Hi All,

Please check out the pictures below by clicking on the thumbnails below to make the images bigger, then clicking on the larger images to make them small again.

If you want to find out what we are doing more than once a year at Xmas, you can visit our Facebook pages by clicking Karen's FB page and Brett's FB page. You can also see a whole lot more of our photos of bushwalks and trips on Brett's Flickr page.

A week in the northern Snowy Mountains

In early February Karen led a Shoalhaven Bushwalkers (SBW) trip where we stayed in accommodation at Yarrangobilly Caves, and camped at Three Mile Dam and Jounama Creek. The photos below show Yarrangobilly Caves, caves at Blue Waterholes, Buddong Falls, Mt Selwyn Trig, Brett walking towards 4 Mile Hut, and Vic, Jan and Karen sheltering in the hut while waiting for the rain to stop.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images - then click the large image to make it small again

Wombeyan Caves, Yerranderie, and Abercrombie Caves

In April we went on another SBW trip. We stayed in a cottage at Wombeyan Caves, but camped at Yerranderie and Abercrombie Caves. The photos below show Wombeyan Caves and a fantastic canyoning trip up and down Mares Creek, our campsite at Yerranderie and a walk up to Yerranderie Trig, two shots of Mt Colong Trig, and our campsite and cave shots at Abercrombie Caves.

Queensland

In May we joined a couple of friends for a trip to Queensland incorporating Lady Elliott Island, Hervey Bay, Cania Gorge and the town of 1770. The photos below show the limo we took from Hervey Bay airport to the city, Lady Elliott Island and its birds and wildlife, a cave at Cania Gorge and the coastline south of 1770.

Bowral and Canberra

To celebrate our birthdays in late August / early September, we splurged on accommodation at Pepper's Craigieburn at Bowral where we played golf on their private course before travelling to Canberra for five days of walking and trig bagging while staying at a townhouse in Tuggeranong. The photos below show Craigieburn, Karen playing golf, an AF (arty-farty) shot of Karen in a corridor at Craigieburn, the townhouse in Tuggeranong, Karen at Old Joe Trig, and Karen crossing the Molonglo River.

Victoria

In November we were joined by four friends for a cycling and walking trip in eastern Victoria. We stayed at Nowa Nowa, Metung, Foster and Kilcunda, and cycled the East Gippsland Rail Trail, the Great Southern Rail Trail and the Bass Coast Rail Trail. We did a couple of walks in Wilson's Prom, walked the George Bass Coastal Walk, and did some walks on Phillip Island as well. On the way home we spent a couple of nights at Mansfield and walked to Mt Stirling and Mt Buller.

Bushwalking

Karen is now into her 8th year as President of the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers and in the past 20 years with the club has led 239 walks, more than any other club member and almost 40 walks more than her nearest rival.

I have been the webmaster for the Bushwalkers for 20 years now, but have only led 122 walks - which places me 8th on the club's "Leaders Hall of Fame".

Along with our administrative duties, we still continued our adventures with the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers, in a variety of environments as you can see in the photos below.

Sport and Fitness

I competed in two rogaines during the year. The first was the NSW 24 hour Championships at Yengo National Park in September where I teamed up with a fellow Ultra Veteran (65 and over) who I had never met before - and we won our age group! The second rogaine was a 12 hour event at Bungonia in October where I teamed up with my friend Vic who had never competed in a rogaine before. Vic is more of a cyclist than a bushwalker, and he was hurting towards the end of the event, but winning the Ultravets division made it all worthwhile! It really helps that I compete in an obscure sport that has age group divisions, and most of my potential competitors are already dead!

I'm still golfing once a week, and my handicap is still in single figures (8.6). As usual, while I'm playing golf on Thursday morning, Karen is riding her mountain bike with the Shoalhaven Bicycle Users Group (BUG). She does one or two extra rides a week as well. In addition, Karen swims three times a week (on average) with the Wobbegongs Swimming Club at Huskisson.

Other Stuff

I am no longer the Vice President of the Bay and Basin Camera Club, but now I actually have to do some work after taking over the Secretary position. Most of the photos I submit to the BBCC competitions are snaps taken on bushwalks.

Karen is still the treasurer of BirdLife Shoalhaven, and I am still the webmaster. We added three birds to our life lists in 2019 - Wandering Tattler and Black Noddy both seen on Lady Elliott Island, and a Semipalmated Plover seen at Shoalhaven Heads.

We still feed our resident magpie pair - Ricky and Lucy - who managed to produce one baby this year, but we only saw it once and suspect it came to an untimely end.

Our Nissan X-trail passed 300,000 kilometres this year, and then decided to turn up its toes, with major engine and exhaust system problems. A week ago we bought a new car - an automatic 2.4 litre turbo-diesel Mitsubishi Pajero Sport. It is a bit tougher than the X-trail, with a better 4WD system (high and low range), so we should be able to go to places that we have been avoiding because of access problems - like the Eyre Bird Observatory.

Plans for 2020

We will be doing bike riding and walking in the North Island of New Zealand in February / March, and Karen has a driving trip planned for us to the Pilbara (including Karijini and other national parks) in September / October.

As always, we hope everyone has a great Xmas and New Year, and that 2020 is wonderful for you too ...

Cheers,

Brett and Karen

P.S. As usual, our previous yearly letters can be viewed by clicking the following links - 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.