Canberra g o r F e e r o b o r r o Bushwalking C it Club newsletter Canberra Bushwalking Club Inc GPO Box 160 Canberra ACT 2601 Volume: 50 www.canberrabushwalkingclub.org Number: 5 GENERAL MEETING June 2014 8 pm Wednesday 18 June 2014 In this issue 2 Canberra Bushwalking Photography tips session Club Committee Presenter: Helen McFadden 2 President’s prattle Helen McFadden from the Canberra Photographic Society will give us 2 Fungus spotters wanted some tips on photography. While the focus of her talk will be about how to 3 Walks Waffle compose an effective image, she will also talk about various options for 3 Membership matters camera gear including choice of camera and equipment such as a tripod 3 Training Trifles as well as some of the principles of camera operations such as focus and 3 Review: Walking in the exposure. To illustrate her talk, Helen will show images from the spectacu- Blue Breaks lar gorges of Karijini National Park in Western Australia. 5 From the IT Archives The hall, 6 Mootik Walls and Tonalli Mountain, Easter, 2014 Hughes Baptist Church, 8 Four plus walking the 32–34 Groom Street, Hughes Canberra Centennial Trail 10 The singing, dancing Also some leaders of walks in the current and next Square Rock trip month will be on hand with maps to answer your 11 Activity program questions and show you walk routes etc 11 Wednesday walks 15 Bulletin Board 16 Feeling literary? 16 Wednesday walks Kermits Pool, Hancock Important dates Gorge, Western Australia 18 June Photo by Helen General meeting McFadden 25 June Submissions close for July it 23 July Committee meeting Committee reports Canberra Bushwalking Club Committee President’s President: Linda Groom prattle [email protected] 6281 4917 Treasurer: Julie Anne Clegg y the time you read this I will be happily walking Bthe Larapinta Trail with eight other Club members. [email protected] And while I am writing this, Janet Edstein is leading a 0402 118 359 Club walk in the Flinders Ranges. Longer walks such as these are a great way to get to know other members, Walks Secretary: Lorraine Tomlins to explore new country, and to make a substantial con- [email protected] tribution to your fitness program. (You think you don’t 6248 0456 or 0434 078 496 have a fitness program? Yep, you do, it appears every month as the CBC Activity Program!) General Secretary: Gabrielle Wright The Club has a wonderful record in organising longer [email protected] trips. We have a number of leaders with great exper- 6281 2275 tise in more distant locations, such as Meg McKone (Macdonnell Ranges) and Rupert Barnett (Tasmania). Membership Secretary: Roger Edwards Too many leaders to mention have a great knowledge [email protected] of walks in New Zealand. Some of these walks are 6288 7863 or 0406 378 217 advertised in the activity program and some in the Bul- letin Board section that appears at the end of the activity Training and Safety Officer: John Evans program. It’s worth reading well ahead in the program, [email protected] to find suggestions for your next vacation. g o r F e e r o b o r r o 6288 7235 or 0417 436 877 Linda Groom C Conservation Officer: Cynthia Burton President [email protected] 0488 071 203 Fungus spotters wanted hotographer Elisabeth Titulaer has contacted the Web Manager: David Briese PClub to seek help in locating Ghost Mushrooms. [email protected] She would like to photograph them for her collection 6286 3479 of fungi photographs. Elisabeth has some mobility problems but can get into fungus sites if the walk is, in Editor: Alison Milton our terms, a Short/Easy. [email protected] The accompanying photographs show what these fungi 6254 0578(h) or 6289 2717(w) look like by day and night. At night, if seen with the naked eye, they glow pale blue, but the camera captures Assistant Walks Secretary: Keith Thomas them as green. They can be found on rotten wood and on [email protected] trees. If you come across any, please contact Elisabeth 6230 1081 or 0421 607 667 on [email protected] Social Secretary: Quentin Moran [email protected] 6288 9840 Publisher: Tim Wright [email protected] 6281 2275 All members of the Committee can be contacted in one email to [email protected] Check in: [email protected] Web site: www.canberrabushwalkingclub.org g o r F e e r o b o r r o C Page 2 – Canberra Bushwalking Club it June 2014 g ro F e re o b ro r o C Committee reports Review: Walking Walks Training in the Blue Breaks Waffle Trifles Presenter: Meg McKone ne of the many joys of bush- art of the satisfaction of bush- Owalking is contemplating and Pwalking is successfully