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-I'M THE KING OF THE CASTLE, ..... -Geof Wagg. 0       .and my, what a vast selection of dirty rascals.
+=====I'm The King Of The Castle.....=====
-Transport was the big question. The main piece of bad-moving equipment was to be the Puttmobile making its maiden voyage, and at one stage I distinctly remember we had exactly the right number to fill it. Then we had it packed tight with one roosting on the stove (the hot seat) and another perched like a parrot in the spare tyre.
-We had resigned ourselves to this when the transport suddenly increased until we had only one passenger to the square acre of upholstery. As the day grew closer, though, the panic subsided until we had a neat convoy of 2 bikes, 2 cars and one (the one and only) Puttmobile. All of these were to make their way more or less independently to Drury's Farm. Some started early and some started late, but miraculous as it may seem when one regards Garth's /totor bike with Stitt's critical eye, we all arrived on or before 7.30 Saturday morn, We thought we'd meet up at Tomerong with Don and Tina who were honeymooning in that vicinity, but we didn't. We also thought we might meet Pat and Ian up from Canberra, but at the last minute Pat sent a letter beautifully illustrated with a diagram showing how many pieces the bike was in, so we didn't meet them either.
+-Geof Wagg.
-FOR ALL_ YOUR TRANSPORT PROBLEMS CONTACT
-HATTSWELL'S TAXI & TOURIST SERVICE
+......and my, what a vast selection of dirty rascals.
-RING, WRITE, WIRE OR GALL
-ANY HOUR, DAY OR NIGHT
+Transport was the big question. The main piece of bod-moving equipment was to be the Puttmobile making its maiden voyage, and at one stage I distinctly remember we had exactly the right number to fill it. Then we had it packed tight with one roosting on the stove (the hot seat) and another perched like a parrot in the spare tyre. We had resigned ourselves to this when the transport suddenly increased until we had only one passenger to the square acre of upholstery. As the day grew closer, though, the panic subsided until we had a neat convoy of 2 bikes, 2 cars and one (the one and only) Puttmobile. All of these were to make their way more or less independently to Drury's Farm. Some started early and some started late, but miraculous as it may seem when one regards Garth's motor bike with Stitt's critical eye, we all arrived on or before 7.30 Saturday morn. We thought we'd meet up at Tomerong with Don and Tina who were honeymooning in that vicinity, but we didn't. We also thought we might meet Pat and Ian up from Canberra, but at the last minute Pat sent a letter beautifully illustrated with a diagram showing how many pieces the bike was in, so we didn't meet them either.
-Telephone: BIHEATH0128 or 249. Booking Office - 4 doors from Gardner's Inn Hotel (LOOK FOR THE NEON SIGN.)
-SPEEDY 5 OR 8 PASSENGER CARS AVAILABLE.
+Seven-thirty at Drury's Farm was a murky morning. The Drurys were putting a bullock team through its paces while Hoop hovered at a safe distance climbing trees and balancing on fence posts angling for a cine shot. It was about this time we became aware of a Presence in our midst, wearing an indescribable hat conjured out of yak pelt - blessing money - proclaiming holy days - and asking people could they please tell him which way is east. It was none other than the Dalai Lama who has an answer to every question and never uses a word under five syllables.
-LARGE OR SMiLLL PARTIES CATERED FOR
-FARES: KANANGRA WALLS 30/. per head (minimum 5 passengers)
+The day still lowered at us and Pigeon House was a dim blue silhouette in a dull grey sky as the Puttmobile and Rigby Renault travellers set out in serried ranks like straying sheep towards the farther clearing where the bike travellers and those in the Doctor's Dodge had hid themselves. We found them in fine spirits and half full of breakfast sausage, so while they ate Pete regaled us with how the corrugated road had reduced Garth's bike almost to a palpitating heap, and Garth wandered round with pieces of bike denying everything.
-PERRY '5 LOOKDOWN  U u
-JENOLAN STATE FOREST 20/- " u U t?
+The vanguard, that is every one except Dot, Stitt and Garth, moved away about ninish along the timber road towards our climbing ridge. My directions for this tricky piece of navigation had been multitudinous. Paddy said "First go west with a bit or north in it, then north with a bit of west in it, and described to me in detail every bridge and crossing. So propelled by the confidence all this advice bestowed we strode onward. Soon it was time to take stock. Here was the river - here was the bridge; Hmm... "now Doctor's Creek must be just around this bend. I'll have a look." I had a look and concluded that our ridge was just across the creek, but when I returned Stitt and Co. had showed up and were claiming that our ridge lay on this side of the creek. Hmm! "Most destroying to the confidence," I thought, "However one must stick up for one's rights however wrong they are" - and I led off towards my ridge while the insurgents followed up their own.
