A Ruined Castle ramble

It's one of those classic Blue Mountains walks. I first did it during a visit to Sydney about 30 years ago. I remember looking across the Jamison Valley from Katoomba's Echo Point lookout, and thinking that yes, that collection of big rocks out there on the way to Mount Solitary really does look just a little bit like a ruined castle! I remember that it wasn't particularly busy out there, and I remember the hungry looking currawongs eyeing off my lunch.

The other day I joined the bushwalkers for a routine return visit. We started at the park at the top of Furbers Steps, checked out the Three Sisters from the lookouts on the way down, and hurried through the heavily touristed area at the bottom of the scenic railway. Then it was out over the landslide, and along the long level track below Narrowneck.

The Ruined Castle is as scenic a place as ever to have your lunch. It's a lot busier than before. Social media is responsible for that. A handful of bushwalking destinations seem to have got the five stars on Tripadvisor, and that's where they all go. One group even brought a drone with them, and were (illegally) flying it annoyingly above our heads for a while.








No currawongs any more. Wonder what happened to them. There was a very big fat skink eyeing off one person's lunch though.