over- discussing gear. We all like to learn coming the challenges met on a from one another or, alternatively/ trip. I was recently in a party led as well, debate endlessly the finer by Jenny and Rob Horsfield and as points of why the pack, sleeping we crossed Rendezvous Creek to bag, stove etc we have chosen is head west over the Mavis Ridge, infinitely better than that chosen by Rob said “Best pick up a bit of extra one of our fellow walkers. water in case we have a dry camp.” At 5 pm that night, as the light was To provide food for thought and fading and we set up camp in the more information to clarify or bush on the side of a hill, we ap- confound, our Training Officer and preciated acting on that advice. So others have scheduled a camping always check the leader’s expecta- equipment display on Saturday 6 September between 10 am and tions and carry sufficient water. noon. Experienced CBC members Another challenge was 2 hours of will demonstrate gear and equip- traversing 1 km of ‘pick-up sticks’. ment for overnight walks and These are areas of wind-blown Cliff Edge: Tonalli Walls answer questions. See the Activity eucalypt saplings, crisscrossed as Program for further information. in the child’s game. One needs to here are the Blue Breaks? be careful ducking and weaving WThis is an area west of the Our Social Secretary is also plan- under and over the timber, and Kowmung River in the southern ning a gear themed General meet- especially when walking along the Blue Mountains. The area consists ing. More details will be available trees a metre above the ground. An of a series of cliff-edged plateaux, soon. overnight pack changes your centre isolated sandstone remnants of the of gravity. southern edge of the Blue Moun- g o r F e e r o b o r r Lorraine Tomlins o C tains National Park. The area is Walks Secretary Coming out on Sunday Rob used bounded by the Wollondilly and his ‘drunken stagger’ (tracking Tonalli Rivers and Butchers Creek. from side to side) to pick up the best going. This is a useful technique to Meg first saw this area as a child Membership maintain the desired heading, but from Mount Solitary, and was also choose the easiest way through intrigued by it. The presentation matters the bush. We traversed several summarised her experience of recognisable sections of the old exploring this area over many vehicle track between the AAWT years – from 1974 to Easter 2014. Please ensure that you keep the and Little Creamy Flats (marked on She recommends autumn or spring Membership Secretary informed the 1st edition Rendezvous Creek as the best season for walking in of any changes to your email map). One very useful part was this area, especially for wildflower address. where the alignment descends from displays. New members: Tony Brown, Colin the 1300 to 1200 metre contour Main access points are from Yer- Carpenter, Lucy Lee, Brigette Nairn over 600 metres across the ground randerie or Kanangara Walls. The through pea regrowth. most spectacular ridge line does not g o r F e e r o b o r r o Roger Edwards C The Club’s annual ‘Navigation have an official name—but on the Membership Secretary Refresher’ starts 5 August. It is emi- Gundungera Map, put out by the nently suitable for both beginning Rover crew of Sydney University, and practicing navigators – I know, it is called Vengeance Peninsula. I’ve done it twice. Meg feels it is one of the best areas to walk in the Blue Mountains. Cheers and happy feet. Meg first went there in 1974, on g o r F e e r o b o John Evans r r o C a two day trip from Canberra. Training and Safety Officer The group of four started from Kanangara Walls, went out to and over the Axeheads, over Vengeance Peninsula, down to Green Wattle Creek, over Butchers Creek, the Kowmung and back to Kanangara. Canberra Bushwalking Club it June 2014 – page 3 Review of general meeting talk During the 80s, 90s and 00s Meg black-eyed susan, grevilleas, and Area 4: Lacys Tableland – To led many expeditions to this area. woody pear fruit and flowers (related lookouts east, down Lacys Creek to the waratah with similar leaves). and west – over Vengeance Meg organised her presentation into The further east the group went, the geographical areas: Peninsula and up the Tonalli more the flora looked like the sand- River to Mount Colong stone flora from the Sydney region. 1. Lacys Tableland and east to Looking down Lacys Creek is a fine Tonalli Peak and overlooking On this visit the group camped for view of the surrounding cliffs, end- Burragorang two nights in what Meg calls the ing at the stored water.