-ARLON'S FARM 10/- " U It It
-WE WILL BE PLEASED TO QUOTE OTHER TRIPS OR SPECIAL PARTIES ON APPLICATION.
+We crossed the creek on a nice greasy steep-sloping log - or most of us crossed I should say, because as I was mounting the opposite slope I heard a tremendous splash!!.... and turned just in time to see a plume of water rising eight feet into the air. Colin it was. Hobnails for ever and other New Zealand curses I'm sure.
-Seven-thirty at Drury's Farm was a murky morning. The Drurys were putting a bullock team through its paces while Hoop hovered at a
-safe distance climbing trees and balancing on fence posts angling for a eine shot, It tas about this time we became aware of a Presence in our midst, wearing an indescribable hat conjured out of yak pelt - blessing money - proclaiming holy days - and asking people could they please tell him which way is east. It was none other than the Dalai Lama who has an answer to every question and never uses a word under five syllables.
+Our party of nineteen minus three straggled and struggled to the ridge top. No rest - we had a seance instead with Hoop and others incanting over the Holy Map (blessed by the Dalai Lama) and were amazed to find that the ridge ran in the correct direction. Could I have been right after all? Well, well. Press on. After we had been pressing on for a short while_Pidgeon House came into view straight ahead. This was fantastic. I must have been right. These things do happen I suppose. The feet and minutes slowly passed with a steady uphill grind until, Lo and Behold, as though the Lama had produced them out of his hat, the three truants appeared making our party sixteen plus three.
-The day still lowered at us and Pigeon House was a dim blue
-silhouette in a dull grey sky as the Puttmobile and Rigby Renault
+Soon after this we stood all together under the frowning brow of the rocky face and thought "Lunch before or after?" We decided on a compromise with a snack first to give us strength to climb, but leaving enough appetite to call us back. A good theory anyway. We turned our faces to the slope and found it steep and getting steeper. The top was high and seemed to be getting higher, and the wind was blowing and definitely getting blowier. We thought it might storm or snow. Snow - we thought of him and our minds drifted away to where he was reclining on the sungold sands of Era. The next we knew we were almost bumping our noses on the rock face. Well, the present problem was to hand and we set to. Ross knew the conventional way up and led off to it, but Dot was determined to pioneer a route. She did too, proclaiming it all to be cat's meat as Col and I clung to slabs and scrabbled with hobnails, and Don end Digby doggedly followed foot and hand, and the wind bullied and buffeted us all. On top the gale unleashed its final fury so that we clung to rocks for support as we viewed the view. This was extensive but dimmed by the grey sky light, and diffused by the squalls of rain sweeping up the valley. Photography was virtually hopeless, so with little other temptation to linger we soon turned back to lunch.  Dot pioneered the route down too, but most of us felt it would be advantageous to know two routes and took the easy way down. By the time we had returned for lunch the wind had died and the clouds had all blown away - to Era I suppose.
-travellers set out in serried ranks like straying sheep towards the
-farther clearing where the bike travellers and those in the Doctor's
+The sun shone brightly all that afternoon as we wound down Longfella Ridge to the Clyde River. On the clean green clearing below we sat admiring this aspect of the Castle and gloating over the wonderful weather that seemed in store for the morrow while we waited for the stragglers. Soon it became evident that our party was minus three again, but Pete said he'd wait and put them on the track up Yadbora Creek, so as the hour grew late we moved off, minus four.
-Dodge had hid themselves. We found them in fine spirits and half full of breakfast sausage, so while they ate Pete regaled us with
-how the corrugated road had reduced Garth's bike almost to a palpitating heap, and Garth wandered round with pieces of bike denying everything.
+Yadbora seemed a fairly open kind of creek, though fortunately with plenty of shrubbery at first as the fifteen odd bods snuk past the homestead where we feared we'd be not welcome. The big clearings on the banks gave good clear views of the Castle which now seemed to be very close. I'd just been retrieved from a side creek up which I'd seemed inclined to stray when we came upon a veritable village of tents, some Rucksack and some Ramblers I believe, and also our three strays who'd come down a different ridge and arrived before us.
