Mystery Mountain & Zobels Gully

The Thursday Surveyors went out to the Newnes area again the other day, for yet another fabulous bushwalking adventure.



We first headed on up to the summit of Mystery Mountain, where we had morning tea and looked down at the Wolgan Valley below. Great views also across large swathes of the Wollemi National Park.

We then retraced our steps part way down again, and strode out along a rather magnificent (and very navigable) ridge, half way up the cliff face.

Up now onto the plateau, via a handy slot, to a very scenic lunch spot.

It's easy walking over the top of the hill through an area burnt out by a fire last year.


















Then it's a long, easy stroll down again, via the rather magnificent Zobels Gully.

Back to the cars via the old Newnes railway route. A hundred years ago they were mining oil shale here. The ruins are nearby of the extensive refining works. The railway used to take the product out to Newnes Junction, 50km to the south, via what's now the Glowworm Tunnel. More here: Wikipedia article . That's all a whole other day out though.


GPS trace courtesy walk leader Harold.

A rare pink beauty!

You'll probably never see these again, we were told by leader Harold, on our bushwalk the other day. We were on a mountain near Newnes, and we were in a patch of burned-out vegetation. We'd come across a collection of pink flannel flowers (Actinotus forsythii). They're only found in a relatively few places in SE Australia, and only during the summer immediately following a bushfire.

A day out near Newnes - a minotaur's lair, a slot canyon, and pagodas aplenty!

Newnes, in the Wolgan Valley to the west of the Blue Mountains, is a three hour drive away. But it's always well worth the trip, such as the magnificence of the bushwalking adventures on offer.

The Thursday bushwalking group I walk with treated itself to a particularly splendid day out the other day. Local legend Harold led us, and we were treated to fabulous scenery, tape-assisted climbs and descents, canyons, pagodas, and slots.

Pagoda view

Descending the Ariadne Thread.

And on through the Minotaur Lair.

Sunnyside Canyon

Back to exploring the Gardens of Stone area the other week. Sunnyside Canyon this time, which is approached along Firetrail No.8, off Sunnyside Ridge Rd.

It's been a bit windy lately, so Harold's chainsaw came in very handy. There were several obstacles needing to be removed from the road on the way in.

Off into the bush here

In the canyon proper now














One of many fabulous scenic caves to explore

Heading on down through a wide bit

Negotiating some of the narrow bits



















And the slightly precarious bits






And having lunch above the canyon, in a pagoda paradise, overlooking the Wolgan Valley

Maiyingu Marragu

An excellent day out recently with my Thursday bushwalking explorers group! We went to the Maiyingu Marragu Aboriginal Place. It's a special area within the Newnes State Forest, just off the Wolgan Valley Rd, and it used to be known as Blackfellows Hand Reserve.

It's also part of the Gardens of Stone area, and in a future, better, world, it will be part of an enlarged Gardens of Stone National Park.

Here we are, heading on up the fire trail at the start of the walk.


The area is another bushwalkers' paradise - full of terrific rock formations, canyons, slots, caves, labyrinths, pagodas - the lot. A bit like the fabled Donkey Mountain down the road, but easier to get to and a bit more spread out.

The features have all been named (by our Bush Club friends) after places in the Indiana Jones films. So there's a Last Crusade Ravine, as well as a Holy Grail Ravine. There's a Temple Creek, a Labyrinth, and a Sacristy, and there's a wonderful area of spectacular pagodas: the Temples of Doom. We found a bathtub formation too, so we named that.

The best known feature of the area though, is the big rock overhang known as 'Blackfellows Hand Cave'. There are lots of fine examples of hand stencils to peruse.

Donkey Mountain

If there's a God(dess) of bushwalking, then that would explain Donkey Mountain. (S)he built it to reward deserving NSW bushwalkers with their ultimate adventure playground.

It's a magnificent place. Well worth the three hour drive from Sydney. It's part of the Gardens of Stone National Park, and you access it from the Wolgan Valley Road, a few kilometres before Newnes. It's surrounded by land owned by the luxury $2000 per night Emirates resort, and among the entertainments on offer there are occasional bushwalks up Donkey Mountain. But you can do it for free.

It's a bit of a slog going up, with a climb of a few hundred metres. Once you're there on top, what a wonderland! An amazing collection of canyons, slots, ledges, 'rooms', 'windows' over the valleys either side, pagodas, caves. It's all there.


It's all been mapped and named by bushwalker extraordinaire Geoff Fox, of the Bush Club. I haven't yet met Geoff,  but I'll be eternally grateful to him for the work he's done mapping, promoting, and urging protection for this and other parts of Gardens of Stone. There's a visitor book up there that he maintains, and one rather ungrateful contributor had been very critical of him for encouraging visitors to this magical place, in case they spoil it. Everyone else left very appreciative comments. I understand that his mission is to encourage interest in the area, so that political pressure can build up to maintain its protection, and counter the pressure from nearby coalmines and other destructive forces. So if there is indeed a God(dess) of bushwalking, then maybe Geoff is her/his earthly representative? I read that he's already known as the 'King of Donkey Mountain', after all.



One of the slots we all squeezed through is named 'Jenny Craig'. We all made it, though I was slightly challenged.





The 'Grand Hall' is indeed a very grand space. This was our lunch place.










And the Titanic! Here's the prow of the doomed liner, with bits of iceberg either side of it!

Looking down on the Emirates resort.






   Tarzan, climbing up out of the 'Green Room'?

























* Photo credit: F. Moxom