Trip report
| 2004-02-28 | Caving at Colong & Limeburners Flat |
| Trip report: | |
| It's been a wee bit scary remembering when the last time the trip co-ordinator (TC) was last at Colong. Any way, after some urgent phone calls back and forth to NPWS at Oberon our permit was confirmed. (even though there has been evidence in the visitors book at Woof's that several previous parties did not hold a permit! Bad, bad boys) Friday afternoon arrived and the Traffic Man is saying that Mt. Vic Pass was still closed! Which way to go? West or South? Considering the traffic chaos, the TC decided on the Hume Highway. After dinner in trusty old Marulan, we navigated our way to Batsh Camp, arriving about 11:30pm. The rest of the group showed up well after 12:00am. An epic journey as I remember. Saturday morning saw stunning weather and some of us wondering whether sitting around in the sun reading a magazine would be a much better way to go! We all managed to leave camp at 9:00am and onward to the caves. Acetylene Spur seemed a little shorter and not so slippery as in the past. Caves Creek was nice and cool and out of the hot direct sun. CC5 Efflux was running out nicely after the recent rain. Continuing up to Grand Arch Cave to have a look around. Some interesting spider webs on the cave roof were found. The old camp area in the arch was clean except paper from a Scott's College expedition. After trogging up we started into the main cave around 11:00am. Along through Kings Cross to check out the visitors book, and wander around The Maze and Terraces. The more flexible of the party tried out some Gymnastics on some water eroded holes in the passage roof. 10 points if one could get all the way around without touching the dirt! Continuing on to Woof's via the old tubular gate just on from Amber Cave. Our group had a late lunch at Woof's Cavern. The stream way passage near the Crevasses below Woof's Cavern was dry. The clusters of Helictites and straws above the stream way are very clean and undamaged. Great to see they have been looked after! Lots of photo's were taken of the fantastic formations. A little disappointed to see that some cavers treat the back of the cave as a dumping ground for used carbide! Come on guys the crap is not that heavy to carry out with you! Not to mention that you are not even supposed to using this stuff in NSW! Also, there seemed to be a lot more graffiti gathering on the walls throughout the cave. If you need arrows to find your way out you should not be in a cave basically. Our party turned around about 4:00pm and headed out via the Cleft and middle passages and the old steel bared rift. On the surface by 6:30pm. TC: "Not looking forward to climbing that bloody hill again!" "Oh come on ya old bastard" OK. "Well at least I have a lukewarm camp shower to look forward to back at camp!" The team sat around camp and cooked and imbibed in red wine/port/tea/coffee and a quick dinner. All manners of epics were had around the camp kitchen. TC: "A Bloody Bull Joe just bit me on the thumb!" (some moments later) "OH SHIT the MSR is on fire!" The moral to this story is, never lend your stove to anyone! It will come back to bite you! Sunday dawned fine again. DD and RP suggested that we pack up and head down to Limeburners Flat for a look-see. We left RP's truck at the turn off on the Limeburners trail so that Dani could find us in the afternoon. We left LBF around 11:00am and wandered up the creek after DD. "Where did you say DD went?" "Up the creek without his paddle" We walked around in a circle for ten minutes looking for DD. After some whistling and calls we met up at the creek junction again, then headed up the correct Creek. Checked out the caves entrances. Found the “visitors pipe and book' left by Kate's and Co. In 1988! Seeing DD had to meet Dani at 1:00pm we headed back early. We drove into the first camping area to find the Toyota 4WD club there. Once back up the hill we had an uneventful trip home, except for one wrong turn the TC took at Edith! @#%& A great weekend was had by all even though the old muscles are getting stiff! Cheers Glen Bowman. Hills Trip Co-ord (TC). | |