-The vanguard, that is every one except Dot, Stitt and Garth,
-moved away about ninish along the timber road towards our climbing ridge. My directions for this tricky piece of navigation had been multitudinous. Paddy said "First go west with a bit or north in it,
+We were now plus three minus one, for Pete was still waiting patiently (?) back on the Clyde. The plea of "Camp - Aw mighty campsite," had been arising now as we came to each fresh clearing, so here I not very reluctantly allowed myself to be won over about three quarter of a mile from our avowed objective, so long as we had a seven o'clock start next morning (what hope!) and we added our tents to the slum beneath the trees. Looking up between the trees we caught a glimpse of the reflected glory of the sunset and thought absently of the minus one sitting cold and getting colder at the foot of Longfella Ridge, waiting for those who would never come. The Dalai Lama must have thought so too, because as campfires flared in the dusk and some brave ones returned from an icy swim he was suddenly noticed to be missing, having transported himself back to the Clyde to save a soul. But to our consternation the first to appear was the minus one himself, who must have passed his rescuer somewhere en route and mistaken him for a straying yak, while the Holy One was probably so concerned with the Otherness of Things, or possibly with the tea Dot was preparing for him in the sacred vessel covered with charcoal and coated with yak grease, that he didn't notice a thing. Eventually, of course, Minus One No.2 returned and brought us greetings from the people at the homestead whom he described as peasants reeking with offal and offspring, so inbred that all they could say was "Dhaww."
-then north with a bit of west in it, and described to me in detail every bridge and crossing. So propelled by the confidence all this advice bestowed we strode onward. Soon it was time to take stock. Here was the river - here was the bridge; Hmm... flnow Doctor's Creek must be just around this bend. I'll have a look." I had a
-look and concluded that our ridge was just across the creek, but when I returned Stitt and Co. had showed up and were claiming that our ridge lay on this side of the creek. Hmmi "Most destroying to the confidence," I thought, "However one must stick up for one's rights however wrong they are - and I led off towards my ridge while the
+Everyone was just relaxing after tea when it started to pour with rain which sent us scuttling to bed. What had happened to the beautiful weather we were expecting next day? "You never know your luck," I thought, and began counting starters for the morrow. Beryl was reluctantly retiring with a bad attack of gym boots; Doctor Bob was feeling slightly out of nick, and the Admiral was shipwrecked. The ship that was his undoing was a ladyship, Dawn, and according to the Doc, a destroyer.
-insurgents followed up their own.
-We crossed the creek on a nice greasy steep-sloping log - or most of us crossed I should say, because as I was mounting the
+The next day began at a bleary five-thirty with a semi-conscious peer at the weather. The evening's rain had cleaned the air and the chill wind was, at present anyway, blowing us no harm. I lit the fire and started waking the people who I thought wouldn't mind. First Grace, then Digby, then Brian. I could hear Ross talking so I knew his tent would soon be awake. Then I woke Grace again and saw Dot getting the breakfast for Garth and Pete and Putto. She apologised for this show of domesticity by explaining that she hadn't done anything towards getting meals on the previous day. Presently the Dalai Lama struggled out, and even Hoop was awake and giving moral support to Beryl who was cooking for him and Digby. I woke Grace up again and gave her some breakfast, then looked to see what progress. Joan was mumbling grumpily about people using all her water, while Jean wandered about with a mug hooked on one finger and a food bag on another trying to remember why she had given Grace nearly all her sugar.
-opposite slope I heard a tremendous splashl. and turned just in time to see a plume of water rising eight feet into the air. Colin
-it was. Hobnails for ever and other New Zealand curses I'm sure.
+Time was mooching on - it was a quarter past six. So I woke Grace up again and gave her the rest of her breakfast.....and emptied her out of her sleeping bag. Then I noticed three other offending forms still encased in superdown while Dot called vainly for them to come to breakfast. This clearly called for stern measures, but I doubted if I was equal to the task. First I seized on Putt, who fortunately happened to be ticklish, and once wrung from his sleeping bag decided he might as well stay up. Next was Stitt who was definitely ticklish but had to have his bag confiscated because of a distressing homing tendency. Last came Garth, who twice forewarned seemed to be about eight armed (twice four are eight), and put up a terrific battle, but being in a sleeping bag must be a great disadvantage because I even managed to get him out. With the time at a quarter to seven I emptied Grace out again and prepared to move off. At precisely seven o'clock the party of one minus eighteen moved off, followed by the ribald cheers of the peasantry.
