Our combined Guide / Venturer Unit started this year off with a challenging weekend of abseiling and climbing in the Blue Mountains. Whilst the Leaders battled the Friday night exodus from Sydney via the Hurstville City bus, the youth members made their own way by rail to Mount Victoria and managed to make some charming new friends on the way. "youse kids are making too much noise" "that’s my seat. I always sit there" etc.
Well, we picked them up from the station and drove to the Guide Lodge at Mount Victoria where they settled in and then started making dinner. The view from the lodge is breathtaking!
After a good night’s talk, I mean sleep, and a breakfast of cereal and pancakes we loaded the bus with pre made lunches and abseil gear and drove to Newnes Forest. The cliff face we use is a short walk from where we park although in the afternoon it seemed like miles.
Saturday was a memorable day as the abseil is about 50 metres and we also set up a top belay climb of about 35 metres. Everybody abseiled and then either walked back to the top (a very hard walk) or ascended back up the ropes by either Jumar, prussicking or by top belay climbing. Very few chose to walk back up, preferring to learn or perfect their skill at ascending the ropes. By early afternoon the sun is directly on the cliff face and frequent water consumption is essential.
As we returned to the lodge at about 4 pm the sky clouded over and an electrical storm moved in. The power was off in the entire region for the next 2 hours and we had only just unpacked the bus when it started to hail heavily. It hailed for 30 minutes then settle into drenching rain. Good news for the dam levels eh? Patch taught us a game for rehydrating that he called ‘boat races’ Must be a Sea Scout game. Dinner was sate chicken and desert a healthy chocolate fondue with fruit followed by a few parlor games.
Sunday breakfast was bacon and eggs and as per our Unit tradition the Leaders were first served coffee in bed. How many times does something have to happen before it can be declared a tradition? Once?
Today we were to abseil near Katoomba Scenic Rail from a point known as Malaita Walls to the trail at the foot of the cliff. We did this in several descents the first being approx 80 metres. Again the view from the top is breathtaking, or was that fear. The Leaders and the youth members loved every descent and all would do it again without hesitation, well, maybe just a little at the very top where the valley opens before you and you can’t even see the bottom of the abseil. For the first abseil Wazza was on belay and we used little radios to communicate from top to belayer due to the distance.
Alice was very vocal on her descent and all of the kids were concentrating on the rope rather than the view. We had set their gear for a slower descent than they had previously been accustomed to and what with the weight of 80 odd metres of rope below them, it was a new experience.
As we made successive descents their confidence grew and they were soon vying to be at the front of the queue. We sure got some weird looks from tourists walking the trail towards the landslide at the bottom. I think they thought we were saving the rail fare. The Scenic Rail to the top is still great fun and far better than climbing back up to the car park. We returned to the Lodge and made sausage sangers for a late lunch and after a quick tidy and pack-up, the youth members were dropped off at the station for their return to Sydney.
The hard working Leaders of course completed the cleaning and headed home via a quaint building in Blackheath for a de-brief. Our well considered conclusion; A great weekend, definitely worth doing again next year.
