(header photographs by Harry Waite 1912-2011)

The Myth of the Sacred Brumby

 

 

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            The Rock-Climbing Section Of The

            Sydney Bushwalkers

                    By Dot English (Sydney Bush Walkers).

            , This Section just seemed to appear out of the blue, as It were. Somebody said, "Do you know anything about a Rock-Climbing section in this Club?' and a number of us gathered together answered, "Everything . . . We're IT," and Marie Byles pricked up her ears in excitement and donated a practically brand new mountaineering rope with red-white-and-blue stripes woven through it as a hallmark of its excellence, and asked us to write up some of our major climbs for THE ANNUAL, and we were besieged on all sides by questions as to our doings so that our consciences began to get a little uneasy and we thought "Cripes, what have we done to deserve this? The only thing for it is to go out and climb some rocks, or we stand a good chance of being branded impostors."

            Accordingly an Inaugural Meeting was guiltily called and invitations were quietly scattered around among those likely to be interested, to such-good purpose that no fewer than ??? turned up for our first trip. The picture below shows the party, together with packs and ropes stacked aboard the "Flying Frigidaire" (or "Criminal Coach'~-use whichever term you think most fitting), leaving from outside the main entrance of the Hotel Sydney, bound for Katoomba. The gentleman in the gold braid doesn't know whether he ought to call the police or just take it lying down.

            Another respectable car came with us, to lighten the load on the faithful Frigidaire, and after a most eventful journey through Katoomba and down the Dark Road, and a night spent on the one hand in a stable with a racehorse, and on the other in a ditch where a puncture caused a forced landing, the two cars eventually converged at a point about half a mile above Carlon's where the road terminates. Here we had breakfast and then set out on the Big Adventure.

            But I am not going into any detailed description of our climbing -it's one of those things you don't talk about, like Love or a pain in the stomach, which must be experienced to be understood. If you are a real lover of the gentle art of mountaineering the accompanying 'picture will suffice to thrill you with joy and exultation, and if you are not a mountaineer all the descriptive verbiage in the world will fail to bring any answering response from your cold hearts.

            This from the Rock-Climbing Section.You can come with us if you like.