Hat Hill & beyond

 

Yet again I found myself exploring a terrific Blue Mountains bushwalking wonderland that's been well explored by almost everyone but me!

I'd taken the Hat Hill Rd north-east from Blackheath many times before, en route to Perrys Lookdown, though the road to there seems to be closed at the moment. I'd never quite checked out little Hat Hill itself, Bald Head to its north (except for the view of it from the other side of the Grose Valley), or even the touristy Anvil Rock lookout.

 

 

Here we are the other day, heading north from Hat Hill.

The view down the Grose Valley

And up it

A short burst of scary-looking bad weather swept through, to remind us of the week of extreme wetness we'd just been through. It was soon gone again though.

 

 

A native cockroach - clean and wholesome,and rather beautiful, I thought

 

 

Anvil Rock Lookout. It's so named of course because it's shaped like an anvil. But it also has a 305kg actual steel anvil bolted to it, just to be sure.

 

 

From several points along the way, we got good views of Sydney's distant urban centres. In addition, we could see some large areas of water, being the now-flooded flood plain of the Hawkesbury-Nepean river.

More Blue Mountains: Govetts Leap again

The tree ferns are sprouting nicely, and there's promising growth on the rest of the trees. The massive bushfires seem like years ago. We're into pestilence instead now.




The waterfall is flowing well too. It's called both Bridal Veil Falls and Govetts Leap, by the way. Same difference.

I'm not sure when we'll next be allowed to venture down into the Grose Valley.

The Upper Grose - where no-one goes!

And now I know why!

Our attempted traverse of 5km of the wild upper reaches of the Blue Mountains' Grose River the other day was probably doomed from the outset. We probably should have started at daybreak, and should have done it when there were a few more hours of evening daylight on offer.




In the end we had a very close call with a possibly very uncomfortable benighting. And it was one of the most arduous day walks any of us remember doing. Progress down the river was slow and difficult. The rocks were super-slippery, and massive boulders and frequent waterfalls made exhausting bush excursions necessary. No trace was found of the legendary Engineers Track, which was once there, and would have assisted greatly.









With three hours of daylight remaining, and more than half of the river section still to do, a heroic decision was made to gamble on finding a shortcut out of the place. Elder statesman Harold told us of the historic mine site up above, just at the bottom of the cliff line, and with a good walking track out through the cliffs above. We just needed to make it there by 6pm nightfall.

That's when it got really interesting! The scramble up through the bush was horrendous. Really steep, riddled with monstrous thorny 'lawyer vines' trying to cut us to bits, and it took about two hours to get up to the cliffs. Then we progressed along the relatively level last few hundred metres, knowing that at any moment we could encounter impassable ledges that would stop us in our tracks.

Indeed there were some last minute obstacles that had us doubting there would be a happy ending to this adventure. Amazingly, at 6:00pm sharp, there was the mine, and our deliverance!



We walked out along the track by torchlight, and compared our scratched limbs over fish and chips at Blackheath.

Picture 5 courtesy of Meiha Cheung

Our very own Grand Canyon

We've got our very own Grand Canyon in the Blue Mountains near Blackheath, I went back for a return visit last Sunday, and it was looking better than ever, thanks to recent track renovations and a bit of light rain earlier in the morning.

We started from Evans Head, then went out onto a very fine lookout above the Horse Track, where you can survey the much bigger canyons and valleys below. There's a more-than-sheer drop of several hundred metres below, but I somehow don't get scared when it's all good, safe, solid cliff. (It's a different matter when it's about loose and slippery surfaces, or hanging onto dubious handholds!)

Anyway, the main Grand Canyon Circuit is safe and solid, involves only about 200m in descents and then ascents, and takes three to four hours. We added a bit onto this with our side trips to the cliff top, and to the canyon floor proper (not on the signposted tourist track).

What our Grand Canyon lacks in sheer size, it does make up for in beauty! Beautiful waterfalls, rainforest vegetation, caves and cliff overhangs. It's an altogether nice place to visit.






 
A worthy little leg stretch, a positive experience for anyone of moderate fitness, much recommended.