Glenbrook Creek and the Portal and Tunnel View Lookouts

 

It's one of the Blue Mountains' classic walks. We started from Lapstone station yesterday, and made our way down to the Nepean River and its junction with Glenbrook Creek.

 

 

 

 

 

The ascent to Portal Lookout is quite steep and in parts, quite exciting. At the top, we found they'd erected a fence, and a sign that said 'Abseilers Only'. We weren't quite abseiling, but I think we qualified.

 

 

From the top you get to survey the Nepean River and western Sydney.

Then it's a somewhat boring walk along recently sealed roads to Tunnel View Lookout, where you watch the trains on the other side of the valley, going in and out of the tunnel that cuts through the big bulgy bit.

Down then to a horribly crowded Jellybean pool for lunch, and a 3 km boulder-hop down the creek and round to the start point again.

Du Faur Creek from Mount Wilson

 

 

I did Mount Wilson to Du Faur Creek last week with my Thursday adventure group. All new territory for me.

 

 

Carnivorous sundew flowers

 

 

A bit tangled up going down to the creek

 

 

 

 

We're over the other side!

 

Awaiting their return

More Jinki ridges and gullies!

 

I seem to be visiting Jinki Ridge every two years in May. Looking back, I see I reported the last such visit here: 2019 Jinki post  Well, last week my Thursday group did a slight variation: we explored a whole bunch of smaller ridges and gullies, just to the east of the main Jinki Ridge.

We're in the Blue Mountains, off the Bells Line of Road, looking towards the Grose Valley. It's a very fertile area for bushwalking adventures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Pretty in pink - a nice epidemic!

 

The pink flannel flower (Actinotus forsythii) is considered to be a very rare and special thing. It's only found in a handful of places in south-east Australia, and it's only found about a year after a bushfire. Its growth is thought to be dependent on the presence of a particular chemical in the bushfire smoke.

When a group of us came across a tiny handful of the flowers a couple of years ago in a remote bushwalking spot (see here: Sept 2019 post ), we were told we were unlikely to ever see one again. They were a bit like Halleys Comet, or a total eclipse of the sun. Once in a lifetime.

 

 

 

Well, they're back with a vengeance, and they're in all kinds of easy-to-access places this time. Like right alongside the Narrowneck Road near Katoomba. Every man and his botanist friend is out there admiring them. It's all to do with the massive bushfires of 12 months or so ago.

Liversidge & Birrabang again - this time with the troops

Back in July, my Thursday exploration group surveyed this walk, along some of the amazing scenic ridges between the Bells Line of Road and the Grose River. There was clearly an excellent walk to be had for the bushwalking club.

So yesterday I was out there again, leading a formal bushwalk. And it was a great day out.

Here's the view to the east from Liversidge Hill.

 

 

 

Then lunch above Birrabang Walls.

 

 

 

 

 

Some like to live close to the edge. Others sat back a little.

 

 

 

Among the many colourful flowers around was this 'Crinkle Bush' (aka Lomatia Silaifolia).

Looking east along the Grose Valley

 

And looking west

The hardy expeditioners

Lions Head & Kedumba Valley circuit

 

It's one of my favourite walks - the big Lions Head/Kedumba Valley circuit from Kings Tableland in the Blue Mountains near Wentworth Falls. I did it for the fourth(?) time the other day.  It was a great day out.

 

 

 

 

We'll be heading down to the old Kedumba Valley Homestead, in the cleared light green patch in the centre of this picture.

 

 

 

Walking along the ridge is quite easy these days, following the dreadful bushfires of nearly a year ago. But you do get very black from the charcoal everywhere.

Must be time to head on down now, via the very steep and slippery Lions Head Pass.

 

It's very steep and very slippery in fact, and there were thrills and spills and harsh words said. It was great when we were down though.

 

 

 

Lunch beside the Kedumba River was almost shared with a slightly-too-friendly lace monitor.

There's been work done recently in restoring the old homestead The Maxwell family lived here in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and walked up and down the precipitous 'Goat Track' to check their mail at Wentworth Falls.

The Goat Track might have been effectively lost to us during the fires. I'll have to check that one day soon. I doubt that the ragged old ropes that you depended on to haul yourself up it would have survived the flames, and any subsequent erosion may well have sealed its fate for good. Watch this space.

On this occasion, we used the old, winding fire trail to achieve our exit from the valley. It's quite a slog.

All pictures courtesy of Paul Monaghan & Liam Heery