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
And a brown cuckoo-dove I spotted nearby last week. I'd seen these before, without quite getting round to identifying them properly.