-Our party of nineteen minus three straggled and struggled to the
-ridge top. No rest - we had a seance instead with Hoop and others incanting over the Holy Map (blessed by the Dalai Lama) and were amazed to find that the ridge ran in the correct direction. Could I have been right after all? Well, well. Press on. After we had been
+The river shrubbery was still wet with the night's rain. The sky was once more overcast but didn't seem seriously threatening, and I trotted along whistling absently, engrossed with the map. Here is the bend, this is the clearing, then that must be the ridge. I climbed a little way and sat under a tree wringing out my socks and contemplating the Otherness of Things. One week you get a party without a leader....next you get a leader without a party....there's just no system in it. Presently I heard some "Coo's" from down the creek and replied vigorously, only to find when the coo-ers emerged that it was the Rucksack crowd.
-pressing on for a short while_Pi?geon House came into view straight
-ahead. This was fantastic. I must have been right. These things do happen I suppose. The feet ad minutes slowly passed with a steady
+"Have you seen a party?" I asked, "...about fourteen of them?"
-uphill grind until, Lo and Behold, as though the Lama had produced
-them out of his hat, the three truants appeared making our party sixteen plus three.
+"Oh, your crowd," replied Norm Allen, "I saw them going up a ridge about half a mile back."
-Soon after this we stood all together under the frowning brow of
-the rocky face and thought "Lunch before or after?" We decided on a
+"Ye Gods!" I thought, "The poor little lambs have gone astray." I turned to ask how long ago this was, but the others had gone and I looked like being one minus eighteen all day. For five minutes I waited in perplexity, then I heard Colin's voice rumbling in the distance, answered by Dot's growing nearer, till one by one my lambs filed into view. Now we were nineteen minus four, which was as it should be, and I was most relieved.
-.
-compromise with a snack first to give us strength to climb, but leaving enough appetite to call us back. A good theory anyway. We turned our faces to the slope and found it steep and getting steeper. The top was high and seemed to be getting higher, and the wind was blowing and definitely getting blowier. We thought it might storm or snow. Snow - we thought of him and our minds drifted away to where he was reclining on the sungold sands of Era. The next we knew we were almost bumping our noses on the rock face. Well, the present problem was to hand and we set to. Ross knew the conventionaway up and led off to it, but Dot was determined to pioneer a route. She did too, proclaiming it all to be cat's meat as Col and I clung to slabs and scrabbled'with hobnails, and Don end Digby doggedly
+The ridge was open and climbed at a most reasonable angle to the southwest corner of the Castle's lower plateau, and here whom should we meet but the Rucksack mob taking a breather before skittering along under this first cliff face to a spot where an ancient landslide makes it possible to climb up to the tail. They didn't stop long however, and we set off after them because, after all, it is nice to have someone else to blame if you get a bit off the track. And for the most part it was almost a track while we followed along underneath the cliff line, but when we came to the last climb up to the tail we found we were wallowing waist deep in wiry boronia bushes. However, it's wonderful what a path twenty odd people can make, because we returned in our own tracks with much less trouble.
-followed foot and hand, and the wind bullied and buffeted us all. On top the gale unleashed its final fury so that we clung to rocks for support as we viewed the view. This was extensive but dimmed by
-the grey sky light, and diffused by the squalls of rain sweeping up the valley. Photography was virtually hopeless, so with little other
+Under the steep broken rock line of the tail Dot found she still had the urge to pioneer a route, so she and most of the party began scaling up a very promising piece of cliff, while some of us who felt less intrepid followed Norm Allen and his crew through a sort of squeeze hole to the other side of the narrow barrier, then up an easy sloping dirt-filled crevice to the top. When we had got about half way up we heard noises below and saw the rest of the party coming along. They had found their piece of cliff unsafe without a rope, and squoze through the squeeze shortly after us.
-temptation to linger we soon turned back 'to lunch  Dot pioneered th.)
-route down too, but most of us felt it would be advantageous to know two routes and took the easy way down. By the time we had returned
+From the top of the tail we looked only slightly upward to the top of the Castle, but down a long, long way into Oakey Creek. Poor Jean, who was starting to feel the effort, thought she might sit here and wait for us to come back, but a bit of pulling from Stitt and pushing from me and we got our dear Great Auntie over the worst of it. Colin, too, got into a predicament rather like Jack Wren's story of Gram'pa with his foot caught in the bear trap, when his boot became wedged in a crack. He couldn't get it out either, so we unlaced his boot and set him free.
-for lunch the wind had died and the clouds had all blown away - to Era I suppose.
