Exploring Mt Charles and Lightning Ridge (not that one)

Bushwalker Charles was one of my companions the other day on an exploration of uncharted Blue Mountains territory. Uncharted for us, that is. Mount Charles has clearly been well charted, of course. There's a (broken) trig point there, after all. Even Charles himself wasn't able to put it back together again.

Bushwalker Liam's plan was to work our way from this part of the Bells Line of Road, along a series of ridges, including Lightning Ridge. We would then head down the spur at the end, and hopefully find a way through any cliff lines, into Carmarthen Creek. The maps show a waterfall and a 'Glow Worm Tunnel' to explore.

There was no distinguishable track for most of the way, and it was rather scrubby sometimes. It was a hot and sweaty sort of day as well.

We made it to within a few metres of our target canyon, but a sheer drop of 7 metres or so brought us to a halt. With a bit more perseverance, or with a longer climbing tape than the 5 metre one we had, we would have found a way down. It was hot though, and getting on. I was secretly pleased I'd failed to bring my much longer tape with me! We declared victory and headed back.

We passed what appeared to be a fossilised stegosaurus on the way back, and bushwalker Sandra took part in the world's first ever fossilised stegosaurus rodeo!