.A monthly bulletin of matters of interest to The Sydney Bush Walkers Incorporated, Box 4476 GPO, Sydney, 2001. Club meetings are held every Wednesday evening from 7.45 pm at the Ella Community Centre, 58a Dalhousie Street, HabOrfield (next door to the Post Office). Prospective members and visitors are invited to visit the Club any Wednesday. EDITOR Morag Ryder, Box 347 PO, Gladesville, 2111 Telephone 809 4241 PRODUCTION - Fran & Bill Holland Telephone 484 6636 TYPIST Kath Brown ILLUSTRATOR Morag Ryder PRINTERS Kenn Clacher, Les Powell, Barrie Murdoch & Margaret Niven OCTOBER - 1990 Page While the Billy Boils The Editor 2 The September General Meeting 2 Trekking in Nepal - Part One Elaine Walton 3 Conservation 5 90 Years Young! - Paddy Pallin 5 Notes from the October Committee Meeting Bill Holland 7 BOltons, Bolton, Wherefore Art Thou, Boltons Ian Wolfe. 8 Social Note - Dinner/Dance 3rd November 9 Pindar's Ochre Pit Rediscovered - July 1983 Frank Woodgate 11 Mailbag Ainslie Morris 12 Advertisements Happy Walker Adventure Tours 6 Blackheath Taxis & Tourist Services 9 Eastwood Camping Centre 10 Willis's Walkabouts , 12 rota loroaia,eas KANyir Page 2 The Sydney Bushwaiker uczader , Once upon a time, winter was THE walking season. Cool.and usually--dry, it was ideal for those long hikes in the wilds of,Kanangra and Ettrema. , Now Jt seemsthat anyone who can put one foot in front of another, spends the 'winter ,skiing. Walks are being cancelled for lack of interest, and not only in SBW. Other groups are having the same probierR. , - Summer in Sydney is too hot for vigorous walking.' Which leaves only a. 111 couple of months in spring and autumn for doing anything interesting. ,havdAl we all become weather-wimps, demanding a hut for cold nights? Or are we no longer able to light a fire outdoors in wet weather? Will only perfect weather TIONW bring us creeping timidly out of hibernation? Mustn't be too cold, or too hot - rain would cause panic and despair. go\ Yet some of my happiest times were spent in winter weather. Helping skilled bushmen light an un-dousable fire during a thunderstorm on the Kowmung. Or boiling my breakfast billy beside borang River, where frost made ice-castles of all the tents. All gone - never to return? I hope not. Perhaps new members, who areow#1410y still excited by the adventure of going bush will be brave enough to pit themselves against the elements, and discovr that they can win. So next winter perhaps? fr441 T f -1...; THE SEPTEMBER GENERAL MEETING The September General Meeting came and went without too many people noticing. Most members seemed to be away seeking frostbite in the snowfields, including your usual reporter, Barry Wallace. Others, including the Club Secretary and the Club Vice President, were busy with other things. The Walks Secretary was/is away overseas and the Federation Delegate/s were somewhere. This left the field pretty much to the President who, along with about 16 members, soon became bored with the whole thing and went home. Perhaps we should take this state of affairs as a hint that the General Meetings need some revision. A questionaire has been sent but, apparently not a moment too soon. ,Should we have General Meetings at all? Should they bp limited to one hour and then followed, by talks/ sltdes/ wine-tastings? (Singly or concurrently, and not necessarily in that order) Well, you have the questionaire - so come along - some practical and/or imaginative suggestions please! Ed. See you on the track.... We arrived in Kathmandu near lunchtime from Bangkok and had two free days sightseeing as it was necessary to spend that amount of time obtaining the trekking permits etc. necessary for the trek. We left our hotel for a 3.15 Om flight to start our trek from Tumlingtar but after being in the air for 25 minutes had to return to Kathmandu because the weather had Closed in From the air I could see what I had only seen in photos - little villages stacked high on terraggd mountains - the scenery was unreal. ',I wondered to myself how the people got up there but I was to find out soon enough. Our second attempt was successful as we left at 7 am in the morning and when we arrived'at Tumlingtar breakfast was awaiting us on the airpert grounds prepared by the cooks and Sherpae. What scenery to sit and watch while you eat - we had table and stools to use and'these were carried by the porters on the track. While we ate, the luggage was sorted out, weight was distributed as some porters carried more and received more payment for it. Then we started walking down towards the Arun River for lunch - passing through small farms where farmers were guiding their ploughs pulled by bullocks through the fields. We waited for two hours for lunch - it was always a hot lunch. At first it seemed to be a long time but later into the trek we appreciated the rest. After lunch it was all up hill. We camped on a mountain with superb scenery at Kharang and not a cloud to be seen - we could see Mount Makalu, fifth highest mountain in the world. We found that in the morning the views were generally good, but by afternoon the clouds started to steal the scenery. The locals always found u6 interesting - one does get used to them after a while, just standing and staring at you while you eat or in fact do anything. , It is all very interesting to them as the Kanchenjunga Track has not been opened very long to tourists. Our second day along the track gave us the view of the Himalayas stretching as far as the eye could see. The walking was not hurried and we walked at our own pace. One sherpa who was the leader always sent ahead and whoever wanted to walk fast could go with him. The other three sherpas spread themselves amongst us and one always brought up the end. There was no pushing at any time except when we were walking over dangerous slip areas and.we were advised to hurry across. It was market day at Chainpur, which is held every Friday. People come from far afield bringing their wares to sell and they return home late in the evening. To a Nepalese, distance and time are of little concern. On the track we passed through villages and we were always greeted with "Namste, a Nepalese greeting which means "I salute the God in you". The little children just stand with hands in prayer formation singing this out until you respond with the same. The voices echo all over the fields and in fact we missed them once we got up to Ghunsa which is the highest permanent village and is at snowline level. Any village above Ghunsa is a summer monsoon grazing camp and is abandoned for the winter. The Sydney. Bushwalker Page 3 October 1990 AU. ,1 L ? /1: 1\. ,\ '-,%\ --Qr, L ING TAR. t 6 LHONAK '. \ ,.. , ,& \900ft, -L -16 , rOft ja / \.x\ Ns svd., , Elalne Walton I 4164 1990 Page The Sydney Bushwalker October 1990 ' - We crossed all kinds of bridges from two pieces of bamboo, wire and one had all stones replacing broken slats of wood - some engineering went into that idea - it looked as though it could fall at any time. A lot of the bridges get washed away during the monsoon season and are replaced when necessary. We walked along Tamur River and Ghunsa Kola always climbing and one could notice the river climbing with you right up to the which- , 'was our ultimate destination: On the track towards Sokathum we passed several families of monl