We had a large contingent of walkers, including Dave and Nicole’s little baby Oli (6 months old) on his first overnight walk.

Being a memorial for Pete Harvey, our original intention was to get to Mt Harvey near the Red Rocks. An ambitious plan! We almost made it. We camped about a kilometre south of the mountain and reached a high pagoda overlooking it on the Sunday morning.

Our route was from ridge out to McLeans Gap and then along the Wolgan/Capertee Divide out to Blue Rock Gap and Hughes Defile and then north along the plateau and ridge to Mt Harvey.

This is very scenic country. It is great country for bushwalking, with breathtaking views of  both the Wolgan and Capertee clifflines.

We set out in a few separate parties and met up at a campsite on the cliffs a kilometre or so short of Mt Harvey. This campsite had outstanding views overlooking the Capertee Valley – from Baal Bone Point, Pantoneys Crown, Tayan Pic and right around to the Red Rocks.

On Sunday morning, some of us got up early to photograph the sunrise. A small amount of mist was in the valley adding to the atmosphere.

After breakfast, we headed further along the ridge to Mt Harvey and stopped on a high pagoda a short way from the peak. This pagoda had very commanding views but was not easy to get off. We had left the rope back with our packs near the campsite. So we decided to stop there, although Chris later found an easy bypass route.

At the pagoda, we all spent some time reflecting on the good times and trips we had been on with Pete. It was an emotional time. A sad time….

We then had to reluctantly head back. Our route was to retrace our path of the day before. Again – more fantastic views and nice walking.

Pete’s passing has been a sad time for many in SUBW, but it was good to be out in the bush with friends to celebrate his life and his love for the wild places.

More photos of the trip are on my website here.

As well as bushwalkers, it is also a place used by recreational abseilers. They descend off the head down to the Ruined Castle. There is also at least one rock climbing route up Castle Head.

I had never been to Castle head despite having waked Narrow neck many, many times. To get there, it is a short walk from the Narrow Neck fire trail. The track leaves about 1km past the barrier and well before you arrive at the first steep uphill climb. The first turn-off track to the east – goes out to a nice lookout. about 50m from the fire trail. Not far past this is the next turn off – with metal posts – this is not the one to take. Keep going a little further, to get to a turn off  (actually an old road) marked by wooden posts. Then it is about 30 minutes walking along a well defined track to the head.

I walked there from Katoomba Station – it took about 2 hours with photo stops.

Once at Castle Head – I set up my camp in a thicket near the trig. There are not many campsites right out at the point – but that is where the views are. A little further back were some fireplaces and some better campsites – but they are father away from the best views.

I was hoping for good light for sunset and sunrise. As it turn out the conditions were fairly mediocre. But – it was nice to be out there.

On Sunday, I walked back to the Golden Stairs track and descended to Federal Pass. Then I walked all the way to Leura Forest and climbed out of Jamison Valley by Leura Cascades. More photo stops. From there it is only 15 minutes walk back to Leura Station.

More photos on my website here.

I take broader definitions for these colourful place names. I use the Blue Rocks for the area near or on the Wolgan – Capertee divide west of Hughes Defile and the Red Rocks for east of there to the Pipleline Track. Further east is denoted as the Mount Morgan Plateau.

This broader definition fits in nicely with where we walked over 4 days starting on Anzac day and extending then next three days.

Our walk was organised by Dave Williams, and he was joined by Su Li, Martin, Rob and Myself. This is an area I have walked in a lot and its one of my favourite places.

We started from near the Newnes Pub. We first scrambled up through the cliffs to a ridge south of the pub and then spent all the first day walking along a ridge to set up camp near Mt Dawson.

The ridge, was open at first and then really spectacular through a maze of pagodas. Surely some of the best pagodas around? The second part of the ridge was more closed in and scrubby.

One highlight of walking in the Red Rocks are the camps. They are high camps. This means water often needs to be carried but the views from the campsites are so so good! Sunset and sunrise are often spectacular. Its well worth carrying a camera.

We did carry a fair bit of water with us. Most of us carried more than 2 litres. That would be sufficient for the first night but not  for the next day or the rest of the walk. The small creek near our campsite was very dry. It has often been a reliable source of water of previous visits. Perseverance paid off when Dave W found a small, but good pool of water not far up a side branch.

On the second day, we left our camp and set of with daypacks towards Collet Gap. We didn’t make it all the way there because we were often diverted by interesting and enchanting features along the way. The best place to walk is not on the ridge crest but closer to the Capertee Cliffs. These cliffs are quite amazing. In three places the cliffs seem to form a large concave dish shape.

