Wentworth Falls in the wet

Rainy weather and still up for some tramping? Danes are not too scared of getting a bit wet, if we were, we would end up sitting inside our houses waiting for better weather most of our lives - at least true for the Danes having decided to use most of their lives back home in good old DK.

This "not too scared" approach has gotten me into some epic wet walks with Jarrod, who seems to have a even more extreme joy for feeling miserable, wet, lost and cold while tramping the Australian wilderness

Hence, it was not a big surprise that Jarrod was keen to come along for a bit of waterfall spotting in Wentworth Falls after a few weeks of big rain in the Blue Mountains. All that rain had secured record amounts of water in the falls and we were both keen to see the Wentworth fall at its best .. even with the forecast predicting more rain. From the beginning it all looked like a terrible idea. We used the first little hour walking along the Charles Darwin Walk towards the fall in heavy rain and misty conditions - no wildlife, no visibility and no dry clothes. Arriving at the falls, at first, we still did not have much visibility, but the roaring sounds of the fall was pretty impressive. I have seen the falls during a dry Australian summer as not much more than a trickle, the falling water hardly being able to make it to the bottom of the valley beneath, since most of the water evaporated into the dry hot air. Needless to say that waterfalls are more impressive when full of water - Our trip suddenly started to make sense. Standing at the top of the falls, we realized that luck was on our side, it had stopped raining, a breeze had found a way into the valley and the clouds surrounding us slowly began to lift - revealing some of the prettiest views I have had in Australia - A proper goosebumps moment! It is unfair to try to pack all that greatness into a 400 pixel wide photo and clicking to go to the higher resolution version only helps a little. Being wet, tired and having used three hours to get to the top of the falls also helped in making it all feel a little special - even the takeaway pie and coffee seemed to taste better that afternoon, how lucky can you be?..!

Blue Gum Forest in the Grose Valley - Blue Mountains

Back in the Blue Mountains! Still taken by the profound in-your-face beauty of the Grose Valley that had hit me during our Mount Banks trip, I had convinced Jarrod to come along for (one of) the steepest track in the Blue Mountains - the descent into the Grose Valley and the Blue Gum Forest from Perrys Lookdown - good to have someone along that can help carrying you up and out if you get tired :-D


Once again weather was on our side and we had stunning views over the valley for most of our descent and, apart from a good healthy(?) burning sensation in the quadriceps and slightly shaky legs due to the muscles working overtime trying to stop us from running wild down the steep track, it was all pretty fantastic :-)


What a difference 656m makes! Vegetation up high on top of the sandstone cliffs is scrubby and dry, but when you get yourself down into the valley where the river flows it is like entering an entirely different world. The blue gums are standing tall and strong, everything is green and lush - full of life.


What a great spot! There was a bit of traffic up and down the track, but as soon as you are down in the valley, the vastness will dilute the hordes of trampers (we saw less than 10 all day) and it is easy to find some serenity. Remember to press the river panorama below to be taken to a high resolution version.


Great walk and quite a bit of a workout, I managed to avoid taking any pictures during the ascent - I had other things to concentrate on .. like breathing and the repetitive exercise of trying to bring the lowest foot up higher than where the front foot was parked. At some point I was even getting slightly grumpy with myself for always having to drag the DSLR along - You do not need 3kg of long tele-lens in a dense gum forest, next time I will bring the primes instead! .. maybe :-)

Such a good feeling, to sit there in the car, heading back home to Sydney in a dry t-shirt (the other was "slightly" damp) with a coffee and a mountain pie in the belly and feeling good about having done something with your weekend - that is all you need to forget about all hassle of dragging your lazy carcass up the hill .. who knows maybe I will even do it again one day.

Mount Banks Panoramas

It is impossible to catch the grand views of the Blue Mountains, but nevertheless I keep on trying :-) I still remember first time I was bushwalking in the Blue Mountains: You are making your way through the bush, noticing that the ground start to slope downwards and you start to see blue sky between the trees in front of you, you push the last few meters out through all the greenness and bang! You are hit by these fantastic views of green forest below, blue sky above and vertical walls of golden sandstone - Not bad at all! :-)

You simply cannot have a bad walk with views like that - great day in the mountains! Mount Banks is definitely worth a visit. Being located 20 min off the Great Western Hwy and hence a safe distance away from most of the crowded Blue Mountains tourist magnets, you are likely to have a hole lot of national park to yourself and your companions, without in any way having to feel that you settled for a sub-prime experience.

All the panoramas have been put together with AutoStitch and have been uploaded to my Picasa album in high resolution (press the photo to be taken to the HR version).

