Sassafras hike and a bonfire

The other weekend I had a friend from Sydney come down and stay.
It was good to catch up with what's been going on there with friends and the Permaculture group I was involved with.

On the Friday evening we went to a Taize worship service I had heard of. It was lovely to meet with others from all different denominations and backgrounds. It's amazing how small the world is, meeting people from very different generations to me, with many mutual friends. It was a lovely reflective service, with a shared simple meal for the hour beforehand.

On Saturday Kristjan and I went out to Morton National Park for a day walk. We took the Braidwood Road from Nowra and entered the park via Sassafras. There is no sign there, just a gate, and you drive through some private property before reaching the entrance to the park. About 500m in to the walk there was a lovely campground with amenities and a covered picnic table. Most of the walk was just along firetrail shaded in some parts, like this shot at the beginning of the walk (photo was taken at the end of the day as the sun was setting) and lots out in the open, but relatively flat. Found lots of nectal filled grevillias that beat any boiled sweets or honey for flavour. Sticky sweet, and straight out of the flower.











This is the view we reached after about 1 hours walking. The landscape is much harsher than the ones I often see in photos of european blogs. Maybe not harsher, but different. It is quite dry but within it there are many microclimates, for example, we explored a little over the edge of the cliff line, in a gully where we could scramble down. Immediately you are in a temperate rainforest. This is something I love about my country and getting out into the bush. We walked to a point where a small trail went off the main one, and walked to a nice lookout to eat lunch and then return. It definately got my curiosity and I am planning to return there and do the entire walk, probably will be at least two days, but thats part of the fun.



That evening one of my colleagues was having a barbeque at her property and had invited staff and families to attend. There were two large bonfires, sparklers and lots of food. A great evening. One of my colleagues is the mother of a girl I went to school with and she was down visiting for the weekend while her husband was working down the coast so it was great to catch up with her as well.

The photo at the bottom is of Hayley's master marshmallow toasting skills. The hood is to protect her face and the marshmallow isn't toasted until the marshmallow and the stick are alight. My method is somewhat different, but it was entertaining.

Easter Hike

Went on a lovely hike over Easter Long Weekend with a group of friends from my bible study at church. There were six of us, and we headed off after the morning service on Good Friday to Wog Wog, an area of Morton National Park on the south coast of NSW. It took about an hour to drive there and then a four hour walk through ghostly gums and rock monoliths

We camped at a place called cascades, so named because of the lovely...cascades there, swimming was enjoyed by the braver members of the party, myself included, and did a good deal to wash away the sore muscles and make you feel alive (around 15 degrees celcius and colder out than in.)


A picture of the group around the campfire, with my lovely tent in the background. I didn't get to sleep in it though due to the gender mix, and I did miss it a lot. Had a lovely dinner and sat around the fire as the mist settled in for the night telling stories and drinking tea before heading off to bed with a nalgene bottle full of hot water.


My friend Frances took this photo of the gum trees and I thought it was just beautiful, the dampness in the air makes them really come alive in their colours and kept us comfortable while walking. This area can be very difficult to walk in in hot weather as you can very easily become dehydrated. No danger of that on this walk though, and we enjoyed walking as it kept us from getting cold. (I must add a note that the weekend before I spent in balmy sunshine only half an hours drive away from here sunbaking and snorkelling for hours. - gotta love the weather)
And here is Gareth, a hiker on the rock. A small arrow led up the hill and around the back of this huge rock monolith of conglomerate stone, lookes like millions of giant pebbles stick together with dark concrete and lovely to climb. I feel so priveleged to live here, and to have health that enables me to get out in God's creation. For me this trip was as much my Easter worship as any church service could be. The bible says that all creation honours God and as I walked once again through this area I could not but agree.

Moss and Rocks and Falling Water

On Sunday I went for my first walk with the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers. We went to Granite Falls, a spot just south of Nowra on the South East coast of NSW (Australia) About half an hours drive from where I live.

It was a tough walk, all off track, walking through bush that is essentially untouched, taking navigation from creekbeds and ridges identified in the maps we had. I loved it. We walked across the top of the falls to start and then down a ridge to the creek in the first photo. We stopped here for morning tea and then spent an hour walking up the creek to the base of the falls. The area around this spot is famous for it's beautiful sandstone and very distinctive mountains, the budawangs. Granite falls however is as it's name might suggest, made of granite. It is spectacular, with the water falling to one level and then over another, and from the base was breathtaking.



















