196107
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+ | =====From The Letters Of Robert A. Duncan.===== | ||
- | FROM THE LETTERS OF ROBERT A. DUNCAN., | + | High Altitude |
- | "I have lifted | + | |
- | "You will be interested in one effect of the cold, dry climate here. The air is such a good insulator that everything becomes | + | "I have lifted |
- | "Mile in Washington.) The first weekend I was dragged around to see all the sights; where George Washington slept, where George Washington once had a bath, where his bones are now stored and so on. Some of these things were interesting but I faard the dawdling and gawking and crowds very tiring. Once when everyone joined a queue to walk through G.TV's kitchen I said I mru2d wait outside, and sneaked over for forty winks in the sun on the lawn, barely had I closed my | + | |
- | eyes than I was woken by a policeman and told it was irreverent to sleep on G.Wis | + | "You will be interested in one effect of the cold, dry climate here. The air is such a good insulator that everything becomes |
- | lawn | + | |
- | "The most popular pets in Boulder seem to be French Poodles, and some very elaborate | + | "(While |
- | there are more poodles waiting for a haircut than men and as people are given no precedence in the queue it means a long wait. I noticed the same thing in | + | |
- | Washington last meek; evidently it is an America wide phenomenon. | + | "The most popular pets in Boulder seem to be French Poodles, and some very elaborate |
- | "I was in Washington on the Atlantic Coast last week. Alen I look:back at it now it wasn't a bad trip but I was a bit grumpy about it at the time. One thing that irked the was that the nobs I was stuck: with insisted on going to expensive | + | |
- | "I have heard rumours of an oil strike in Queensland. Is this just another | + | "I was in Washington on the Atlantic Coast last week. When I look back at it now it wasn't a bad trip but I was a bit grumpy about it at the time. One thing that irked me was that the nobs I was stuck with insisted on going to expensive |
- | 0 | + | |
- | floor was dotted | + | "I have heard rumours of an oil strike in Queensland. Is this just another false alarm or something more substantial? |
- | "Last Tuesday | + | |
+ | "Last Tuesday | ||
+ | |||
+ | " | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | =====The Good Old Days.===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | "Tough tireless types went out to the several primitive huts the Main Range where they pigged it, sleeping in their clothes with egg stains on their sweaters | ||
+ | |||
+ | From what we hear of Perisher Valley at the Long Weekend, you can't get away from loudspoken music, and the thing they call Visual Isolation is fast disappearing. | ||
+ | |||
+ | =====' | ||
+ | |||
+ | - Jim Brown. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The provocative weather was improving now, with a magnificent sky of washed-out blue, stained with black and yellow clouds, framed in the wide gap between Mt. Gundangeroo and the ranges across the Capertee: the wind from south west was biting cold. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sufficient of Glen Davis survives to allow me to buy a few stores, send a couple of telegrams, and to hear that the weather forecast was for better things. By this time the day was well advanced so I planned to camp just downstream. First I had to pass through the ruins of the shale treatment plant; a pitiful place with blackberries moving in on the big buildings that once housed the retorts and equipment. Beyond the works the Capertee is a most gracious valley and I had no trouble in finding a campsite beside (in fact, half within) an overhang which protected me and my fire for cooking. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It rained lightly several times in the nights but the stars were out just before dawn. With the morning, unfortunately the clouds came again, not the pall of the previous day but enough overcast to take most of the beauty out of a valley that must be as lovely as Burragorang before the flood. On a well formed trail, following the southern bank, sometimes well above the river, I made good time and in 1 1/2 hours - just after 8.0 a.m. - realised I was on my exit point. In fact, I almost overshot it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Some four or five miles down from Running Stream Creek (hence about 6-7 miles from Glen Davis) a basalt spur, misleadingly called Grassy Hill, intrudes into the sandstone cliff formation on the north side of the river, and offers an easy escape route. I was almost past it before I noticed the brown scree spills high on the slopes and realised it could be only Grassy Hill. