Bushwalk Australia

I regularly walk in the Grose Valley, although todays walk was rather slow as my knees have yet to forgive me for the Inca Trail I did a few weeks back.

I did however get a mild amount of amusement from the actions of other walkers. I assume this must be a frequent occurrence put post a few examples here that I have seen while walking in the valley over the past year for a little light entertainment,

1 - I was ascending from Rodriguez pass, quite close to the bottom. Coming down the trail were 5 Japanese tourists. They seemed very happy to see another walker and proceeded to enquire how far it was to the car park. They were totally ill equipped to be on the trail - no water, standard shoes etc. I did seek clarification and they did mean the Evans Lookout carpark. The look on their faces was priceless when I advised that it was back the way they had come ..........

2 - Rodriguez pass again - just below the falls, this time I was descending and passed a young lady - she asked how far she would have to go to get back to the cliff tops. When informed she was less than keen on continuing the descent and turned back.

3 - Today, I was ascending to Govetts Leap (well below the steel stairs). Four young people where coming down, seeming rather bemused by the condition of the trail - who proceeded to ask in all seriousness how long it would take to get to Blackheath station .....

4 - A very long suffering boyfriend (soon to be ex by the looks of the young lady) was complaining loudly about the numbers of steps when at the bottom of the grand canyon. My daughter was with me, and she had on a previous walk counted the steps and informed him that there were (in her reckoning) around 4000 of them. He was not happy ....

Enjoy, and please add your own experiences of similar encounters !

A few years ago on the six foot track I came across a couple of young German blokes at the Coxs river camp site. Dressed in street clothes with school backpacks and plastic milk containers for water. Had a cheap K Mart tent. They had decided on the spur of the moment to walk to Jenolan caves and equipped themselves with the minimum of fuss and bother. They did look quite fit and took off at a quick pace in the morning. Saw them again that night at Black range camp and they were a bit less enthusiastic, but by next morning were keen and ready to go. I watched them get ready, then puzzle over their map and finally deciding to get moving. I watched as they walked purposefully out of the camp....back toward Katoomba....for a fleeting moment I thought about just letting them go but then my better nature took over and I called them back, pointing out the correct way to Jenolan.

This. This is quiet the mountain bike. How much did you pay for it? Three, no four or five hundred dollars?
Nah, mate. Thirteen hundred.
What! Outrageous! How can it be?! But it is little different to K-Mart!
Chris paid twenty-four hundred for his.
(Shoves Chris' MTB back against the tree) No-way! Why! You tell me! Why?! It has the same parts to my eye!
Ron paid four thousand.
He was roaring by now.

This happened in 1993.

A few years ago we met 3 German backpackers near the Blue Gum Forest. They had walked down, camped and then spent the day trying to get out of the valley. They had followed what I assume was a rock climbers track, had started ascending and wisely turned back when it became close to vertical. We showed them the way out the next day.

On my way to Mt Solitary back in Feb 2018, came across a Chinese guy and his partner/wife/gf. They asked if there was a shop "near here" - I was at the base of Golden Stairs.

Pretty warm day but ended up walking with them to Ruined Castle and sharing my extra water and trail mix before they turned back. At least they got some decent photos but I wish there was something that says you need water and food when attempting a bushwalk in our weather

That_Asian_Bloke wrote: I wish there was something that says you need water and food when attempting a bushwalk in our weather

'We' do assume that everyone knows that you need water when going on a walk. 'We' also assume that you swim between the flags. Unfortunately foreign tourist may not know .. probably something that should be given out to incoming passengers? Anyone entering Oz with a foreign passport gets a brochure in their language with safety messages?

Its not just Aussies that make that assumption. I've heard those assumptions made by people in the rocky mountains (there are very few weeks where snow isn't a likely threat) or when dealing with animals, (no, you should not try to hand-feed a bison in the wild) And similar sorts of things in other places. Its also easy to generalize our own experience or knowledge and not realize dangers that are unique to that location.
As I've said before, I don't think there is anything to the concept of "common sense" I think its really "lessons I learned but forgot when or how I learned them"

Warin wrote:

That_Asian_Bloke wrote: I wish there was something that says you need water and food when attempting a bushwalk in our weather

'We' do assume that everyone knows that you need water when going on a walk. 'We' also assume that you swim between the flags. Unfortunately foreign tourist may not know .. probably something that should be given out to incoming passengers? Anyone entering Oz with a foreign passport gets a brochure in their language with safety messages?

Before Sydney airport was sold to Macquarie Bank the TV screens in the passenger arrival area showed just this sort of information. There was a captive audience while waiting to get processed through immigration. After privatiastion though this was changed to advertising.