When I learned about the beginner’s navigation weekend activity of one of the walking clubs here in Sydney, I thought I could go. I just want to try hiking again so I care less about the activity’s goal which is for us to gain navigation skill. Hiking/trekking is what I used to call it, here they call it bushwalking.

The club lend me a 60L backpack, foam mat, flysheet and ground sheet. And I bought the rest of the things I needed like compass, topographic map, thermal wear, raincoat, beanie or bonnet, and sleeping bag (which they could have lend me too if I asked).

All the exchanging of informations about the trip happened just through emails, I believe there was no physical meeting held where you plan and meet the members/participants. We were sent a navigation course handouts for our reference and detailed itinerary so I know what to expect. The climb is graded as an easy overnight walk to Wollangambee in Blue Mountains.

They have arranged a car transport going to Bell station, where our jump off is. I came with Ashley and Greg. We were the first one to arrive. It was windy and freakin’ cold as we step out of the car. It’s good we are early because I need to repack my backpack to put the foam mat in and remove the fly and ground sheet because I will not be needing it, Ashley is sharing the tent.

It’s really really cold so I looked for a toilet in the station to pee and to wear tights under my trek pants to warm myself but unfortunately there’s no toilet. I can wait till we get to the bush to pee. I managed however to put on tights wrapping myself with sarong. I had to put on beanie and mittens to comfort me from the crisp coldness. In the bush, the temperature will drop down to 5 degrees but I know it’ll get warmer once we carry our backpacks.

As almost everyone arrived, Ashley made sure that all newbies have filled-up the membership form and signed the waiver before anything else. I signed up as a Prospective because I’m not sure yet if I want to become a member (By becoming a Prospective I will be insured by Confederation of Bushwalking Clubs NSW for up to 3 climbs).

We were first taught how to read a topographic map. Using a small white board, they explained what the contour line is, spurs and gullies, etc. After an hour, with compass around our neck and map in handy, we started walking following a track.

As we move along, they let us identify landscape features around us to guess where we are on the map. It wasn’t easy, just seeing lines and numbers on the map. Using the concepts of contour lines we try to draw a mental picture against what we see around us and also considering the history if we have crossed a river or been trekking down or up the hill would help us to give a close guess to where we are on the map.

Our lunch spot is at point 994 on the Wollangambee map, a sandstone pagoda. We are supposed to eat lunch right on the top to have a 360 degrees view of the surroundings but the wind is too strong so we just had our lunch on the lee side.

While having our lunch, they worked out to explain how to use the compass. It’s really hard to explain the technicalities of using the compass with the map, as lot of us get confused, than actually practising it . So we get the hang of it as we navigate our way to the camp site.

The climb was not easy as there are steep climb up onto the ridge, boulders and couple of steep climb down to cross a river. And often as we are trying to learn how to navigate in case we got lost in the bush, we are walking off-track through scrub.

We reached our campsite before it gets dark. We camped in the cave, huge enough to shelter us from the wind and rain. As soon as we pitched our tents, they pick some woods for the campfire. While I look for a “bathroom” where I can pee, it’s been looong overdue.

The campfire warms everyone as we gather around. They use “billy” or aluminum pot to boil water over the fire. Some are eating their snacks while I started eating my cold dinner. I don’t have a pot to heat my food and I can’t wait I’m starving. We had bottles of wine passed around through the night.

Different topics were shared around the campfire, from bushwalking experiences to medical researches to dawson creek to rugby to just anything. Everyone had a chance to know a little bit more about each other. Most of the times I’m just quiet listening, laughing on the side, trying to understand what they are talking about They are all nice, they keep me company.