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The combination of loose stones, the moist, slippery soil, the richer vegetation made the climb out an energetic performance, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Now my way lay north to the grassy dome of Mt. Uraterer, which I had approached twice before - once from the east and once from north west. It was about eight miles distant this time via a flat, wide ridge which I had been told was well grown up with mountain holly, prickly moses and other unpleasant vegetation. Most of the time one couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Over another dry ridge-top lunch I noted with dismay that the canvas fabric of my sandshoes was deteriorating badly and threatening to part company just behind the rubber toecaps. Perhaps if I could rely on track all the way from Uraterer they would see it out - I hoped. | ||
+ | |||
+ | About 1.0 p.m., in thickening overcast, I realised I had veered round and was walking almost east. Alarm, panic, consternation! In this flat terrain how could one ever be sure where I had left the ridge - or for that matter whether I would be able to locate it again. I spent a very wretched five minutes or so - and then came the only bona fide bit of luck on the trip - through a gap in the forest I saw the unmistakable grassy curve of Uraterer - bearing 20 degrees. I hadn't seen it before - I didn't see it for over an hour afterwards - what time I stuck resolutely to a compass bearing of 20 degrees magnetic - and somewhere got back on to my spur. | ||
+ | |||
+ | There was a track over the last mile or so, speeding my progress and bringing me to the top of the mountain at 3.30 p.m. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Uraterer commands a majestic view - not a photographer' | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was too cold to stay longer than half an hour so, I dropped down to the creek on the northern flank of the mountain, scouted around and found the track leading out towards Putty, and settled for the night at 4.30. It ranked as an early camp and I resolved to have a big fire, and a laze before it after dinner. Then it rained again, not much, but enough to dampen my enthusiasm and discourage me from making an expansive evening of it. Instead I turned in and lay a while in the sleeping bag smoking a final pipe and pondering if (aided by a track) I could be right out to the road on Wednesday, this sixth day, and by chancing on a hitch, even be back that night. That would get me back to my original estimate of a six-day trip which went haywire then I couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | On Wednesday I was astir early, moving off five minutes before sunrise time at 6.20. The track bore the prints of a small herd of cattle, one horseman and a couple of dogs - they must have gone through only a day or so before, or the periodical showers would have masked the prints. I followed up on the first spur, lost contact with the tracks and in the now misty morning light saw what I was positive was my ridge over to the north. Simply a matter of heading a little gully - well, maybe another - why there' | ||
+ | |||
+ | This went on for perhaps an hour until in high dudgeon at my own stupidity for being unable to stay with a firm ridge going about east, I decided to beat back towards Uraterer, which beckoned all the time out to the south, and describe a wide circuit around it towards the east. That should surely intersect the mislaid track, which, in turn should put me on the ridge heading steadily east instead of weaving all over the place. The track was there, all right, I knew, because I had been over it twice before - but years earlier - 1947 and 1953 to be exact. | ||
+ | |||
