[SUBW-A] Trip Report - Newnes to Glen Davis, 17-18 August 2002

[Albert Chetcuti]

Wollemi NP - Newnes to Glen Davis, via the Pipeline track. 17th-18th August

Party: Wendy, Ruth, Stacy, Tom, Ben, and Albert.

We all met at Westmead station at 7pm on a cold Friday night, for the start 
of a long drive out to Newnes in a pair of Hyundais. We'd reached Katoomba by 
8:30 pm, and stopped for dinner. We entered a Thai restaurant on Katoomba St, 
but unfortunately the restaurant was full. So, we instead had dinner at an 
over-priced Chinese restaurant up the road, which had no central-heater. It 
was freezing outside, and even colder in the restaurant. 

It was getting late, so we left Katoomba and headed for Newnes via the Mudgee 
road. The dirt road out to Newnes is in excellent condition, and is smoother 
than Parramatta road !! Apart from the odd rabbit here and there (sorry bugs 
bunny), the road was fine. The sealed section that leads from the plateau 
down to the Wolgan valley was very bumpy and not nice. We encounter some 
traffic along the way to Newnes. Not the 4-wheelled variety, but actually the 
4-legged variety. Just before a cattle-grid, there was a heard of cattle, 
including some young calves. The cows wouldn't move out the way, so we had to 
wait until the animals got the idea, and finally mooooved out of the way. 
After the cattle-grid, there was a big fat wombat running off into the bush. 
We reached Newnes at about 11 PM, and scared the wombats and kangaroos away, 
before setting up camp. It was a cold night, with the temperature falling to 
minus 4.5 degree during the night.

Next morning, we packed the tents, and began the walk, following the northern 
bank of the Wolgan river east for a few kms, before the 320 m climb to the 
top of the ridge, were a lookout gave good views down the Wolgan river valley 
to the east. The track headed north along what remains of the old pipeline 
which joined Glen Davis and Newnes. Most of the pipeline is gone, but some 
sections still remain. We had reached the township of Glen Davis by late 
afternoon. The facilities there great, with running drinkable water, flush 
toilets, and even free-of-charge hot showers. This is my kind of 
bushwalking!! We set up a fire, and cooked dinner on one of the park benches.

We weren't the only ones to spend the night in the park. A group of local 
kids were there also, and their pet greyhound Tina. Tina was very well 
behaved, but certainly not those hyperactive (i.e. drunk!) kids. They were 
very loud, ripping down trees, and a whole lot more. The noise continued into 
the night, and it never seemed to stop. Eventually we managed to get some 
sleep, except Tom. The night was much warmer that the previous, so some of us 
slept outside. It wasn't any quieter in the tent either. I was woken in the 
middle of the night, to the sound of those kids running around the park with 
no cloths on. The park was quite dark, so not much could be seen. A video 
camera would have been useful. Every 2 hrs, the kids would shake Tom's tent, 
so he hardly got any sleep that night. 

Next morning, we woke to complete silence. The kids must be asleep. Thank god 
for that. Someone came and collected the kids, so again we had the place to 
ourselves. We had breakfast, packed, and headed back to Newnes via the same 
track. We had lunch at the lookout overlooking Wolgan valley, before walking 
back down to the banks of the river. It was shoes off, for the crossing of 
the Wolgan river to get the shale ruins. We spent about 1 hr checkout what 
was left of the old processing plant. On the way back to the cars, we saw a 
big fat wombat and a few kangaroos. 

As we had driven along the Wolgan valley at night to get there, the true 
beauty of this long and pictureque valley was unknown to us. It was a very 
scenic drive back. On the way, we did stop at the Thai restaurant in 
Katoomba, and had yummy 'hot' dinner, before the return trip to the 'big 
smoke'.

Thanks to Ben for navigating, thanks to Tom for driving, and thank to Wendy 
for organising it all.

I have some slides, which I'll show at the next meeting.

Till next time...................

c ya

Albert


-- 
Albert Chetcuti
Cancer Genetics Group 
Department of Medicine 
Faculty of Medicine 
Blackburn Building - D06 
The University of Sydney 
NSW, 2006 Australia. 
 
(02) 9515 5194 (Office1)
(02) 9351 3556 (Office2) 
(02) 9515 5192 (Lab) 
(02) 9516 1273 (Fax) 
Email albertc at med.usyd.edu.au 




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