Heaton State Forest – known for being leech infested

Posted on May 21, 2026 by marilyn

HEATON STATE FOREST – 20 May 2026
With almost two weeks of rain behind us, I wasn’t sure that this day walk would go ahead. There was muttering of “mud, leeches, and rain” from some, and it ended up that it was just Trish and me.  But when you’re doing an exploratory trip, with just the two of us I didn’t have to worry about people either “white anting me” or just complaining – bonus. Continue reading →

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Still in search of “grassy meadows”

Posted on May 13, 2026 by marilyn

DHARUG NP – 13 May 2026
Back in 2023, I visited a creek in Dharug NP looking for some items that I’d found on one of Ray Meisterhans’ maps.  The items that we’d found were amazing.  I then poured over his maps and added a trips to my wish list, one of which looked like a dead easy day walk.  I might have underestimated the trip when I persuaded Trish and Jeff to join me – and Jeff would claim that some of the description was “ambiguous”- in my defense, I thought it would be a good adventure. Continue reading →

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How much abuse can one cave take?

Posted on April 30, 2026 by marilyn

MT ETNA, CENTRAL QUEENSLAND – 20-30 April 2026
As a general rule, a person who’s never caved before doesn’t wake up one morning and think “I’m going to go caving” and off they go.  You’re usually introduced to caving by someone who’s already been caving, like a friend or your parents.  And, generally, when you take a person who has never been caving you teach them to “leave no trace” and “caving softly”.  This is why, when I visited Johansen’s1 Cave at Mt Etna, it was disappointing to discover the amount of graffiti and unnecessary (and often incorrect) navigational directions in the cave. Continue reading →

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My walks are getting shorter and shorter

Posted on April 30, 2026 by marilyn

MT ETNA, CENTRAL QUEENSLAND – 20-30 April 2026
We had organised a “day off” for Monday (and a day trip over to Great Keppel Island), and then we heard that everyone was going to have a day off on Sunday, followed by a BBQ in the evening.  What to do?  Two days off in a row?  So, we decided to do a short walk up a small hill.  This was the first of three “let’s check out” short walks over the next week. As most of you know, I don’t usually get out of bed for a day walk, but my standards must be getting really low, I was going on a 1/4 day walk – not even a 1/2 day walk! Continue reading →

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Johansen’s Cave – not all doom and gloom

Posted on April 30, 2026 by marilyn

MT ETNA, CENTRAL QUEENSLAND – 20-30 April 2026
It wasn’t all graffiti removal in Johansen’s for me, I did get to look around, and Garry sent me some photos so I could see where I didn’t go and others that give some idea of the scale of the chambers. I was surprised that there were some very nice formations that I didn’t get to see and, incredibly no graffiti in that area! At the end of the surveying, when all the passages were added up, there is 3+k of passageway in Johansen’s, impressive!!! Continue reading →

Posted in Caving, MSS | 4 Comments