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Member Profile: Lyn Cook

Member Profile: Lyn Cook

Lyn Cook likes to experience the Blue Mountains – and we’re not talking about a quiet afternoon stroll.


With the Blue Mountains National Park on their doorstep, a lot of the members of the  Upper Blue Mountains Probus Club have been (and many still are) active bushwalkers.

Indeed, in the Blue Mountains there are numerous bushwalking tracks, each of them with spectacular views of valleys, cliffs, birds and other wildlife. Some tracks are also a key part of our Australian history.

At the bottom of the valleys there are rivers and creeks. Lyn Cook and her husband, Jim, along with other like-minded people, try to spend at least one day a week hiking, but the 68-year-old is also a keen abseiler and canyoner.

“My sister got me started when the kids were grown up enough that I could leave them for a day and go out; she got me into the bushwalking club and abseiling,” Lyn says.

The keen Probus member took a class that taught her all she needed to know about being lowered off a cliff, and she still abseils and canyons to this day.

“The Grand Canyon [in the Blue Mountains] is actually an abseil that we do at night,” Lyn says. “We leave the cars at 7pm at night and then abseil down. As we come back up around 11pm, every nook and crevice has glow worms in it, and it looks spectacular.”

While abseiling doesn’t sound like the fastest way to reach the valleys of the Blue Mountains, Lyn says it can actually take almost the same amount of time as the walks. It’s a sport she is passionate about – Lyn has abseiled for 20 years and her husband for 40 years.

“We go to some amazing places and when we go canyoning you follow river systems down and you are abseiling off waterfalls,” she adds.

Lyn and Jim have stood at the top of an abseil when the valley is full of mist, which looks like puffy clouds underneath you; abseiled seemingly through rainbows; and had lunch sitting up on a pagoda wondering what the rest of the world is doing.

They’ve also seen yabbies in creeks, had water dragons try to eat their lunch, and rescued lyrebirds that have been stranded. They love it, because not only does it get you out in the great outdoors, but it also helps you to keep fit in both mind and body.

As for Probus, Lyn says: “It’s a really lovely social group. There are all sorts of groups within Probus; we have photo and diners’ clubs and travellers tales and bowls, so there are all sorts of little groups inside the bigger groups.”

Name

Lyn Cook

Club

Upper Blue Mountains

Age

68

Time in Probus

18 months