Whungee Wheengee

Upper Bowens Creek South Branch

Today was the first of Sydney North Region Scouts summer canyoning adventure weekends and I was excited to note that I’d been allocated to Upper Bowens Creek South Branch, an awesome canyon that I had done five years ago.

Canyoning Buyers Guide

This canyoning guide provides an overview of equipment that should be considered for canyons in the Blue Mountains, which in general are warmer and have much lower water flows unlike the cold raging torrents that you’ll find in NZ.

Eco friendly bushwalking stoves

Hmmm, I wonder if all those half empty canisters are a fire hazard? That bushbash around Dumbano Creek was Epic!

Markdown Syntax Guide for Hugo

This article started life as a cheatsheet for me as I was was trying to work out how my new website using Hugo - a framework for building websites, actually works:

Virtual tour of Aoraki / Mt Cook

A Virtual Tour of Aoraki / Mt Cook highlighting some of the key spots during a private mountaineering course with my son Anton and Mike and Bec.

Carrabeanga

Woo Hoo! 3rd and final EPIC training trip for a private NZ Mountaineering Trip next week and a huge one off my bucket list - I’ve now completed all the Kanangra Canyons flowing into Kanangra Creek - mind you, I haven’t done Kanangra Main …

Sunnyside (Acoustic) Canyon

This is a great canyon to do if all you want is easy day out in a beautiful part of the world or you’ve been climbing at the Awesome Sahara Point and want to chill at the end of your day of climbing.

Whungee Wheengee

Woo Hoo! It’s only taken four years on my fourth trip down Whungee Wheengee to finally write up a trip report of one of my favourite canyons and a great one to do in preparation for our forthcoming Mountaineering Trip.

Kanangra Main

Kanangra Main is my photography nemesis. When I last did Kanangra Main way back in 2008 with Greg and Paul I somehow managed to format my SD drive after a few too many Coopers around the camp fire and lost all my shots and so was keen to do it again.

Thurat Rift and Thurat Spires

Epic! That’s what the boys reckon. I thought it was awesome. It has everything you could ask for and more! A demanding and remote adventure with absolutely stunning waterfalls and abseils, pristine creek walking, an optional side trip to Danae …

Callalla Beach 360 Spherical Panorama

A full 360 degree spherical panorama of the holiday house at Callalla Beach. This is my first full 360 Panorama taken with a DIY Pano Head and not the lens.

Snowies DoE Gold Bushwalk Virtual Tour

A Virtual Tour of the Snowies highlighting some of the key spots on our four day Gold DoE walk.

Macquarie Rivulet Lower Section

Another awesome trip with family and friends trip to Macquarie Rivulet in as many weeks. This time around we did the waterfall only variant for each abseil.

Upper Bowens Creek South Branch

This has been on my hit list for years, so it was great to finally do it and discover yet another awesome canyon.

Macquarie Rivulet Lower Section

This “canyon” is heaps of fun - it’s more of an open gully than a canyon featuring waterfalls and slippery creek walking more reminiscent of Kanangra than the classic Blue Mountains canyons.

Bell Creek Lower

The plan was to do a nice, easish, good quality and fun canyon. Tom Brennan had given it a 10/10 and Rick Jamieson’s guide suggested that with a grade 2 that it should be easy.

Dalpura Canyon

Today signalled the start of a week of daily thunderstorms. We were going to do Upper Bowens Creek South but with a forecast of storms and 15mm of rain from 10:30am Matt suggested we tackle Dalpura Canyon instead as this would give us time to get out …

Deathtrap Canyon

Day 2 of the annual Sydney North Region Canyoning Course and yet another canyon I hadn’t done before, with an end of day speed run through Twister.

Closet Canyon

Day 1 of of the annual Sydney North Region Canyoning Course. My group had been allocated Closet Canyon, which was great as I’d never done it before and being slightly remote it promised a good bit of off track walking and navigation.

Scatters, Luna Park and Bjelke's Mind Canyons

An epic canyoning weekend to a few remote and rarely visited canyons in the Bungleboori wilderness. The very original plan I had in mind was to do the Three Peaks but that was scrapped once Greg and I realised how hot it was going to be - plus Greg …

Budawangs DoE Gold Bushwalk

The Budawangs is home to some of the best Bushwalking in NSW. This particular Bushwalk from West to East or vice-versa is a Mega-classic offering humungously diverse and spectacular scenery and bushwalking.

Pantoney's Crown

Stunning Bushwalking in a remote and largely untracked area! One of the best Bushwalks I’ve done. Patrick had this walk on his Bucket List for at least year and Ian was dead keen as well as his brother had done it years ago.

K2K in a Day!!! Yay!!!

K2K in a day! Yay! Well, technically, as we finished at the Golden Stairs we didn’t complete the walk - only 870m short of the official finish which is the Old Climbers Carpark at Narrowneck.

Twister and Rocky Creek Canyons

Yet another annual Twister and Rocky Creek Canyon expedition with a cast of thousands! Yep Thousands! By the time we arrived the car park was chockers - I have never seen so many cars here.

