White water lilo

(Photo to come) Rapids terrify me. I'd be fine if you threw me out of a plane or off a cliff, or made me camp alone in a blizzard. Put me on an inflatable mattress on rushing white water and my face becomes screwed up with fear.

I had an inkling that I had this fear when I agreed to join a group of people liloing down the Shoalhaven River for two days. This fear was partly based on a previous experience white-water rafting on the White Nile in Uganda and partly founded on a known inability to control to much degree what happens to me in a rapid.

Liloing conjures up images of floating along a gentle river, watching the scenery pass by and enjoying the sunshine. For the most part it is like that. The Shoalhaven River valley is beautiful, with occasional cliffs cutting through the bush on either side. We could sit up on the long quiet sections with our back resting against the pack tied to our lilo. Just a quick flip forward on to our stomach was all we needed to do to prepare for the rapids. It takes a while to work out the best arrangement, so sometimes my 'quick flip' resulted in a splash and a swim.

We started and finished at Bungonia. The first day we did a 2km walk before doing 10km on the river. The second day was 5km on the river and then a 5km climb up a steep hill back to the car. On Saturday night we pulled into a beach below a fabulous campsite on the side of the river. We shared some wine and food while we dried our lilos around the fire. Most of us were quickly off to bed under our tarps to recover and store up energy for the next day.

Because of recent rain, the river was at 1.5 metres and flowing fast. This resulted in a mixed bag of less rocks to go around because you could just go over them (good), faster flow (bad as you have less control in the rapids, good because it means less paddling), and trees in the river (very bad). The rapids for the most part weren't bad. If there was any difficulty though, I found it! I hit submerged rocks, got folded up between trees, screamed, walked around the tricky parts, came off my lilo, but I survived fine and was soon joking about my reaction once I reached calm water.

I may try liloing again, but with some modifications to my equipment. It seems to be easier on a lilo with more loft, and a paddle is a definite asset. I'd like to try it when the water is not so high and definitely want to lilo the Wollangambee - this river is apparently more like a canyon.

Indoor climbing

Going straight up a vertical wall isn't easy. I've put it off for years partly for lack of a partner and partly because my arms and shoulders are weak and I doubted I could do it. Not so! With the help of some regulars from SPAN, I whipped straight up a green route, touched the roof and abseiled back to the floor. The ClimbFit gym in St Leonards has a great range of climbs, including overhangs and bouldering walls. There's plenty for a beginner like me to try. I did my belay training, completed quite a few green climbs, and even tried a few blues. Early in the night I could finish the blue routes, but after two hours I had no more lift in my legs. I was stoked to last that long, and was pretty pleased with the blue routes I did finish. For something that didn't pick up my heartrate that much, I was sweating like I'd run a mile. The next day I had a nice ache all over, which was enough to make me feel like I'd had a workout, but not enough to make me walk like an old woman. And I know you're meant to use your legs the most, but bring on the great arms and shoulders I've seen on female climbers :o)

Third tunnel of aggression

I had a weekend catching up with friends and didn't do much, so I thought I'd write about something I did that proves it's a small world.


Back in 2004 I was passing through South Korea on my way back to London. I took a day tour to the demilitarised zone between South and North Korea. We visited the third tunnel of aggression, dug by the North Koreans in an attempt to cross the DMZ into the South undiscovered. The tunnel was discovered in 1978. Three others have been found and there may be as many as ten more!

Imjingang Station, waiting for the reconstructed
railway line to open to Pyongyang

I had finished walking through the 265m of tunnel open to the public and returned to catch the train back to the surface. Suddenly I heard my name called out, and I turned to see an old school friend just entering into the tunnel. 73m under the ground and I run into someone I hadn't seen in years. I'd heard she was in India, she knew I was in South Korea, but what are the odds of meeting each other in a part of the world that no country can lay claim to?

Parramatta RiverCat

http://daviding.com/blog/index.php/archive/meadowbank-rydalmere-parramatta-featherdale/

After a short and illustrious career in Parramatta I felt it was only fitting to ride home in style on the Parramatta ferry. The wait on the wharf at Parramatta was pleasant, watching birds swim across the weir and children play on the perfectly groomed grassy banks. I'd chosen to take the 7.15pm ferry direct to Circular Quay, with one stop at Rydalmere. The day had finally started to cool off and a light breeze was blowing. I was happy the tide was high enough to allow me to catch the ferry from Parramatta. If you aren't so lucky, it's a bus ride to Rydalmere to meet the ferry in deeper water. Initially the pace of travel is slow and perfect for enjoying the banks thick with mangroves and water birds. Once the river widened enough to make the far shore a challenging swim, the ferry sped up and only a few hardened souls remaining outdoors to fight the wind. It was a gorgeous night and ideal for seeing the grand houses that line the river banks. This was a wonderful way to leave Parramatta. If only the timetable had been a bit more convenient (many of the peak ferries run to Darling Harbour) I might have done this more often. It was quiet and eased the soul far more than a packed train ever could.