We continued to a lookout overlooking Donkey Mountain in the Wolgan Valley and then returned the same way back to our camp.

Dusk – more time spent wandering around on the tops of pagodas taking photos. Dawn – the same.

Day 3 saw us make our way along the Red Rocks proper to Point Nicholson. This is a short walk and quite easy if you are prepared to scramble. Very spectacular bushwalking!

After lunch at our campsite at Point Nicholson, we spent the afternoon soaking up the views and exploring nearby canyons and cracks. Many of the pagodas are rent with crack type fissures that can be walked and scrambled through. Very interesting places to explore. Similar cracks can be found on Donkey Mountain and other places on the Wolgan – Capertee divide.

Our last day saw more ridge walking. This time we had to negotiate a series of chasms that cut through the plateau. More interesting walking and a good place to hone your route-finding skills. A convenient canyon provided a passage back into the valley and hen it was  short walk back to the Newnes Pub.

More photos can be found on my website starting from this page.

On my walks, I had really nice weather – perhaps not the best for photographs, but certainly nice for walking. A very striking feature was the number of honeyeaters flying around. They were all New Holland Honeyeaters and there seemed to be a plague of them. In every direction you looked there were dozens of them.

Lots of people were about – on the beeches and at Wattamolla, but I saw few actually walking along the track. It was midweek when I did my walks – but it was also school holiday time.

Its interesting to be by yourself and armed with a camera and tripod and see what you can find that is interesting. You need to take your time and potter around. I wandered along some side tracks looking for waterfalls or interesting rock features.

The cliffs between Bundeena and Marley are always spectacular. A good place to look for whales at the right time of the year. It would be a great coastline to walk along when really big waves crash into the cliffs.

The beach at Marley has a well deserved reputation for being dangerous for swimming. The preferred option being the smaller and much more placid Little Marley Beach. The lagoon behind Marley is quite interesting.

The major stream flowing into the lagoon at Wattamolla is another place to stop and look at the waterfalls. These lie below a small rock dam. Its a short but worthwhile diversion to scramble down some of the small waterfalls.

Further south lies another fascinating place – the inlet of Curracurrang. This is one more place that it is worth wandering upstream along  Curracurrang Creek to a nice pool and waterfall. A very beautiful and peaceful place.

Then it is not far through the moors to Curracurrong. Unlike Curracurrang, the quite large creek here tumbles over a high sheer drop into the sea. Close by lies the overhanging Eagle Rock.

Then it is more moorland walking to windswept Garie Beach. Not far away, across headlands are North and South Era Beaches. The old shanty huts close to South Era that date back from the depression now seem to be heritage listed. At one time, under a different policy, the huts were apparently owned by some of the “oldest” people in Sydney. In those times, when the owner died, the hut was supposed to revert back to NPWS possession. It seemed that very few owners died.

Its also interesting to think back to a conservation campaign, I think in the 1930′s, to preserve the Garrawarra area above the beaches. The area was saved due to the actions of Myles Dunphy and others. One key part that stopped developers was when the Sydney Bushwalking Club purchased a key block of land (South Era Beach). This land was latter added to Royal National Park. This is part of history that should not be forgotten.

For more photos of my walk – see my website here. For photos of the section between Era and Otford look at an older blog entry.

Asmodeus pool

First spot we visited was the Nature Walk at Wentworth Falls. This was was pleasant but bot that great. I was expecting more having walked part of it many times on the way to Empress Canyon high up in the Valley of The Waters. It starts by traversing at the head of the valley through bush – but very close to houses. Nothing special. Then is descends through a hanging swamp to Edinburgh Castle Rock and things start to improve. 

The best section is along the creek, just before the Valley of the Waters. The Pool of Asmodeus is quite beautiful. Its not far from the pool to the start of Empress Canyon, and then not far to the Valley of the Waters track. After this short walk – we headed out to Prince’s Rock Lookout closer to Wentworth Falls to photograph the late afternoon.

We camped that night at Perrys Lookdown. The campsites there are very sheltered which we though would be good in the forecast rain and wind. After a very pleasant evening, it did rain during the night – mainly in the morning and Saturday was quite a wet day. It was not worth getting up for dawn despite the lookout being very close. Views were quite restricted and dull rather than atmospheric.

I walked the short distance to Anvil Rock. Views from here were much better and so was the foreground material for photographs.

