newcastle ramblers bushwalking club newsletter - Confederation of ...

while the rest of the party more circumspectlyfollowed the rim down to the floor. We spent aninteresting morning exploring the diggings with itskilometres of water races, the breached holding dam,tonnes of mullock and other relics of the glory days ofthis area. David Morrison found an unusual retainingwall on the creek bank, made from flattenedkerosene tin punctured to allow for seepage.We returned to the track for a late morning tea, wherewe met a party of four who were on their way fromKiandra to Kosciuszko. They were on a mission andwere not inclined to take the time to fossick aroundas we had been doing. We then walked the shortdistance to the junction with the Four Mile Hill track.Sadly, Tim and John had to take the track straight toBroken Dam Hut, due to injury. The remainder of theparty packed a daypack and continued on toTabletop Mountain, an old volcano, circumnavigatingits base until the gradient became gentler. The routewas then straight up for a hundred metres…and wellworth every scrambly step. Magnificent panoramas tonorth and south, with clear views across Mt Jagungal,Round Mountain and the Main Range. ArthurRadford, Tony and David debated at length thelocation of Mt Kosciuszko’s obscure peak, eventuallypinpointing it to everyone’s satisfaction. After lunch,eaten sheltered from the icy wind, we traversed theflat summit to a second trig point, then followedintrepid Arthur down a slope on the northwest face.Once on the track again we returned to the junctionwith Four Mile Hill Track and a delightful walk alongthe ridge to Broken Dam Hut, where Tim and Johnhad a fire going and billy singing in the fireplace. Afterrefreshing ourselves, we strolled down to the brokendam, which was well worth a look. Some returned tothe hut, while others, urged on by Sylvia Tait,followed a water race from the dam out along a spur,around the point and back along the other side, forabout two kilometres or so. So well engineered wasit, that it was difficult to tell which way the waterwould have flowed.half way down the slope, the incredible SouthBloomfield holding dam knocked our socks off, as didthe vertical shaft David discovered at 343212, havingcontoured eastward about a hundred metres from thedam at an altitude of 1500 metres. Resuming ouroriginal bearing, our descent led straight to animpressive sluicing scar in the hillside. We knew wewere close to the Elaine mine, but it proved elusiveeven as we reached the small creek junction onBloomfield Creek. Undaunted, David and Arthurdowned packs and took off upstream. The hugemullock heap projecting into the bed of the creeksignalled success and led us up to the adit. We spenta happy hour crawling all over the area, followingcalls of “Look at this!” from all sides.Curiosity satisfied, we returned to our packs, climbedover the saddle south of spot height 1527 andheaded down to Four Mile Hut for lunch. An hour anda quarter of uphill (not too strenuous) found us backat Mt Selwyn car park. We drove back to Three MileDam to meet up with Denise again. It was half pastthree by then and we thought we had earned a littleindulgence, so we popped around to Cabramurra fora welcome, delicious hot chocolate. A beautifulevening, a delicious meal (thanks, Denise!) and agood night’s sleep followed. At first light onWednesday, we woke to a flurry of snow! That addeda little spice to the whole exercise.This whole walk is about 30 to 35 kilometres,depending on how much exploring you would like todo. I would grade it at 3 or 4, again depending onchoices, but is a very beautiful walk and has plenty tointerest all.- Lois SimpsonLares Valley Trek - PeruThe recent Ramblers trip to Peru included anopportunity for an excursion through the very scenicLares Valley. This is a relatively short 33km trek andwhile the distance is not great, it is demanding as it’sa high altitude trek that wends its way up and downthrough valleys and ascends to passes that exceed4500 metres. This is about twice the height ofAustralia’s Mt Kosciusko and at this altitude manypeople experience breathing problems due to the thinoxygen levels.Overnight the weather threatened, but it improved asTuesday morning progressed. We cut off to the westup to the ridge of the Great Dividing Range. A cairnat the top of the spur at 340205 (approx.)seemed toconfirm our position and we headed north down thespur. Water races were becoming a bit ho-hum, butPage 2