Corkscrew canyon

AWESOME!!! Went canyoning on Saturday in Mount Wilson. We dropped off the Bells Line of Road into Corkscrew Canyon, which led into South Bowens Creek canyon. We had two abseils down waterfalls in Corkscrew, and one abseil down a waterfall in South Bowens. The most exciting part of the canyon probably wouldn't have happened if we hadn't been caught behind another group on an abseil. The group ahead were abseiling down a dry cliff next to a spot where the creek dropped down through a channel in the rock.


Red yabby - one of many!
All photos by Mark

It turned out that it was fairly easy to climb down into the channel and come out at the bottom of the abseil. A big person might not have done it, nor a tiny person because of the volume of water rushing against your back as you climbed down. It was pretty exciting and the other girl in the group and I traded a few jokes about being hardcore. It was a great way to get past the other group and solved the problem of getting held up, which I've heard can lead to problems in canyons. The other group ended up catching up with us near the exit, having skipped one of our abseils. We had the option of either sliding down a long tree trunk, or abseiling down a waterfall, and we took the abseil option. 


Once again I was thankful that I was with an experienced canyoner, because I never would have seen the exit, which took off straight up a steep creek wall that required a lot of clambering and trust in a few small trees. The canyons were gorgeous. There's a fair bit of water around, but we only had two sections where we actually had to swim. Given the cold water, I was glad to have a wetsuit on, because after six hours I felt cool even with it on. I think the canyon took us about seven hours and I was so exhausted afterwards I missed the opening night of the Sydney Festival and was still tired the next day. But I'd do it all over again and probably will! This canyon had a bit of everything and I can't wait for the next one.

Women's baths

Recently I've been swimming at McIver's Baths in Coogee. McIver's Baths is the only ocean pool in New South Wales reserved for women and children. It must be strange for boys that have swum there for years to suddenly no longer be allowed entry. Entry is by an honesty system - 20 cents thrown into a bucket through a gate. Changing sheds and showers are at the top, with a great lawn in front. The first (sunny) day I went, there was a group of women sitting there doing crosswords and chatting. The pool is lovely. There are two sets of steep stairs that go straight into the pool that has been carved out of the rock. There's even a shallow area against the cliff. I haven't seen many children there, mostly older women. The other distinctive group was topless women - must feel a bit more relaxed about it at a pool with no men. Apparantly the pool is popular with lesbians, but if any of the women there were lesbian they certainly weren't overt about it. I love how private the pool is, and how it's surrounded by cliffs, and the views are awesome. The other nice thing was that it was obvious that women had formed friendships simply by swimming regularly at the pool.

Ginger for a day

Well the short-lived blonde experiment is over. I can't say I had more fun, because frankly either I wasn't blonde for long enough, or brunettes really do have more fun. I've always preferred natural and blonde was just too hard to maintain. Costly, hours of commitment to get the right blonde, turning yellow a week after a toner even though I used the purple shampoo. Who needs that? I may have a problem with commitment...
Anywho, I've been spending too much money lately, so I decided to sort out my hair myself. Thankfully I did my research, and found out that I could have had a disaster on my hands if I'd gone straight to brown. Apparantly if you do that, you end up with green hair. So for one day I was a ginger. It doesn't look that bright in this photo, but believe me it was. After that exciting day I put in a brown dye and voila, back to normal (well a slightly more mahogany version of normal). Who knows, in a few weeks I could be bald considering the amount of stress I've placed on my hair in the last six weeks. Now there's a new look for me. When's the World's Greatest Shave?

Hieroglyphs

On a fire trail off Woy Woy Road in the Brisbane Waters National Park, there are two large rock faces covered in hieroglyphs. During a walk on New Years Eve we formed several theories about how they got there.
1. A reclusive Egyptologist set up camp in a nearby cave and spent his days carving the rock face, although we're not sure whether the space ships, dog bones and male appendages have much to do with Egypt.
2. Reg Mombassa took a holiday on the Central Coast and ran out of paper/canvas.
3. Aliens landed (hence the numerous pictures of spacecraft) and recorded the things they saw on their visit on earth. The fact that they thought it worth recording male appendages makes one wonder what they got up to while they were here...

There are people out there that believe these are authentic hieroglyphics, but I remain sceptical. Some of them look reasonably true to type, but things like the year 1984, the dog bone and various other carvings just don't fit. If you have a look on the internet, most of the people who do believe they are ancient sound like they may have sampled some drugs recently. Their blogs talk about earth mother trees, yowies, shamans and wierd energy. If you want to form your own opinion, there's plenty of directions to the site on the web, or you could use these GPS co-ordinates: 56 H 342244 6297390. Have fun!