Early in the afternoon, we packed up and headed to Govetts Leap. It was still raining – but the weather seemed to be breaking. As it turned out, we had on and off again rain most of the afternoon. Still we were able to obtain some photographs close to Bridal Veil Falls and Braeside Creek above the falls.

We spent the next night visiting friends at Blackheath, and next morning got up early to head out to Evans Lookout for dawn. This time the weather had improved! There was even a small amount of mist in the valley. It really would have been a nice morning in Blue Gum Forest waking up with sunlight streaming through the valley mist.

We then headed to the track above Centennial Glen and completed the walk through the glen, and then along the Collier Causeway and back up Porters Pass. This is quite a nice loop.

More photos are on my website – Nature Walk, Perrys Lookdown and Anvil Rock, Govetts Leap, Evans Lookout and Porters Pass.

This time, I set off from Faulconbridge with a camera and tripod. The Victory Track starts near the railway level crossing. It soon leaves the houses and enters a world of ferns and tall trees. The creek picks up pace and soon tumbles over Clarinda Falls.

Clarinda Falls

These falls were challenging to photograph. It had been raining  and the local council weather site showed about 18mm of rain had fallen the day before. I was hoping for more rain and cloudy conditions. Instead I had sun and no rain, and little more than a trickle going over the falls.

I then continued down the track through delightful rainforest. At Numantia Creek junction, I detoured on a rough and not marked, but easy to follow track up Numantia Creek to Numantia Falls. These falls are in a nice grotto – but I found them even harder to photograph.

Numantia Falls

Back to the main track – and then down to the Glenbrook Creek junction. Here it is worth crossing Glenbrook Creek to check out the amazing rock formations in the streamed. An interesting place – and it would be a great place to camp and swim.

Next, down the gorge to Perch Ponds. Delightful walking along the way. Glenbrook Creek is fascinating and I could easily have spent many hours photographing.

I stopped for a late lunch at the junction with Magdala Creek. More photos and then up the Magdala Creek track. Its not far to Martins Falls. Again – these are in a dark amphitheatre and its a hard place to photograph. Even harder is Magdala Falls, not far upstream. From the track, its too steep to climb down to the falls and the view through trees is very limited. Next time, it may be worth exploring upward from creek level.

Martins Falls

Above the falls, the creek is delightful.

The streambed is a series of open rock slabs. There are interesting cascades and small holes and arches that capture the flow in many places. It was easy walking right up the creek to Ferny Dell near Springwood and then a short walk to the station.

More photos are on my website here.

I walked from Katoomba. My plans to descend to the Federal Pass Track via the Furber Stairs were put on hold when I found the top of the track shut with tape. It was closed for helicopter operations. No problem. This would give me the chance to walk east along the Prince Henry Walk to Echo Point and the descend via The Giants Stairway. This was a little further – but I had plenty of time.

Katoomba Cascades

The first of the Three Sisters with Mt Solitary behind

So, soon I was on Federal Pass – heading for Solitary.

I soon passed the tacky theme park known as “Scenic World”. You have to be careful here! The default track is not the Federal Pass Track – but rather the boardwalk to the Scenic Descender. Oops! I had to do a little backtracking. Then, not far to the Landslide and through the delightful rainforest section past the Golden Stairs and out to the Ruined Castle turnoff. I continued over the saddle and then up the Korrowall Knife-edge onto Mt Solitary.

View south from Mt Solitary

Lots of other walkers and runners were out and about. Most were day trippers. I stopped for a while at Chinamans Gully. The view from Melvilles Lookout to the south is always amazing. It spans a large part of the Southern Blue Mountains – the Blue Breaks, The Kowmung and Coxs Gorges, The Gangerang Range – including Mt Cloudmaker, The Wild Dog Mountains and behind everything – Mt Colong and Kanangra Walls.

I checked out the water situation at Chinamans Gully (there was plenty) – the best place to draw water is to go down the creek to near the cliffs and just past a small campsite. Here a side gully comes in. I think this gully has less chance of being polluted.

From the the junction of the side gully – two tracks head off – one a short distance to a lookout and the other, fainter track – climbs up through scrub to a higher vantage point. More photo opportunities.

View north from Mt Solitary

I hadn’t decided where to camp, but as it was still quite early, I pushed on to the campsite at the head of Singa-Jingawell Creek. It is very sheltered, has good water nearby and is very close to the northern cliffline. I wanted a view the next morning to the east for some comet spotting.

