but was open to the sky above. Morning The other 5 hikers in our group had now marked with a very large rock cairn. tea! Comments were made about the size walked in on Friday afternoon and camped The Budawangs had received a lot of rain of my rucksack and that it seems to get overnight at Camp Rock. recently as there were a lot of wet spots smaller with every trip. Everyone was It was a relatively overcast morning as along the trail. This meant we would have convinced I’d forgotten to pack something we headed down the trail for the arduous no problems getting water on this trip. for the trip and they were keen to see what and boring 8 km hike to Newhaven Gap. As we crossed a small creek I could I unpacked that afternoon at Mt Haughton The forecast for the next 3 days was for smell smoke and knew we were close to Camping Caves. After the break we warm sunny conditions and even now as Camp Rock. At 9.00 am exactly we walked descended to a small creek with fast we battled the chilly winds on this exposed into the Camp Rock camping area to find flowing clear water and then ascended a heathland plateau we could see patches of the other 5 members of our group sitting steep ridge to a long flat open forested blue sky breaking through the dark clouds. around a small campfire. We soon moved saddle between Quiltys & Sturgiss, passing For the first time ever I was carrying my off, passing Red Johnny’s Cave (a possible a very picturesque camping area. We soon new 35 litre rucksack. As we planned to overnight camping spot) and entering a arrived at ‘The Halt’ - a collection of logs camp overnight in caves there was no need rainforest area known as The Vines with placed next to a brilliant lone Fern Tree at for tents and in my quest for the lightest its red dirt coloured track. By now the the trackhead for Hidden Valley. We now possible load, I had managed to fit clouds had cleared and we were walking descended the ridge to Styles Creek and everything I felt was required. under a clear blue sky. Around here we Styles Camping area. Soon the views The size of my rucksack was to cause were overtaken by a large group of cyclists across Styles Plains came into view. We much conversation during the weekend. It who had ridden in from Sassafras this could see across to Mt Haughton, Hoddles contained my palm-sized summer season morning. They were planning to ditch the Castle and Pagoda Rocks (the western side down sleeping bag, my Thermarest bikes at the Quiltys turnoff and hike to of Mt Sturgiss). sleeping mat, a new Mini Trangia, a small either the Mt Haughton or Mt Cole We had planned to lunch at Styles bottle of fuel, a 3 litre hydration bag, some camping caves for the night. When they Camp, but we were ahead of schedule and warm clothes for the evenings, my wet learned we had planned to use the caves stopped only to collect water before weather jacket, toiletries, torch, eating on Haughton, they gallantly offered to heading across the plains. More comments irons, pack cover and first aid kit. On the continue to Mt Cole. We were to were made about the size of my pack belt I had attached my camera bag and continually bump into these hikers until when I was seen filling up my hydration GPS. Despite the load, in the 10 - 14 kg lunchtime today. bag and a 4 litre wine bladder and putting range, it was very comfortable. We turned left at Quiltys and followed them into my pack. I simply told them I We passed by ‘The Little Sisters’, 3 a faint track up Quiltys Saddle, bypassing was the 11th incarnation of Doctor Who small rock monoliths beside the track that the track to the Bora Ground on top of the and my rucksack was my Tardis.