+ | On my circuit I started to drop into a small gully with a flowing creek. It looked right and I was too eager to see how mossy the rock was under my feet until I was sitting down with a large lump of skin hanging stupidly from my left hand which was the first point of contact with the rock. Volubly expressing my opinion of the Northern Blue Mountains in general and the creeks and ridges north of Uraterer in particular, I dropped to the creek to wash and bandage the hand. There was a clean, convenient strip of white sand to set down my pack - and along it went some cattle hoof marks, some horse shoe prints and dog-paw impressions. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The lost 1 1/2 hours put any thought of getting through that day quite out of reasonable reckoning, but once on the track I clung tenaciously to it, passing at 10.0 o' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Yes, I clung to that track, which continued reasonably strong and clearn on to the ridge south of, and parallel to, the Wirraba Range: then swung more to the south, once descended obligingly to the head of a creek, climbed again on to the ridge and to my amazement - plunged right down into the bed of a creek flowing south east and began to chase it downstream. I know now that it was here I lost contact with the map. I believed I was on an unnamed stream which flows into the Wollerie about 2 1/2 miles below the junction of Putty Creek: instead it could only be Gobo Creek, which takes a much more southerly course and ultimately joins the Wollerie opposite the northern side of the Culoul Range. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The track remained alongside the creek far over a hour, until about 3.0 o' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Here, at last, I mislaid the trail, which must go up and over yet another ridge, possibly over two, before coming to Wollerie Creek somewhere near Putty Creek. I can't say I regretted losing the trail. By this time I was heartily sick of its intransigence. Surely Putty stockmen must have spent years seeking the most roundabout course between Wollerie Creek and Uraterer. I went on down " | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had never proposed to go out via Putty Volley. That would entail walking 10 miles almost north before getting out on to the Singleton Road and would place me probably 25 miles north from the car back at Culoul. My plan was to strike generally east, allow a bit of a curve north to get around a deep part of Long Wheehy Creek, then firmly east to intersect the road. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This was still my plot on Thursday morning, which was very misty with visibility down to 100 yards or less. Worse, the mist rose as I went up the eastern wall of Wollerie Creek on a steady grade. I kept trying to detour to the north east, each time finding the ground falling away and finally, with no view of the landscape, decided to keep going with the rise of the ground. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It kept going on up - far more than the 500' or 600' I expected to gain - and the higher ground bore steadily to the south east. I knew I was not where I had believed the previous night but it was a " | ||
+ | |||
+ | If I dropped over east into Molong Swamp I should have easy going four miles north and east and come put on to the Singleton Road near Stoney Waterhole, only eleven miles north from Culoul. With the seat ripped out of both my longs and shorts, scratched and dirty, I mould be lucky to get a lift, but at least I should be able to walk... | ||
+ | |||
+ | I reached Molong Swamp at 10.0. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I reached Singleton Putty Road at 11.20. | ||
- | flowers on graves, a form of ancestor worship - so. three other..1: | ||
- | " | ||
- | 6 | ||
- | THE GOOD OLD DAYS. | ||
- | "Tough tireless types went out to the several i-Lmitive huts the Wrath Range where they pigged it, sleeping in their clothes with egg stains their sweaters and stubble on their chins" | ||
- | From -what we hear of Perisher Valley at the LongWeekenr", | ||
- | 8. | ||
- | 'CROSS THE COLO. | ||
- | --rdacluded | ||
- | - Jim Brawn. | ||
- | The provocative weather was improving now, with a magnificent slw of washed- out blue, stained with black and yellow clouds, framed in the wide gap between Mt. Gundangeroo and the ranges across the Capertee: the wind from south west was biting cold. | ||
- | Sufficient of Glen Davis survives to allow me to buy a few stores, send a | ||
- | couple of telegrams, and to hear that the weather forecast was for better things. | ||
- | By this time the day was well advanced so I planned to camp just downstream. | ||
- | First I had to pass through the ruins of the Shale treatment plant; a pitiful place with blackberries moving in on the big buildings that once housed the | ||
- | retorts and equipment. Beyond the works the Capertee is a most gracious valley | ||