Juggler Canyon

A good canyon for a cold and drizzly day. We’d originally intended to do Butterbox Canyon but when we arrived there were two commercial groups and a private party ahead of us and we really didn’t feel like waiting at the small abseils, so …

Fortress Creek

What a great little canyon! I can’t believe that I haven’t done this before. It’s just perfect for beginners. With a short walk in and out, some jumps, a nice swim through a constricted canyon and an absolutely stunning view of the …

Great Uncle George Canyon

A not so secret, secret canyon? This seemed like a great canyon to do. It was listed in the “other canyons to do” section of the canyoning guide as a superb canyon and there was stuff all info on the web.

Serendipity Canyon

Yet another beginners trip down Serendipity. Aaron, Bright and Jason hadn’t done any canyoning with abseils before, so the Thursday beforehand we spent a couple of hours on some basic abseil instruction.

Tiger Snake Canyon

Day 2 of the bi-annual Sydney North Region Canyoning Course and one of my favourite canyons. It’s a dry canyon, which means you only get your feet wet - it’s a shame that it’s not longer.

Breakfast and Rocky Creek Canyons

This was day 1 of the bi-annual Sydney North Region Canyoning Course - coordinated by Chris Stanley. On previous courses we’ve started from the Bell Heavy Vehicle Checking Station and then spread out all over the Bluies to do various Canyons - …

Gingra Ridge and Ti Willa Plateau DoE Silver Bushwalk

A challenging bushwalk in the Kanangra region. Originally I had planned to do a three day walk from Kanangra to Katoomba for the Silver Qualifying Walk but alas the logistics of the car shuffle proved to be too complex so I settled for a three day …

Tambo Gooches Crater

This fabulous bushwalk was recommended to me By Adrian Spragg - a leader at 1st Sailors Bay. The icing on the cake was that I was able to re-use most of his paperwork which made the admin work heaps easier.

Snowcave in North Rams Head

Spring skiing doesn’t get much better than this - good snow cover, nice temperatures and beautiful weather - what more could you ask for?

X-C Ski Gear List

Gear list for X-Country Skiing. The gear list for X-Country builds on the bushwalking gear list by adding additional items required to deal with much colder and harsher conditions.

Tambo Ironmonger Hill and Breakfast Creek Bushwalk

A great introductory walk to the Wild Dog Mountains region, with a little of bit everything - Ridges, Steep Downhills, Firetrail, Bouldery Creek Walking, River Crossings and Chest High Nettle.

Bushwalking Gear List for Scouts

A list of gear aimed for Scouts undertaking a weekend, three day walk or Scouthike. A few Golden Rules to remember when packing for a weekend bushwalk:

Wild Dog Mountains and Cox's River DoE Silver Bushwalk

I can’t quite remember how this all got started, I think I suggested to Anton that he might be able to organise his own DoE walk and soon enough Jason asked Anton if I could organise a Six Foot Track walk.

Bowens Creek North Branch, Lower Section

Originally Anton has a list of 4-5 friends who were interested, but most dropped out leaving Pat as the last boy standing.

Wollangambe Two Dot Two

What a great Day. This is my favourite section of the Wollangambe. Wollangambe 1 seems to be the more popular, but I just like this section better.

Bowens Creek North Branch, Lower Section

Awesome. This is now in my faves list. With a short walk in and out, and a great canyon section you couldn’t ask for more.

Twister and Rocky Creek Canyons

Yet another Twister and Rocky Creek Canyon trip. The second this summer!!! I can’t remember how many times I’ve done this canyon, but I’m always finding something new.

Joe's Canyon

A nice easy relaxing canyon in the upper Wollangambe which is a perfect beginners canyon. The walk in and out is quite short - around 45mins, it has has a couple of good constricted canyon sections and a good amount of lazy liloing.

Serendipity Canyon

An OK beginner’s canyon. Serendipty itself is nothing special but it is a good introductory canyon. The beautiful and fun Wollangambe Two section of the canyon more than makes up for the average qualities of Serendipty.

Twister and Rocky Creek Canyons

This is the inaugural Tambo Canyoning Trip.The twelve of us set off from the Rocky Creek Car park at 10:30am and after a leisurely stroll arrived at the start of Twister Canyon around 11:00am when Adrian discovered that he’d had a bit of a …

Galah Canyon

This trip started as the result of strange coincidences. When we did Twister and Rocky Creek the weekend before, Ian mentioned that a leader from Sailor’s Bay was going to do Wollangambe on the Sunday - which was cancelled due to water levels.

Twister and Rocky Creek Canyons

We originally planned this for the weekend prior but decided to postpone due to a forecast for rain. What a mistake - the Saturday ended up being OK and it rained pretty much continuously for the next week.

Mt Kosciuszko and Seaman's Hut

I can’t remember the last time I went X-Country Skiing but it must’ve been a few years. Jane and I used to do a fair bit but then I got back into climbing, had kids etc, but did want to get back out there and I figured that by the age of …

Davies Canyon

Awesome!!! Davies Canyon is one of of the best canyons I’ve done, but really Tuff. It’s actually an open gorge rather than a canyon, but boy is it spectacular!