It started out a wet day, so canyoning plans were put on hold and we decided to do a bushwalk instead. Bob and myself had headed up the mountains and parked at the Conservation Hut at Wentworth Falls. We started out on the track to the Valley of the Waters, and turned off to Lillians Glen.
Sylvia Falls
Before crossing the bridge over Empress Canyon, we walked a short distance upstream to the Asmodeus Pool. There is a nice small waterfall here.
Another creek enters at the same place and it too has a nice waterfall. Old steps are cut out going up the side of this waterfall.
We then crossed the bridge and followed the track to Roberts Pass. on the way we visited both Gladstone Lookout and the Moya Point Lookout – both worthwhile short side trips.
We then descended down Roberts Pass. This was easy going on a good track. The key to the pass is a cleft with a ladder going down part of it. Then more easy going to reach Lindeman Pass track.
We followed the track around Inspiration Point, and then across a small creek and around another headland to reach Gladstone Gully. There we turned off the Lindeman Pass track, and climbed up the faint track up Gladstone Gully. This is an old miners pass.
We soon reached the top and found ourselves on a road at the back of the Fairmont Resort. We headed back towards Wentworth Falls and on the way passed a disused Klettern Park. We soon found ourselves back on the track to Roberts Pass and Lillians Glen. I wanted to visit the waterfalls of the Valley of the Waters, so we decided to descend Roberts Pass again and head the other way along the Lindeman Pass Track. On the way, we stopped for lunch at Moya Point Lookout. The weather had cleared up a fair bit.
On the Lindeman Pass track, we found it easy going until we lost the track at a washed out section. We went down an should have continued across. To get back to the track involved some interesting walking in lawyer vine forest.
Red Rock Falls
Back on the track, we soon reached the Wentworth Pass track. Here I stopped to photograph some of the waterfalls and try and work out which was which. The order of named waterfalls from the top of the valley to the bottom is – Empress Falls, Sylvia Falls, Edith Falls, Lodore Falls, Flat Rock Falls, Britannia Falls, Red Rock Falls and lastly Vera Falls. The first and last waterfalls are clear, and it should be easy to work out Flat Rock Falls and Red Rock Falls from their descriptive names. But several fit the description and old maps have conflicting locations. Perhaps Flat Rock Falls and Britannia Falls are the same?
Britannia Falls or Flat Rock Falls?
After photographing the waterfalls, we continued up through the valley and back up to the Conservation Hut.
Lodore Falls
Edith Falls
More photos from the trip are online on my website here.
Empress Falls
I came across this article as I was researching Gladstone Pass and to date have only walked Lindemans Track from the Leura Falls end. I note you raise a question as to whether Flat Rock Falls and Britannia Falls are the same. The answer is no. The photo you have labelled Lodore Falls is actually showing Flat Rock Falls. I have stood at the top of those falls – the one in your photo – (the track to get there is largely non-existent these days) and it is a large expanse of flat rock that at some stage had a concrete wall running around it about 30cm high. The base of Lodore Falls is at the other end of this large rock which can only be seen from the old track.
Thanks Peter for your comment. I know of your work through your marvellous photos (works of art!). This post was a work in progress and I have been back to look at the waterfalls and photograph them a few times. I think I have them correct on this seperate website, that I started as a project a few years back – on the Waterfalls of The Blue Mts. The Waterfalls at Wentworth Falls are on this page. That page does have the “Lodore” photo waterfall labelled as “Flat Rock Falls”. it took a while to work out which waterfall was which in the Valley of The Waters.