- | and I had no trouble in finding a campsite beside (in fact, half within) an overhang Which protected me and my fire for cooking. | ||
- | It rained lightly several times in the nights but the stars were out just before dawn. With the morning, unfortunately the clouds came again, not the | ||
- | pall of the previous day but enough overcast to take most of th beauty out of | ||
- | a valley that must be as lovely as Durragorang before the flood. On a well formed | ||
- | trail, following the southern bank, sometimes well above the river, I made good | ||
- | tine and in 21 hours - just after 8.0 a m. - realised I wRs on my exit point. In fact, I almost overshot it. | ||
- | Some four or five miles down from Running Stream Creek (hence about 6-7 mi]es from Glen Davis) a basalt spur, misleadingly called Grassy Hill, intrudes into the sandstone cliff formation on the north side of the river, and offers an easy escape route. I was almost past it before I noticed the brown scree spills high | ||
- | on the Slopes and realised it could be only Grassy Hill. | ||
- | The combination of loose stones, the moist, slippery soil, the richer vegetation made the climb out an energetic performance, | ||
- | Now my way lay north to the grassy dame of Mt. Uraterer, which I had | ||
- | approached twice before - once from the east and once from north west. It was about eight miles distant this time via a flat, wide ridge which I had been told was well grown up with mountain holly, prickly moses and other unpleasant vegetation. Mbst of the time one couldn' | ||
- | Over another dry ridge-top lunch I noted with dismay that the canvas fabric of my sandshoes was deteriorating badly and. threatening to part company just behind the rubber toecaps. Perhaps ifeIecduld rely on track all the -way from Uraterer they would see it out - I hoped. | ||
- | About 1.0 p m., in thickening overcast, I realised I had veered round and was walking almost east. Alarm, panic, consternation: | ||
- | 9. | ||
- | I saw the unmistakable grassy curve of Uraterer - bearing 20. hadn't seen it before - I didn't see it for over an hour afterwards - what time 'I stuck resolutely to a compass bearing of 200 magnetic - and somewhere got back on to | ||
- | Spur. | ||
- | There was a track:over the last mile or so, speeding my progress and bringing me to the top of the mountain at 3.30 p m. | ||
- | Uraterer commands a majestic view - not a nhotogralpher' | ||
- | It was too cold to stay longer, than half an hour so, I dropped dawn to the creek on the northern flank of the mountain, scouted around and found the track leading out towards Putty, and settled for the night at 4.30. It ranked as an early camp and I resolved to have a big fire, and a laze before it after dinner. Then it rained again, not much, but enough to dampen my enthusiasm and discourage me from making an expansive evening of it. Instead I turned in and lay a while in the sleeping bag smoking a final pipe and pondering if (aided by a track) I could be right out to the road on Wednesday, this sixth day, and by chancing on | ||
- | FOR ALL YOUR TRANSPORT FROM ELAM-MATH | ||
- | CONTACT | ||
- | HATSOM_VS LUCE & TOURIST SERVICE | ||
- | RING, WRITE, VILLE OR CALL | ||
- | ANY HOUR - DAY OR NIGHT | ||
- | BOO= OFFICE: 4 doors from Gardners Inn Hotel '(LOOK FOR THE NEON SIGN) | ||
- | ' | ||
- | SPEEDY 5 or 8 PASSENGER CARS AVAILABLE LARGE OR SMALL PARTIES CATERED FOR | ||
- | FARES: KANAMRA WALLS 30/- per head (Minimum 5 passengers) | ||
- | PERE/TS LOOKDOWN " | ||
- | JENOLANSTATE FOREST 20/- 11 IT IT 1! | ||
- | CARLON' | ||
- | WE WILL BE PLEASED TO QUOTE TRIPS OR SPECIAL PARTIES ON APPLICATION. | ||
- | 10. | ||
- | a hitch, even be back that night. That would get me back to my original estimate of a six-day trip which vent haywire then I couldn' | ||
- | On Wednesday I was astir early, moving off fiveminutes before sunrise time at 6.20. The track bore the prints of a smell herd of cattle, one horeeman and a couple of dogs - they must have gone through only a day or so before, or the periodical showers would have masked the prints. I followed up on the first spur, lost contact with the tracks and in the now misty morning light saw what I was positive was my ridge over to the north. Simply a matter of heading a little | ||
- | gully - well, maybe another - 'why there' | ||
- | This went on for perhaps an hour until in high dudgeon at my own stupidity for being unable to stay with a firm ridge going about east, I decided to beat back towards Uraterer, which beckoned all the time out to the south, and describe | ||
