Rennies Tunnel - 'inadvisable to enter'

My Thursday bushwalking group had another great little adventure the other day. We used to call

ourselves the 'Famous Five', but then became the 'Thursday surveyors'. Actually there were only three of us on this trip, and it was a Friday rather than a Thursday, but that just shows how flexible we can be.

We did the traverse of Rennies Tunnel - a relatively little known 400m long shortcut right through Katoomba's Narrowneck Peninsula. It used to be part of the route for shale oil rock being hauled out to Katoomba from the mines on the Megalong Valley side. The entrances were blocked off when the mines closed, but seem to have become (just) negotiable again, to slimmer bushwalkers at least.

And it's horrible. It's wet, muddy, and claustrophobic, the ceiling is very low in places, making it necessary to be physically very flexible, or to crawl through the slime and effectively bring to an end the useful life of the clothes you're wearing at the time. There have been partial collapses of the ceiling, and there's a bat colony (which we somehow missed). There's a half-hearted but somewhat sad official looking barrier at the start, and there have been pronouncements from sensible authorities that it is 'inadvisable to enter'.

We don't always take sensible advice. In fact, I have to admit that I'm a bit of a repeat offender, in that I did the thing once before, about 17 years ago in fact, and swore I'd never do it again, so uncomfortable was the experience.



Here we are, manoeuvring our way through the very restricted section just before the exit hole.




After emerging into the light, we spent some time enjoying the blissful relief, and adjusting our attire. The plastic shoes and plastic bags had done their job, sort of. Then it was off again, through the bush, around in circles for a while as we surveyed various alternative routes (for next time?!) to the Water Board ladders.

We knew well that the Water Board ladders were no longer the preferred option for ascending the cliffs and returning to where we started at the top. They had  been removed, all the signs said. In fact only the top and bottom bits had been removed, and I got the feeling that some of the rock-climbing adventurers who come here were still finding ways to use them. Not for us though - we'd had quite enough adventure for one day, and went up via the more conventional Devils Hole route.

So an excellent day out. Rennies Tunnel (or the Mt Rennie Tunnel, as it's also known) cuts straight through the peninsula below, at roughly its narrowest point. The big question now is will I be back in 17 years time to do it once more?


(Some pictures courtesy Paul)