-The sun shone brightly all that afternoon as we wound down Longfella Ridge to the Clyde River. On the clean green clearing
+So one way or another, and with one thing and another, we found ourselves on top of the Castle. From the instant you set foot on the broad flat top the rocky eminence of the Pidgeon House draws your eye (and camera lense) like a magnet. Away and away across the low plateau of Byangee, across the valley of the Clyde with its clearings and homestead till you meet the ridge, then up to the cliff line, up the steep sloping sides to the crown of rock, and behind it the sea. Northward lay Pidgeon House Gorge, south and west were mountains, hazy blue and dimmed with cloud shadows - an immense vista, and
-below we sat admiring this aspect of the Castle and gloating over the wonderful weather that seemed in store for the morrow while we
+yet too far away to hold the eye which slowly reverted to its resting place - Pidgeon House.
-waited for the stragglers. Soon it became evident that OUT party was minus three again, but Pete said he'd wait and put them on the track up Yadbora Creek, so as the hour grew late we moved off, minus four.
-Yadbora seemed a fairly open kind of creek, though fortunately
+But enough of looking; we wanted lunch. Some hardy types found sufficient will power to consult the names in the cairn before they ate, and discovered that Jean and Dot, Joan and Grace, appeared to be, from the record, the first four females to set foot on the summit. Quite a distinction. Colin and helpers also built an enormous fire whose smoke was intended to prove to the yokels in the valley, who believed the Castle to be unscalable, that we really had done it. Unfortunately, though, the wind dispersed the smoke so quickly that we could scarcely see it from a few yards away. The same wind carried a rich smell of singed hair and eyebrows over to the others having their lunch.
-with plenty of shrubbery at first as the fifteen odd bods snuk past the homestead Where we feared we'd be not welcome. The big clearings on the banks gave good clear views of the Castle which now seemed to be very close I'd just been retrieved from a side creek up which I'd seemed inclined to stray when we came upon a veritable village of tents, some Rucksack and some Ramblers I believe, and also our three
-strays who'd come down a different ridge and arrived before us.
+We had taken four hours up from the creek to the summit, so, calculating our return journey, this didn't leave us much time for aesthetic reflection after lunch. However, returning in our tracks of the morning we found required much less effort, being gravity-assisted, but it took almost as long. When it came to sidling under the cliff we took the high road while the Rucksack mob took the one lower down, and we certainly came out on top by about ten minutes. So, carried away by the exhilaration of an energetic day with the people we like best, we were running and singing as loud as we had breath to, down the ridge to Yadbora Creek - we thought. Then our balloon was pricked. "We're on the wrong ridge," shouted Snow. Suddenly it seemed to grow dark as the glow faded from our enthusiasm. __More__ effort, we thought. The two New Zealanders and Pete were already at the foot of the spur when we told them, so they just kept crashing down the creek, but we crossed to the right route; even so we were a little behind them at the bottom. It was here the joyful thought cane to us - Let's get the Admiral, the piker; bet he's been up to mischief - tied our sleeping bags in knots or let down our tents - but whatever it is we'll revenge ourselves first and discover afterwards. With cat-like tread we snuk along, crossing crossings with a minimum of splash, stalking our prey. We were all together when the tents came in sight, and there the Admiral was relaxing on a log. As we roared down the slope he sprang up, (it must be dreadful to have a guilty conscience), but he was too late. Seize him! Tickle him! Take his shoes! Throw him in the creek! (Save his watch) Pour cold water on his manly chest!
-We were now plus three minus one, for Pete was still waiting patientl:; (?) back on the Clyde. The plea of "Camp - Aw mighty campsite," had been arising now as we came to each fresh clearing, so here I not very reluctantly allowed myself to be won over about three quartc. of a mile from our avowed objective, so long as we had a seven o'clock start next morning (what hope!) and we added our tents to the slum beneath the trees, Looking up between the trees we caught a glimpse of the reflected glory of the sunset and thought absently of the minu2
-one sitting cold and getting colder at the foot of Longfella Ridge, waiting for those who would never come. The Dalai Lama must have thought so too, because as campfires flared in the dusk and some brav
+"You fiends!" shouts the Admiral, "That's the very water I slaved to carry up from the river for you."
-ones returned from an icy swim he was suddenly noticed to be missing,
-having transported himself back to the Clyde to save a soul. But to
+"Don't tell stories," we answered and continued the treatment. Of course the really funny part, as we discovered later, was that he probably had carried the water for us, although Dawn says he made her help him.
-our consternation the first to appear was the minus one himself, who , must have passed his rescuer somewhere en route and mistaken him for
-a straying yak, 7:Jline the Holy One was probably so concerned with the
+That night while the little stars arced widely across the sky, the nineteen minus none slept the untroubled sleep of exhausted innocence, even the Sacred One foregoing for once his night-long vigil and meditation on the Otherness of Things.