- | a wide circuit around it towards the east. That daould surely intersect the mislaid track, -which, in turn should put me on the ridge heading steadily east instead of weaving all over the place.. The track: was there, all riFht, I knew, because I had | ||
- | been over it twice before - but years earlier - 1947 and 1953 to be exact. | ||
- | On my circuit I started to drop into a small gully with a flowing creek. It looked right and I was too eager to see how mossy the rock was under my feet | ||
- | until I was sitting down with a large lump of skin hanging stupidly from my left | ||
- | hand which was the first point of contact with the rock. Volubly expressing my opinion of the Northern Blue Mountains in general and the creeks and ridges north of Uraterer in particular, I dropped to the creek to wash and bandage the hand. There was 'a clean, convenient strip of white sand to set down my pack - and along | ||
- | it went some cattle hoof marks, some horse shoe prints and dog-paw impressions. | ||
- | The lost II- hours put any thought of getting through that day qiite out of reasonable reckoning, but once on the track I clung tenaciously to it, passing at 10.0 o' | ||
- | Yes, I clung to that track, which continued reasonably strong and clearnon to the ridge south of, and parallel to, the Mrraba Range: then swung more to the south, once descended obligingly to the head of a creek, climbed again on to the | ||
- | ridge and to ry amazement - plunged right down into the bed of a creek flowing south east and began to chase it downstream. I know now that it was here I lost contact with the map. I believed I was on an unnamed stream -which flows into the | ||
- | Wbllerie about 2i miles below the junction of Putty Creek: instead it could only | ||
- | be Gobo Creek, Which takes a much more southerly course and ultimately joins the | ||
- | N011erie opposite the northern side of the Culoul Range. | ||
- | The track remained alongside the creek far over a hour, until about 3.0 o' | ||
- | when I was smugly expecting to come to Wollerie any time, it turned away UP a side | ||
- | stream entering from the north. Hereabouts the canvas of the left sandshoe ripped right across: at least, watching its slow disintegration had given me time to think out a possible repair. I removed the lace from the two bottom eyelets, used my tin opener to bore holes in the still sound rubber of the toe cap and strung a niece of tent cord like two reins from the cap back to the eyelets. It worked, and in ten | ||
- | 11. | ||
- | minutes I was mobile again, pursuing the track: up through a little swamp on to a ridge. Then it dived dawn into the next valley to the north, which I assessed (wrong) as Dumbell Creek. | ||
- | Here, at last, I mislaid the trail, which must go up and over yet another ridge, possibly over two, before coming to Wollerie Creek somewhere near Putty Creek. I can't say I regretted losing the trail. By this time I was heartily sick of its intransigence. Surely. Putty stockmen must have spent years seeking the most roundabout course between Wollerie Creek and Uraterer. I went on down ' | ||
- | I thought I was only a mile below Putty Creek and civilisation, | ||
- | I had never proposed to go cut via Putty Volley. That would entail walling | ||
- | 10 miles almost north before ,r-ettinE nut on to the Singleton Rr.)1C.1 nc1 would place | ||
- | me probably 25 miles north from the cer baci: at Culoul. 1.t7plan wns to strike generally eaSt, allow a bit of a curve north tn -et ar-und. a deep part of Long Nheehy Creek, then firmly east to intersect the road. | ||
- | This was still my plot on Thursday morning, which was very misty with visibility dawn to 100 yards or less. Worse, the mist rose as I wc mb up the eastern wall of Wollerie Creek on a steady grade. I kept trying to detour to the north east, each time finding the ground falling away and finally, with no view of the landscape, decided t5 keep going with the rise of the ground. | ||
- | It kept going on up - far more than the 500' or 600' I expected to gain - and the higher ground bore steadily to the south east. I knew I was not where I had believed the previous night but it was a " | ||
- | and work out where I was. Then the second sandshoe packed up and as I worked at it on a lofty shelf of rock I felt a lift of spirits. Well, I had been wrong about | ||
- | my location. the previous night but now I was poised almost on top of a range between the Wollemi and Molong Swamp. | ||
