Ah to see the world in a grain of sand and a heaven in wildflower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.  You may have thought that is not possible, but think again it was for a brief moment in time – during our hideaway heaven of Zoella located deep within the bowls of the Megalong Valley right next to the Six-foot track where our yearly sojourn takes place. This was our second visit and this year Adele and Dagmar were first followed by the Rosenbaum’s late Thursday night. Friday the Crockers joined us and by Saturday morning Di and Elka brought Liam along to complete our posse. Friday was basically spent around the house practising a variety of slacklines, preparing pizza and picking up Larisa and Cam from the train station in Blackheath. Adele was kind enough to bake her fantastic Pizza selection for us and by the time everyone arrived the wine was flowing freely and we were preparing for a day of solid activities on Saturday.

	Dinner time	Elka trying hard	Chris on the masterline
	Adele recording Mum	Gabriel and Roman	Louise mastering the line

Friday afternoon it was time to head down to the camping place near Nellies Glen with the river nearby. Roman tried to build a slackline but the webbing did not reach (mental note: bring the long one next time). Luckily we found a nice rope swing to test the depth of the water.

Saturday was 6foot track day and this time Roman had foolishly promised to look after the car shuffle to the beginning of the ride near Jenolan caves. So it was Cam, Louise and Mat who started the ride just about 7am. Roman raced back to the Megalong valley and joined them from the other side. We caught up just above the Cox river camp before the single track as the day started to heat up. Louise had taken a bit of a beating on the loose downhill track and was going aggressively careful. The usual skinny dip in the Cox river cooled us for the single track, which was loaded with pretty decent sized Goannas this time. This year we really felt the staircases as the heat lingered and the going was tough. We were all happy to emerge in the Megalong valley after the last grassy knoll and completed the track in just under five hours to find everybody waiting for more action at the house.

6foot track

	Roman finally catches up	The decent cox river	Megalong Valley finale

No rest for the wicked and after a quick feed we headed straight for the Dam Cliffs with its freezing swimming hole and rain forest climbing below. The boys kept jumping of the cliff all afternoon while a small group of climbers found one of the few remaining cliffs that was not crowded. Everybody had a quick climb in the little known Shady Alley next to the camping cave:

Bourke’s Backyard  18 *

And the slightly technical:

Water Resistance 19**

Elka, Mat, Gabriel	Adele	Mat, Cam, Dagmar
Elka	Di	Elka, Dagmar, Adele

Both received several ascents. Notable Adele completed her first Blue Mountains climb with Water Resistance. Dagmar also tried very hard on the crux start moves of Bourke’s Backyard and had a ‘little’ help from poor Cam – see photo. Shortly after it was time to pack up and escape the impending thunderstorm. A quick shop on the way back down to the valley floor saw us congregate once again for a scrumptious barbecue dinner. Thanks go to Cam and Di for looking after the smorgasbord of meat. Saturday vanished all to quickly and we awoke to our last day with perfect weather once again. The slackline got a good workout that morning and Mat showed signs of future greatness by clocking several complete traverses ! We might all still make it in Cirque du Soleil. After packing it was time for one more adventure at the popular Jellybean swim hole near Glenbrook. Elka, Di, Adele and Cam had a look at the Rainforest walk and then ran into a huge group of bikers at the Megalong tea rooms, but that is another story....

Thanks for another great weekend.If you want to see more go HERE.

Roman 31 October 2014.