Jinki & Jungaburra revisited

I joined the bushwalkers on Saturday for a return visit to Jinki Ridge and Jungaburra Brook in the Blue Mountains. I wrote about our first visit two years ago here: 2017 visit

It's a gloriously scenic area and provides a satisfactorily challenging bushwalking circuit.

Here's the view across to the southern side of the Grose Valley. The pointy peak is Burramoko Head, and down to the right a bit is the infamous Hanging Rock. That's where I'll be taking a group in a couple of weeks time. Here's a piece on last year's Hanging Rock visit: 2018 Hanging Rock visit

On this trip we encountered people who were indeed hanging off rocks. There's a rock-climbing location called the Bell Supercrag. A couple of rock climbers were super-climbing up the crag, above Jungaburra Brook. There was a horrific scream at one stage. We couldn't see what had happened, but the occasional rock-climber within our party pronounced that it was indeed the sound of someone who'd had a fall. We also had a senior intensive-care specialist within our group (we're like that - a skilled and diversified bunch of bushwalkers). She decided it wasn't quite the sound of a serious injury. When we got close enough to talk to the climbers, now perched on a ledge above us, they cheerily told us everything was OK. So I think one had indeed fallen, got to dangle on his rope for a while, and then recovered and got down again.

We had a minor injury in our party. No rock-climbing involved here. Just a scrape against a protruding boulder.





One of most fun bits was climbing up out of the gorge via the ropes and steel rungs. Much easier this way though than what the rock climbers do.

Megalong Ledges

I'm often amazed at how many excellent classic walks there are in the Blue Mountains which were completely unknown to me beforehand, and not in the usual repertoire of my bushwalking club.  My more adventurous Thursday group have knowledge of many more places, and yesterday some of us checked out another one of these.

It's known as the 'Megalong Ledges', and you go from Medlow Bath to Katoomba along a series of ledges half way down the cliffs above the Megalong Valley. The ledges are mostly quite wide and safe, and there are usually trees around you, so it's not so scary.

Near the start is a fine little rock formation, called the 'Three Brothers', because of their uncanny resemblance to the larger Three Sisters at Katoomba. Here's 'Brother Harold', making it four.




A bit to the north and at the top, the historic Hydro Majestic Hotel.









The ledges proper now. Always scenic, often very colourful, and usually with excellent views of the valley below.

Needless to say, it's a rock-climbers' paradise around here. There are climbing bolts everywhere. Maybe in the next life I'll be able to get interested in that pursuit. Not now though. It's fun enough anyway around here even with your feet on (fairly) solid ground.

Brother Paul here isn't a rock climber either, but he's climbed more mountains than almost anyone else in the world. See his extremely informative blog here: http://mntviews.blogspot.com.au/

Jinki and Jungaburra

Not the names of my two pet koalas, but two great bushwalking ridges near Bell in the Blue Mountains.

My bushwalking adventure group were there recently, and were delighted at how accessible was this rather spectacular scenic walk, previously unknown to most of us.

There was a bit of rock scrambling and ascending of cliffs with the aid of metal steps. But rock-climbing wasn't actually required. The climbers we came across were another intrepid group.

I'm forever amazed at how many wild and spectacular places there are to explore within an hour or two's drive of Sydney. Let's hope they keep coming.