A Great 3 Days

The pictures in this post, plus many more can be viewed at Just Pictures.

Had a big 3 days with Sunshine recently. Firstly, we went canyon in Empress again - this time doing the big walk out along the beautiful National Pass Trail.

Sunshine dropping off Empress Falls.


If you look closely you might see the National Pass Trail half way up the cliff, on the right hand side. The Trail actually traverses this entire cliff line, half way up!

Then we drove down to Sydney to meet Mum for YumCha and to pick up a new laptop.


Then we spent the night in the van overlooking Shelly Beach at Manly.

It was our first night sleeping in the van and it was comfy. It rained all night, but with so much room inside we were not affected by it at all.

In the morning, while a beautiful sun rose over North Head Sydney harbor, we opened the door to let Mistisa (our dog) out. She ran after some joggers not even to return 2 hours later...

we picked her up later that morning at the Manly pound!


We drove home that afternoon and headed straight out to Narrow Neck to climb a 3 pitch, 67m, 3 star, grade 13 climb called Cave Climb. Getting the the bottom of the cliff was a real drama. The guide we had was more than 10 years old and when it described steel ladders to climb down, all we found were dodgy, rusty things that looked a bit like ladders with a water fall falling over them. While it was a bit of an adventure going down them, it was actually quite beautiful.


Cave Climb was a fare old hike from the base of those ladders, but when we eventually found it we weren't disappointed.

The starting pitch was a challenge but we both did it with the aid of a little tree.

The second pitch was adventurous, stepping out under over hangs and across big open cracks, finally reaching an amazing belay anchor in a huge cave.

The 3rd pitch unbelievably went up into the cave, popping out through a little hole in the top, and stepping out onto an amazing view over the impressive reach of cliff we had climbed.

Onwards and upwards to the top for a beautiful sun set, and a starry eyed walk out.



So ended a great 3 days with Sunshine. And what better way to end it than with another one of our afternoon sunset climbs.

Valentines Day

Had a pretty good day Monday. Started with a loving kiss from Sunshine and a morning of big cliff climbing, ending with a plane flight over the mountains and dinner at the Hydro.

Sunset Rock Personalities

Initials and date etching is very popular and historically interesting.


Sunshine and I are still chasing sunsets around the mountains, this time it was Sunset Rock. After an pretty interesting walk out to Kedumba Pass hunting for old style climbs, we pulled into Sunset Rock off the Kings TableLand Rd, near the space observatory.
Sunset Rock is an amazing rock platform that juts its overhang out into the Jamison Valley, over looking the Valley of the Waters and Wentworth Falls. Its an impressive Westerly view of the Mountains and certainly the place to be on good sunset like today.

Down Pours, Hail, Lightening, Floods...

The weather up here has been crazy. With more than 4 days of almost constant down pour, hail the size of golf balls, lightening to knock out my modem and desk top (but the laptop keeps cranking)... The MiniHaHa water fall is quite a sight. This is Sunshine crossing the creek at the beginning of the track down to the falls. I had to carry Mistisa over. The water fall was really something. We couldn't get anywhere near the base of it due to fast moving flood waters. The awesome power of it just left us sitting above, looking down on it in silence and awe. The really amazing thing is witnessing just how much water is caught in our tiny little catchment. Wentworth Falls would be incredible. Maybe we'll visit that one tomorrow.

Dam Cliffs

A massive jump! Chris (on the left) and another young fella on the right take the gut wrenching leap from the main cliff at Dam Cliffs, while Sara gets to the top to take it all in.
Dam Cliffs is a lovely place out past Bell. Some great swimming with thrilling jumps, swings and bouldering. The face in this picture has a pretty hard line up under the little overhang then straight up. The hard move is at the top with a big reach up. Very balanced and freaky stuff.
There is also some lovely climbing to do just down from the dam itself. Its great on a hot day as its in the shade and the routes are short. I can tell I'll be going here quite a bit.