Kanangra Walls

This morning we got in a quick walk in Kanangra Boyd National Park. Shook the dust off Vaughan's Land Rover Defender and dislodged any hiding in crevices due to the potholes and corrugations along the road there. 

We had a lunch date to keep so condensed our visit to the look out and the first part of the Plataeu walk. We'll save the Dance Floor cave for next time. 

Remnants of snow 

On the plateau walk

How to connect with nature feat. metho stove

Recently I've been feeling a bit flat. Feeling that I only connect with people when I'm the one to initiate the contact, make the time and place. I've never been a huge people person and I thought 'Why this sudden focus on what you don't have? What are you missing from your life that's always been there?' And I thought about my connection with the bush.

Over the weekend I made dad promise me to invite me on any walks he was going to be doing. It poured on Monday and I was, thankfully I remember thinking that day, on afternoon shift. He walked up and back down a hill sitting on the side of one of the town's I grew up in. Yesterday I finished work at 1, raced home to saw some leaders out of our apple tree with help then made it to our friend's house in the other town by 2.45. Dad had forgotten to tell me his shifts had changed to a 4pm finish, hence a 2 hour wait ensued.

He and this mate (+1 more) are going on a hike this weekend. It's going to take about 4 or 5 days, hard going. This mate, Jason, was all prepped with the things he needed. Ultra-light sleeping bag, mat, tent, food, camelbaks, clothes, etc. We spent the 2 hours checking out his little handmade metho stove. I've heard about them, but never seemed to find the use for or even look at them before. After checking his out, I'll be making one before my next backpacking adventure. This is a link he sent me to help me make my own.

We opened up his little netted bag of cooking devices and he gave me a demonstration that sold it. 30ml of metho=6 minutes of burn time. Easiest cup of tea when you're on the go, hands down. No moving pieces, no screwing things this way and that. Now I've just got to make my own...updates to come...

So after a good look through all his gear and some good conversations about the places we've been recently or are going to, dad turned up, we got in the car and made our way. Parking behind the Lithgow sewerage treatment plant (romantic, I know) we proceeded up the hill on foot. When reaching the top we followed the road, kept in reasonable condition by powerline grid workers. It led us to a clearing with an inconspicuous bushwalkers sign hidden in the scrub leading to an overgrown, rock-lined path to a cliff top, giving you this brilliant shot of the Zig Zag viaducts (with me in the foreground-how else to prove I've been there?).

After this we walked another little way down and up another bit of a hill and were witness to an absolutely stunning sunset at another angle. 

I only had my iphone on me, but it gives you a bit of an idea of how treated we were. It wasn't even all that cold as the rain over the last couple of days seems to have acted as insulation. I took a quick snap of the other two trying to capture the sunset but you can't even see dad in his everyday wear khaki in the background, mixed with the failing light. We were on top of the hill at this time, in the gorgeous, heathy scrubland. Just before it turns into 'private property'. As if you would restrict access to people from beautiful country like this! 

So all in all after that short approximately 3km trek, my soul has been somewhat re-energised and I feel more like myself, more grounded now that I've reconnected with my country. Now to make this more of a habit.

Blue Mountains Mid summer adventures

So recently I've been flat out at work (currently on day 9 in a row). My last day off was well spent with the other half and family. It was Valentine's Day so what better excuse to get out and soak up the sunshine, a bit more of a taste of a proper Aussie sunshine with temps up around 33 degrees Celsius. 

In the morning, after a well deserved sleep in, I was swept away for a drive into the bush to a secluded look out by my love. We sat on the cliff top admiring the beauty of Bathurst, west of the mountains, as it was beginning to become somewhat of a heat sink for the day. We finished off the fruit salad we brought with us and headed home to our house among the forest again. 

My parents called to ask if we'd be interested in joining them for a walk up the mountains around lunchtime. We're about an hour west of Katoomba so it's a perfect spot for a short day trip. We ended up at the Comservation Hut at Wentworth Falls. There are a few walks that bypass or start or end here but we chose the short walk to Empress Falls and back. It was a real pity we forgot our cossie's because once we got down the bottom every man and his dog were jumping into the deep hole that the falls descend into. Dad didn't care whether or not he had his swimmers and took his shirt and shoes off and jumped in anyway for a quick dip. We could only take the liberty of dipping our feet in. While we were there at the bottom we noticed some abseilers turning up at the top of the falls and they promptly began descending the falls. It looked as if the water was coming out of a canyon itself so as you can imagine it was quite a shady little hollow. Then began the climb back out.

(Quick snap of Vaughan and I)

Turned out a lovely day though and managed to get quite a bit done!

Travel update!

So the other half is now feeling really positive about the Diploma he's just started. As a result he's determined to complete it to the best of his ability. This means we're postponing our plans of an extended stay in Europe together. While this is a bit of a pity, I'm determined to get back over and explore some new places. Luckily, my youngest sister is finishing high school this year. She has told me she'd prefer to save more money and give 'schoolies' (Australian end of school tradition of going away for a week to get drunk and party) a miss to fly to Europe and do a bit of backpacking. Mums not too keen on her going alone so I dutifully have put my hand up. This means the next 10 months I'll be trying to save for a short trip to waylay my travel bug until we're both ready to head off on that extended trip. Let's just hope Australian/British visas are still just as easy to get as they are today.

Otherwise, at the moment I've been divided between the new casual job, shifts here there and everywhere and the Forestry, spraying weeds with my singing supervisor (he's currently singing 'dancing with you in the summer rain' as he takes the weather readings before we start spraying again). And to finish the post I'll grace the page with some little snapshots our gorgeous weather over the past week has delivered us with. 

(Taken in the backyard of the work Depo one morning at the start of the day)

(The sun shining through a stand of old eucalypts-taken just today before smoko, heading for a top of 31-36)