-Otherness of ThJngs, or possibly with the tea Dot was preparing for
-.
-him in the sacred vessel covered with charcoal and coated with yak grease, that he didn't notice a thing. Eventually, of course, Minu-
-One No.2 returned and brought us greetings from the people at the homestead whom he described as peasants reeking with offal and offspring, so inbred that all they could say was "Dhaww."
-Everyone was just relaxing after tea when it started to pour with rain which sent us scuttling to bed, That had happened to the beauti-
-ful weather we were expecting next day? "You never know your luck," I thought, and began counting starters for the morrow. Beryl was
-reluctantly retiring with a bad attack of gym boots; Doctor Bob was feeling slightly out of nick, and the Admiral was shipwrecked. The ship that was his undoing was a ladyship, Dawn, and according to the Doc, a destroyer*
-The next day began at a bleary five-thirty with a semi-conscious peer at the weather. The evening's rain had cleaned the air and the chill wind was, at present anyway, blowing us no harm. I lit the fire and started waking the people who I thought wouldn't mind. First Grace, then Digby, then Brian. I could hear Ross talking so I knew his tent would soon be awake. Then I woke Grace again and saw Dot getting the breakfast for Garth and Pete and Putto. She apologised for this show of domesticity by explaining that she hadn't done any, thing towards getting meals on the previous day. Presently the Dalai Lama struggled out, and even Hoop was awake and giving moral support to Beryl who was cooking for him and Digby. I woke Grace up again and gave her some breakfast, then looked to see what progress. Joan was mumbling grumpily about people using all her water, while
-Jean wandered about with amug hooked on one finger and a food bag
-on another trying to remember whsr she had given Grace nearly all her sugar.
-Time was mooching on - it was a quarter past six. So I woke Grace up again and gave her the rest of her breakfast.....and emptied
-her out of her sleeping bag, Then I noticed three other offending forms still encased in superdown while Dot called vainly for them to come to breakfast. This clearly called for stern measures, but I doubted if I was equal to the task, First I seized on Putt, who fortunately happened to be ticklish, and once wrung from his sleeping bag decided he might as well stay up. Next was Stitt who was definitfzly ticklish but had to have his bag confiscated because of a distressl homing tendency. Last came Garth, who twice forewarned seemed to be about eight armed (twice four are eight), and put up a terrific battle, but being in a sleeping bag must be a great disadvantage
-because I even managed to get him out. With the time at a quarter to seven I emptied Grace out again and prepared to move off, At preciseTh
-seven o'clock the party of one minus eighteen moved off, followed by the ribald cheers of the peasantry.
-The river shrubbery was still wet with the night's rain. The
-sky was once more overcast but didn't seem seriously threatening, an I trotted along whistling absently, engrossed with the map. Here is
-the bend, this is the clearing, then that must be the ridge. I climbed a little way and sat under a tree wringing out my socks and
-contemplating the Otherness of Things. One week you get a party
-without a leader....next you get a leader without a party99..there's just no system in it. Presently I heard some "Q'5"from down tho
-,
-creek and replied vigorously, only to find when the coo-ers emerged that it was the Rucksack crowd.
-"Have you seen a party?" I asked, "..about fourteen of them?"
-"Oh, your crowd," veplied Norm Allen, I saw them going up a ridge about half a mile back."
-"Ye Gods" I thought, "The poor little lambs have gone astray."
-I turned to ask how long ago this was, but the others had gone and
-I looked like being one minus eighteen all day. For five minutes I waited in perplexity, then I heard Colin's voice rumbling in the distance, answered by Dot's growing nearer, till one by one my lambs Medi nto view, Now we were mineteen minus four, which was as it should be, and I was most relieved,
-The ridge was open and climbed at a most reasonable angle to the southwest corner of the Castle's lower plateau, and here whom should we meet but the Rucksack mob taking a breather before skittering along under this first cliff face to a spot where an ancient landslide makes it possible to climb up to the tail. They didn't
-stop long however, and we set off after them because, after all, it.
-is nice to have someone else to blame if you get a bit off the track. And for the most part it was almost a track while we followed along
-underneath the cliff line, but when we came to the last climb up to the tail we found we were wallowing waist deep in wiry boronia bushes However, it's wonderful what a path twenty odd people can make,
-because we returned in our own tracks with much less trouble.