The sunset was nice but nothing special. What would the dawn bring? My alarm went off at 5am and I wandered out to the cliff to look for my comet. It was supposed to be close to the planet Mercury. Well Mercury was easy to spot – but not the comet. I had photographed it, Comet Lemon, earlier in the year – as an evening object. Now it is a faint  morning object. Well, whatI could not see – the camera might. So I set up the camera on the tripod and took some photos. The sky looked dark – but in the photos – all the eastern sky – where the comet was, was quite bright, due to sky fog from Sydney’s lights. But the comet was very easy to spot in the photos. Faint and green in colour with the hint of a tail.

Then I had to wait around for an hour or so till sunrise. It was interesting. It had been a still night and I had been hoping for some valley mist. When I first got up – there was very little, but during the next hour – mist rolled in from further down the Jamison Valley, but then rolled back out again. By the time the sun rose – there was virtually no mist left!

Not far from the campsite are some interesting rock formations – and these provided photographic interest for my dawn photos. As I was finishing my photographic session – the first of many runners came past. The first was a girl running by herself – at about 7am! Many more followed including bushwalking friend – Ashley Burke. He told me they were all out training for some future mountain running events.

My breakfast was interrupted by male lyrebird foraging through the campsite. It seemed quite oblivious of my presence.

I next wandered out to the eastern end of the mountain – to The Col, where I sighed the logbook. On the way back to camp I had a wander around Singa-Jingawell Creek. Another walker I met at The Col, had told me about his previous trip to the mountain – over twenty years earlier – and he seemed to recall descending of the mountain via Singa-Jingawell Creek. I didn’t think this was likely – and a view from a rock shelf just above the end of the creek seemed to confirm this. To me it looked like the creek goes over a high cliff (like the next creek to the south – Rayfrandell Gully – which I have been to the bottom of).

On some of my early traverses of Mt Solitary – back in the 1970′s – I can remember camping sometimes in a camp cave very close to Singa-Jingawell Creek. That cave now seems to have been forgotten. Perhaps because the campsite higher up the creek has both water and proximity to great views. Anyway – this time I could not find the cave. Perhaps it is quite far down the creek. I did find a nice cave with a fireplace – but it seemed too high above the creek level (about 20m, and it was about 200m downstream from the campsite).

Cave near Singa-Jingawell Ck

Back at camp, I had an early lunch and then packed up my gear and shifted camp to the head of Chinamans Gully. I had never camped at this site before – although I had stayed plenty of times in the nearby camp caves. The caves are good in wet weather – but tend to be dirty and dusty.

The campsite at the very head of the gully has the advantage of being very close to a lookout overlooking the southern cliffs – Melvilles Lookout. I guess this lookout is named after the late Ninian Melville – a prominent bushwalker, mapmaker and founder of the CMW club. Other names from Solitary – Singa-Jingawell – named by Dorothy Lawry (SBW) from “sing a jingle well” – after a night of singing around the campfire, Chinamans Gully – named by Paddy Pallin – during a very windy time – when they almost went “Arse Up” (Ahhs Sup – a Chinese name), Greenfields Lookout – I don’t know.

View from Greenfields Lookout

Anyway – after setting up my camp – I had most of the afternoon left, so I went exploring out to Greenfields Lookout. This is not far – but the way is quite scrubby, and I don’t think I would go out that way again. The views are no better than Melvilles Lookout, which has a far better viewing platform. But on the way to the lookout, I did find a hermits cave. Stashed in the cave were lots of water bottles, some sleeping mats and post and pans and other junk. The cave looked like it hadn’t been used for many years.

The hermits cave

On my return, I wander out to the top of the Knife-edge for some more photos and then back to camp. Melvilles Lookout was a great place to sit and finish off my wine and cheese.

Two more parties of bushwalkers had arrived – so I had company that night.

I woke up to an unusual sunrise. There was no valley mist but there was a high haze – perhaps smoke from controlled burns? It did make for some interesting lighting.

Then it was pack up and head off back to Katoomba. On the way I met a climbing and canyoning friend, Col, taking a party of guides on a camping trip. This time Furber Stairs were open – so I left the valley that way – and stopped for some photography on the mid level of Katoomba Falls.

There are more photos on my website here, including some large panoramas.

Our walk was a circular path – first along the escarpment – high above the sea, then down through rainforest and a palm jungle to the beach itself. We returned by the path to Garrawarra and then back along the tops to rejoin the track that we had used on the way in.