- | If I:dropped over east into Nblong Swamp I should have easy going four miles north and east and come put on to the Singleton Road near Stoney Waterhole, only eleven miles north fromCuloul... With the seat ripped out Of both Illy longs and shorts, scratched and dirty, -I mould be lucky to get a lift, but at least I should be able t& | ||
- | I reached Molong Swamp at 10.0 | ||
- | I reached Singleton Putty. Road at 11.20 | ||
I lunched and shaved at Howes Waterhole from 11.50 to 1.10. | I lunched and shaved at Howes Waterhole from 11.50 to 1.10. | ||
- | At 3,50, ex.-S.B.W. member David KinE stopped his utility and offered me a lift (he i4 now on the land at Uralla | + | |
- | At 3:55 I resumed and David drove on | + | At 3.50, ex.S.B.W. member David King stopped his utility and offered me a lift (he is now on the land at Uralla |
- | At 3059 I reached the car . | + | |
- | And yes, after a week across the Colo, the roast pnrk and the couple of middies at Windsor tasted very good. | + | At 3.50 1/2 I declined because I was almost back to the car. |
- | DAY," | + | |
- | 12. | + | At 3.55 I resumed and David drove on. |
- | JULY 16 | + | |
- | JULY 23 | + | At 3.59 I reached the car... |
- | JULY 30 | + | |
- | Palm Beach - ferry to The Basin - West Head Road - Cottage Rock - Yeoman' | + | And yes, after a week across the Colo, the roast pork and the couple of middies at Windsor tasted very good. |
- | Excellent views out over Pittwater and the lower Hawkesbury River. 8.12 a m. bus from Wyward Square to Palm Beach (Goddards Wharf). 10.0 a m. ferry Goddard' | + | |
- | Fares: 8/2d. return bus to Palm Beach, plus 4./- return by ferry. | + | =====Day Walks.===== |
- | Hornsby - bus to Crossland' | + | |
- | Don't let the short distance fool you. Interesting country to find one's way through, but gaiters or slacks recommended. NOT SUITIOLE | + | |July 16|Palm Beach - ferry to The Basin - West Head Road - Cottage Rock - Yeoman' |
- | Train: 8.40 a m. Central Electric Station to Hornsby via Bridge. Tickets: Hornsby Return via Bridge at 5/3d. plus about 6/- bus fares. Maps: Broken Bay 11-111tary | + | |July 23|Hornsby - bus to Crossland' |
- | Leader: David Ingram. | + | |July 30|Wondabyne - Kariong - Koolewong. 10 miles. A bit early for the wildflowers which abound in this area, but the surroundings will make up for that. An excellent view from Kariong Trig. Well worth the extra rail fare. Train: 8.15 a.m. Gosford train from Central Steam Station. Tickets: Koolewong Return at 15/6d. Maps: Gosford Military |
- | Wondabyne - Kariong - Koolewong. 10 miles. | + | |August |
- | A bit early for the wildflowers which abound in this area, but the surroundings will mice up for that. An excellent view from Kariong Trig. Well worth the extra rail fare. | + | |August |
- | Train: 8.15 a m. Gosford train from Central Steam Station. | + | |
- | Tickets: Koolewong Return at 15/6d. | + | =====Paddy Made===== |
- | Maps: Gosford Military | + | |
- | Leader: Reg NeAki ns. | + | Purchased in '35\\ |
- | AUGUST | + | And still in use\\ |
- | Creek - Lindfield. 11 miles. | + | Despite the bashing it got\\ |
- | This used to be a favourite walk, but hasn't been pr6)grmmed | + | Down many a mountain side.\\ |
- | Train: 8.10 a m. Central Electric Station to Pymblo.' | + | You must design them well\\ |
- | Tickets: Pymble Return at 4.,(3d. plus 1/- bus fare. | + | More in them than meets the eye\\ |
- | Maps: Sydney Military or any good suburban street Directory. Leader: Molly Rodgers. | + | A constant friend on all my trips\\ |
- | AUGUST | + | Damn good value for my money\\ |
- | Tickets: Leumeah Return at 7/-. | + | Easily the best investment I have made.\\ |
- | Map: Camden Military. | + | It all adds up to PADLYMADE! |
- | Leader: Jack Gentle. | + | |
- | Purchased in '35 | + | Paddy Pallin Pty. Ltd. Lightweight |
- | And still in use | + | |
- | Despite the bashing it got | + | 201 Castlereagh |
- | Down many a mountain side. | + | |
- | You must design them well | + | |
- | More in them than meets the eye | + | |
- | A constant friend on all my trips | + | |
- | Damn good value for my money | + | |
- | Easily the best investment I have made. | + | |
- | It all adds up to PADLYMADE | + | |
- | , , | + | |
- | PA V P ill j | + | |
- | lightweight | + | |
- | 201 CASTLEREAGH | + | |
- | BM2685 | + | |
LETTER FROM DOROTHY LAMY IN NEW ZEAL/AND. | LETTER FROM DOROTHY LAMY IN NEW ZEAL/AND. | ||
"95 St. Andrews Road, | "95 St. Andrews Road, |
196107.txt · Last modified: 2023/09/01 16:44 by sbw