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2007-11-03	Limeburner Rubbish Clean up working bee at Limeburners Caves
Trip report:
The main aim of this weekend was to tidy up Limeburner’s Flat. It was also a chance for some of us to see a rarely visited area. Rick and I travelled up on Friday night and came upon Rod, Mark and Elanor on the side of Oberon Stock Route decoding the “How to Get There” instructions.  But Rick knew exactly which tree the relevant forestry track was located behind and we proceeded on without navigational incident. Despite the widespread view that weather forecasts are not reliable this weekends proved to be annoyingly accurate.   Yes, we managed to pick the only weekend in months in which “good falls of rain are expected in the catchment”.   Ron had beaten us there and already had his tent; up but his two accompanying Venturers decided not to venture beyond the car and slept (well lay down) in their reclined seats for the night. A downpour rolled in just long enough to well and truly soak everything as we were setting up.  We settled in for the night to the pitter patter of rain drops and that thought in the back of your mind of “Did I patch that hole in the tent?” and “Should I have dug a trench?”   In the morning we awoke to a large puddle in the middle of the camp area and Limeburners Creek with a trickle. The morning was spent collecting rubbish.  This included bits and pieces of camping equipment that had obviously proved less reliable than claimed by the shop staff, all manner of 4WD accessories and a bottle of “Natures Care” shampoo that somebody had disposed of thoughtfully in the creek – no doubt after washing their hair there to get that natural looking bounce.  Judging by the number of beer bottles and tinnies extracted from Wombat Holes AA should seriously consider setting up a sub-branch here for the clearly over indulging marsupials. Ranger Chris from National Parks arrived with a trailer and the accumulated junk was loaded in it as a gift to the Oberon Shire Dump. As the day wore on the sound of the cicadas shrill was overtaken by the ambient sounds of trail bikes slicing up the ground of Limeburners Flat.   In the afternoon we spent time popping our heads into the caves of LF (in the case of some this is literally accurate).  Rick checked the surveys from the mid 1980’s.  The “lake” in LF2 had now receded to a pool at the bottom of a hollow and a number of other side passages were silted up. For my part, I wanted to try out my new Vivitar 285HV flashes and Firefly 2 slaves.  A combination that my reading had lead me to understand was favoured by cave photographers the world over.   What followed was a tedious exercise of some flashes firing and others not and vice versa. All the while as Elanor was perched doing the splits over a mass of tree roots.  (See photos to see what I mean).  Anyway I resorted to the open shutter method and obtained a couple of OK shots.    Turns out the “HV” in the newer models of the flash stands for low voltage and the trigger charge emitted by the slave is not strong enough to reliably fire it.  How silly of me not to have picked this up. The rest of the afternoon was spent relocating the remaining known caves of Limeburners and having a poke around Limeburners “Main” Cave.  After seeing Elanor attempt the squeeze near the “Wombatarium” the rest of us left that delight to her. Back at the campsite the rain held off long enough to have a communal satay chicken dinner.  But then a thunder storm rolled back in and another night was spent under the pump. The following morning we went back to Limeburners Main Cave and showed Ranger Chris around it.  Then a leisurely pack up and drive back home.  Limeburners Flat was left in a cleaner state than when we arrived but its abuse at the hands of trail bikes and off track 4WD’s is likely to do more damage than our weekend cleanup could remedy. Reported by Grant

Photos from the Club's photo library

Limeburners Flat November 2007

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A wet morning at Limeburners

Creek near Limeburners Flat

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