We then walked down the creek to where it joined a larger river, and there was a great swimming hole where we stopped for lunch and to refresh ourselves.

We then fought our way back up the river against lots of undergrowth and back up the hill to where we had left our cars. Although walking in this way is probably a lot harder, I find it so rewarding in that I am going somewhere possibly no-one has ever walked before, somewhere special. The places you go that are hidden from most of the world but are so amazingly beautiful, remind me that there is a God, and that he created the world. Every bit of it is spectacular, even the parts that almost no-one looks at. And all that you can do is stand in awe and breathe .... Thankyou.

Mountains in the Mist

I had an amazing weekend. Met with some guys from the outdoors club at my uni and went down to the Budawangs (a wilderness area with great bushwalking and lots of mountains) which is out of Milton on the NSW south coast, about an hour south of where I live. It was forecast to be wet, which didn't stop us, but did mean that I forked out for a proper hiking rain coat - a goretex. It cost a bit, but really was worth it.

The first night we stayed at the campsite at the carpark for the start of the walk. First thing in the morning packed up wet tents and headed up the mountain. It was wet, misty, foggy but lots of fun. You initially walk up straight towards the castle, a huge mountain with a rocky top which was the aim of our walk but as you get closer, other mountains appear. Walked up a narrow ridge to the base of the cliffline through forests with the ridge dropping off dramatically to either side.

Once the cliffline is reached the vegetation changes and we found ourselves walking through dense scrubby plants walking over small creeks and past breathtaking views. Breaks were short as the weather was not inviting and in fact, the cool weather made it much easier a walk than the previous time I had been there in a 36 degree heat wave. At this stage you do not walk much higher, rather follow the cliffline around the mountain to the otherside, where the mountains really unfold.

We dropped our packs in a cave and went exploring through monolith valley, a protected wilderness area that is full of rock topped mountains, monoliths (huge towering stones) and deep pockets of rainforests. We walked through to the other side and it looked as though we were standing on the edge of the world as the fog was blocking out the mountains which I knew were there, only 400 metres away. We went back through the valley, locating a beatiful natural stone arch and other spots where my breath was once again taken away before we left the valley to cross the last section before the climb back down to where our packs were. Problem. The mist was so thick that we couldn't see the surrounding mountains which are normally a wonderful guide to the meandering path. Shall we say it took a while to get back through that misty, swampy and disconcertingly darkening valley. A few prayers were offered up and at long last the boys listened to me (lol - it's actually completely true) and we made it back.

We reached our campsite just as dark approached, cooked dinner and soon afterwards went to bed.

But the weekend didn't end there, In the morning when I un-zipped the tent there were blue skies. Just a few metres from where out tent was was the lookout from where both the first and second photos were taken. The misty one about 15 minutes before the other with me in it. The same mountain top is visible in both. It really was magical to watch the mist and fog swirling around the mountains with only the rocky peaks sticking out.

After breakfast we packed up and headed back up to the main track from the campsite and then spent the morning climbing the castle, a very famous bushwalk in our area. It requires quite a bit of climbing and scrambling to get to the top, including a few places where ropes are placed, but nowhere you would need a harness. Once you get to the top it's about 500 metres to a kilometre across the top which is covered in dense scrub and lovely circular rock pools with frogs swimming in them across to the opposite side where you get this view.
The big mountain in the front is Byangee walls and it's the same mountain as was in the other pictures but from a very different angle. Looking at both of them gives you a bit of an idea of the height of the mountain we climbed. I think it's around 870 metres up. The pointy mountain in the distance is pidgeon house, another slightly easier bushwalk that is frequently attempted, and has ladders installed to get up to the top so less climbing is involved.

After grabbing some lunch back at our packs, we took a shortcut through a tunnel that involved passing all the packs through the tight spots, and then a long walk back down the mountain. I have spent the majority of the week recovering physically, and thinking about where I will go next.......

Am also working hard on my apron for the swap on Rhonda's Blog (see the link to "Down to Earth" on my blogroll on the side) I am making one for Bren in the US of A and very excited.