The most interesting part of the walk was the delightful rock platforms south of Burning Palms beach. These form a popular walk to the well known Figure of Eight Pool. The pool is marvellous but so too are the rock platforms nearby with there interesting shapes and weathering. A good place to make use of a wide angle lens!

If going out that way – it is worth checking that the tide is low first.

More photos on my website here.

At least this time, I could cross the creeks easily! I started walking from Lawson and headed down first to Fairy Falls. Then down the steps into Dantes Glen and St Michaels Falls. 

Next was the track around to Empire Pass all the way to Frederica Falls. On the way I detoured down an old track to Lucys Glen and a nearby canyon. Both were interesting places.

Frederica Falls would have been better with a lot more water going over it and also the fire road at the top is not very pleasant.

From these falls, I followed an easy track back to Lawson through a thicket of banksia.

It was a worthwhile day out in the bush to a place worth returning to.

More photos are on my website here.

Twenty years ago, the Kowmung was under the same threat. The river then was in a national park, but the area then did not have world heritage status, nor was the river a declared wild river. A conservation battle took place – and the outcome then was the river was saved.

The threat twenty years ago the issue was the raising of the wall of Warragamba Dam by 23m. This is the threat that has raised its head again. The details this time are slightly different. The failure of the Warragamba Dam wall is no longer an issue, but flood mitigation remains. Infrastructure NSW has recommended that the dam wall be raised to provide a buffer to prevent major flooding on the floodplains downstream of the dam. For more information see the websites of the Colong Foundation and the Fat Canyoner.

During Easter this year, I went on a walk with friend Rob to visit the lower Kowmung River. Its a place I have regularly visited on bushwalks during the past forty years. This time one of my goals was to obtain photographs of the river that could be used to help the campaign. It takes awhile to set up photographic equipment and to wait for the light to become suitable – and I thank Rob for his patience.

Our walk started from Kanangra Walls and then went via Gingra Range to the Kowmung River. Gingra is a long ridge, but is easy and fast walking along a good track, and we arrived on the river by mid afternoon. Walking down the river requires many crossings for the first section down to New Yards Range. Each bend of the river is best negotiated by following the inside bank.

There are many great campsites on grassy flats nestled next to crystal clear pools in the river. Around Easter is not the best time for walking down the river – especially after a wet summer. There was a lot of regrowth on the banks. This seems to die away during winter leaving the banks clearer and easier to walk along. Crossing the river was easy and is best down at the shoals at the head of rapids.

If the planned raising of the wall goes ahead – then all of this section of the Kowmung River is in danger of destruction. During major floods – the water will bank up to close to the Gingra Creek junction – and then the water will be slowly, over weeks, be allowed out of the dam. The riverbanks will be damaged. The river will be damaged. The wilderness will be damaged.

There was a little bit of feral pig damage on the banks which contrasted to many healthy huge wombat holes all the way along the bank. I have seen platypus in the Kowmung – but not on this trip. We did see a few snakes.

On the second day of Easter, we met some other bushwalkers at the base of New Yards Range. They had come down for a swim from “The Shack” huts used by Catholic Bushwalking Club members that are on the ridge above – a popular place to visit by that club at Easter. We had an interesting talk about the river and bushwalking routes.

Our walk along the river finished at Ritson Elbow – a prominent bend on the river, not too far from where it joins the Coxs River and then the Coxs just downstream flows into the stored waters of lake Burragorang – the lake formed by Warragamba Dam.

We then headed up onto Karil Mountain to the very open tops of the Low Gangerang Range. Once on the range itself – we headed  a couple of kilometres out of our way to camp our second night at a spectacular lookout – Rigby Rocks.

Day three found us traversing the Low Gangerang Range to Gentles Pass which provides an easy scramble up onto the plateau of the High Gangerangs. Then more open walking on the Carra Tops to join the track at Dex Creek. On our way we were surprised to see a fair bit of pig damage on these high and remote tops. We arrived for lunch at Dex Creek and jsut as we got there it started raining – so our lunch was quite quick! The off to Mt Cloudmaker and down to set up camp on Mt Stormbreaker. The campsite here is rather small and only offers limited views. But the rain had stopped and the sun came out at dusk.

Our walk finished with an easy half day back along the rest of the High Gangerang Range to Kanangra Walls.

For more photographs of the river see my gallery of Photos of the lower Kowmung River.

More photographs taken on the walk are online here (page 1) and here (page 2)

Please take action – you can write to the Premier via this page on the Colong Foundations website.