-Under the steep broken rock line of the tail Dot found she still
-had the urge to pioneer a route, so she and most of the party began scaling up a very promising piece of cliff, while some of us who
-felt less intrepid followed Norm Allen and his crew through a sort of s4ieeze hole to the other side of the narrow barrier, then up an easy sloping dirt-filled crevice to the top. When we had got about half way up we heard noises below and saw the rest of the party coming along. They had found their piece of cliff unsafe without a rope, and squoze through the squeeze shortly after us.
-From the top of the tail we looked only slightly upward to the top of the Castle, but down a long, long way into Oakey Creek. Poor Jean, who was starting to feel the effort, thought she might sit here and wait for us to come back, but a bit of pulling from Stitt and pushing from me and we got our dear Great Auntie over the worst of it. Cdin, too, got into a predicament rather like Jack Wren's story of Gramlpa with his foot caught in the bear trap, when his boot became wedged in a crack. He couldn't get it out either, so we unlaced his boot and set him free.
-So one way or another, and with one thing and another, we found ourselves on top of the Castle. From the instant you set foot on the broad flat top the rocky eminence of the Pidgeon House draws your eye (and camera lense) like a magnet, Away and away across the low plateau of Byangee,across the valley ofthe Clyde with its clearings and homestead till you meet the ridge, then up to the cliff line,. up
-.
-the steep sloping sides to the crown of rock, and behind it the sea. Northward lay Rhgeon House Gorge, south and west were mountains, hazy blue and dimmed with cloud shadows - an immense vista, and
-yet too'far away to hold the eye which slowly reverted to its resting place - Pidgeon House. -
-But enough of looking; we wanted lunch. Some hardy types found sufficient will power to consult the names in the cairn before they ate, and discovered that Jean and Dot, Joan and Grace, appeared to be, from the record, the first four females to set foot on the summit Quite a distinction. Colin and helpers also built an enormous fire whose smoke was intended to prove to the yokels in the valley, who believed the Castle to be unscalable, that we really'had done it. Utnfortunately, though, the wind dispersed the smoke o quickly that we could scarcely see it from a few yards away. The same wind carried a rich smell of singed hair and eyebrows over to the others having their lunch.
-We had taken four hours up from the creek to the summit, so, calculating our return journey, this didn't leave us much time for aesthetic reflection after lunch. However, returning in our tracks Of the morning we found required much less effort, being gravity- assisted, but it took almost as long. When it came to sidling under the cliff we took the high road while the Rucksack mob took the one lower down, and we certainly came out on top by about ten minutes. So, carried away by the exhilaration of an energetic day with the
-people we like best, we were running and singing as loud as we had breath to, down the ridge to Yadbora Creek - we thought. Then our baloon was pricked. "We're on the wrong ridge," shouted Snow. Suddenly it seemed to grow dark as the glow faded from our anthusiasm, More effort, we thought. The two New Zealanders and Pete were alread: at the foot of the spur When we told them, so they just kept crashing down the creek, but we crossed to the right route; even so we were a little behind them at the bottom. It was here the joyful thought cane to us - Let's get the Admiral, the piker; bet he's been up to mischief - tied our sleeping bags in knots or let down our tents - but whatever it is we'll revenge ourselves first and discover afterwards. With cat-like tread we snuk along, crossing crossings with a minimum of splash, stalking our prey. We were all together when the
-tents came in sight, and there the Admiral was relaxing on a log.
-As we roared down the slope he sprang up, (it must be dreadful to havo a guilty conscience), but he was too late. , Seize him; Tickle him/ Take his shoes/ Throw him in the creek; (Save his watch), Pour
-cold water on his manly chest;
-"You fiends:" shouts the Admiral, "That's the very. water I
-slaved to carry up from the river for you."
-"Don't tell stories," we answered and continued the treatment.
-Of course the really funny part, ,as we discovered later, was that
-he probably had carried the water for us, although Dawn says he made her help him.
-That night while the little stars arced widely across the sky,
-the nineteen minus none slept the untroubled sleep of exhausted
-innocence, even the Sacred One foregoing for once his night-long
-,
-vigil and meditation on the Otherness of Things.
 And the next day we returned, all the way to Drury's while the sun shone. The oldest Drury was out to meet us and was inclined to be a little sceptical of our having climbed his mountain.
-"Hew lit a fire on top, didchew?" he roared, "Well, Hi dtdn't see no fire," (The Castle isn't visible from Drury's). Then he exploded to the half-startled Beryl, "Hew didn't climb thet mountain,
-didchew?" Beryl, who was nearly bursting with stifled laughter,
+"Hew lit a fire on top, didchew?" he roared, "Well, Hi didn't see no fire," (The Castle isn't visible from Drury's). Then he exploded to the half-startled Beryl, "Hew didn't climb thet mountain, didchew?" Beryl, who was nearly bursting with stifled laughter, shook her head, "Hi didn't think hew would!" he shouted triumphantly, then waving a hand towards Grace who was some distance ahead he said in a confidential bellow, "She's a fine tall girl. Wen Hi saw 'er walking so straight an' tall Hi thought it were Joe's girl Clarissa. Y'know Joe, 'oo lives hup the back?" gesturing with thumb over his shoulder. We said we didn't know Joe, but showed him Jean who'd been chortling in the background, and told him this was Grace's sister.
-shook her head, "Hi didn't think hew would!" he shouted triumphantly,
-then waving a hand towards Grace who was some distance ahead he said
+"Haw" he roared and thumped me on the shoulder, "Jist uz well Hi never said nothin' wrong about 'er!" Then we all laughed, I picked myself up off the ground, and we went off still chuckling amongst ourselves, a happy party of nineteen minus none.
-in a confidential bellow, "She's a fine tall girl, Wen Hi saw ler
-walking so straight a. Hi thought it were Joe's girl Clarissa.
+Well, that should rightly be the end of this story, and so it shall be, but one can't help mentioning how the gallant Puttmobile, which had pulled it's load so well all this way, collapsed near the top of an enormous hill just out of Milton, and how the Dalai Lama declared that we had angered the Gods who dwell on the Mountain Top and that the situation obviously called for a human sacrifice; and how we decided that the Admiral would do anyway and sacrificed him by the roadside, tying him to a post of the safety fence with a blood-red cross emblazoned on his forehead and a minus sign on his chin, (It should have been the other way round); and how he stopped three cars with his piteous crys of "Help!!" until Colin told us that seeing the sacrifice hadn't worked he was going to send for the N.R.M.A., and how all except Ross and Colin left the happy communal atmosphere of the truck to hitch home in lonely twos end threes.
-Ylknow Joe, loo lives hup thcl back?" gesturing with thumb over his shoulder. We said we didn't know Joe, but showed him Jean who'd been
-chortling in the background, and told him this was Grace's sister.
+And just as the very last word we must admit that Garth's machine rattled precariously on, through mist and moonbeams, through blinding rain and fog, all the way back to Sydney, while Doctor Bob's car had two, or was it three, blowouts, and young Donnie who was with him along with four others, got home to Blacktown just as his father was sitting down to breakfast.
-'Haw" he roared and thumped me on the shoulder, "Jist uz well
-Hi never said nothin' wrong about fer;" Then we all laughed, I picked myself up off the ground, and we went off still chuckling amongst ourselves, a happy party of nineteen minus none,
+----
-Well, that should rightly be the end of this story, and so it
-shall be, but one can't help mentioning how the gallant Puttmobile, which had pulled it's load so well all this way, collapsed near the
+__Tasmanian Holiday__: Anyone wishing to go to Tasmania for the period Dec. 28th to Jan. 31, please contact Dr. Livingstone (LX5142). One member of his party of four has dropped out and he will be pleased to take someone else. His car is being taken over, and a sight-seeing and walking tour is contemplated. All expenses will be shared.
-top of an enormous hill just out of Milton, and how the Dalai Lama
-declared that we had angered the Gods who dwell on the Mountain Top and that the situation obviously called for a human sacrifice; and how we decided that the Admiral would do anyway and sacrificed him by the roadside, tying him to a post of the safety fence with a blood-red cross emblazoned on his forehead and a minus sign on his chin, (It should have been the other way round); and how he stopped three cars with his piteous crys of"Helpl!" until Colin told us that seeing the sacrifice hadn't worked he was going to send for the N,R.M.A., and how all except Ross and Colin left the happy communal atmosphere of the truck to hitch home in lonely twos end threes,
+----
-And just as the very last word we must admit that Garth's machine rattled precariously on, through mist and moonbeams, through blinding rain and fog, all the way back to Sydney, while Doctor Bob's car had two, or was it three, blowouts, end young Donnie who was with him along with four others, got home to Blacktown just as his father was sitting down to breakfast.
-TASMNILN HOLIDAY: Anyone wishing to go to Tasmania for the period Dec. 28th to "Jan, 31, please contact Dr. Livingstone (1115142), One member of his party of four has dropped out and he will be pleased to take :someone else, His car is being taken over, and a sight-seeing and walking tour is contemplated, All expanses will be shared,
+A DAY
-.
-DAY
 - Dot Butler
 "Once, once only, never again, never, The idle curve my hand traces in air,