Mount Banks - Stunning Vistas in The Blue Mountains

Back in Australia and back to the Blue Mountains! I had a few weekends, where I felt that without extra days off work it would be impossible getting anywhere new and exciting - How wrong I was :-) True that a good solid drive will take you into unknown territory, but a couple of hours an early Sunday morning and you will find yourself in the Blue Mountains, where you can equally well get a double shot injection of some breathtaking nature.

Mount Banks or apparently Mount King George was the target of the weekend. Bill and the Amoores were as usual keen for a bit of bush walking and the Blue Mountains delivered one of the best days I have ever had out there. Crystal clear and crisp cold mountain morning air combined with some breathtaking views - what more can you hope for a lazy Sunday morning? :-)


During my very first trip to the Blue Mountains about 5 years ago I was standing at Evans Lookout overlooking the Grose Valley thinking - WOW! - and then "Wonder if you can get to the other side?". I am nearly embarrassed to admit it took 5 years, however, I have done the walk down into the valley and out again a few times and that is significantly harder walks than the Mount Banks hike.


Great day out and a good opportunity of practicing some landscape photography, I will put together some panoramas and post them here soon'ish. The birding highlight of the day was a Chestnut-rumped Heathwren. I managed to spot it, but in my eagerness to get everyone onto this little shy beauty I forgot to take a photo, however, Jarrod managed to get a great shot - see here for yourself.

Walking Back to Carlon's Farm - Bushwalk Part 2

Early morning in the bush - sorry about the picture, must admit it was probably taken during the very last available light the night before - After a super duper sleep and some good solid breakfast we packed our gear and prepared for another day in the boots.

Jarrod, who's blog you can find here, had planned for us to do the walk as a circuit, meaning that we would not have to battle the 41 river crossings on the way back out - I was very happy about that, instead we would climb straight out of the valley and then follow the ridge back home ... sounded good ...? I promise the readers that after about 20 min of scrambling up the hill trying to follow the determined New Zealand mountain goat, who was speeding up the hill like a Tour de France rider high on EPO, I started considering if I would have been better off by swimming all the way back up Breakfast creek instead :-D

It took 1.5 hours to reach the top, gaining somewhere close to 600m of altitude making it equivalent to conquering Himmelbjerget "The Heaven Mountain" back home in Denmark 4 times in a row with a good solid backpack and 3kg of camera hanging from your waist - excellent exercise :-D I sneakily managed to get in front of Jarrod for just enough time to take a picture - that will come in handy one day when I need proof supporting my story about how I spearheaded an expedition out of the Cox's River Valley ;-) A picture never lies and there is no sound revealing me huffing and puffing like a steam train running out of water.

The views at the top were absolutely stunning and after having done all the climbing as the very first bit of the walk the rest was literally "a walk in the (national)park". There were quite a few things to look at on the top of the ridge. A Wedge-tailed Eagle was cruising its hunting grounds, we saw wild orchids growing and aboriginal sharpening grooves used to sharpen tools by grinding them against the rock and aboriginal waterpots drilled into the rock.

Absolutely fantastic walk, thanks to Jarrod for arranging it. One of those that gets even better when you are back home, have had your shower and sit and look at the pictures :-) I have put together a Picasa album that you can access by pressing the map below.

Cox's River

Carlon's Farm to Cox's River via Breakfast Creek

Saturday morning I picked up Jarrod and pointed that shiny bonnet of the Magna towards another action packed weekend with all the fun and excitement the Blue Mountains can deliver. Jarrod had talked me into a bit of bushwalking in the Megalong Valley and I had said yes without knowing exactly what would be on the menu, except it would be a two day walk and I had therefore packed the tent, a good supply of gnocchi and a spare pair of knickers - be prepared! ;-)

Standing at the car eating a few bananas and drinking some water I realized that this trip was slightly different from my usual bushwalking exercise, Jarrod insisted on me reading the description of the route, which is a good idea(!), but what was this thing about 41 river crossings - that sounded very wet ... well, well - maybe the author of the book had chosen a not-so-clever route or we could even be lucky and the creek would be dry ... we took off into the wild.

Walking in Blue Mountain rainforest during winter is cold and wet, but amazingly rewarding. The cold and wet bit is easily solved by bringing the right clothes and shoes (I remembered this time) and left is just to enjoy the nature and wildlife.


On the way towards Breakfast Creek we encountered a flock of Glossy-black Cockatoos, probably counting more than 10 birds, peacefully sitting feeding in the casuarinas. Even though I have seen them before it was worth a few pictures, as was the Eastern Shrike-tit Jarrod pointed out after less than 5 min of walking :-)

The book had been right, scrambling down the banks of Breakfast Creek was as though the path had been made by a creature severely suffering from "The grass is greener on the other side"-syndrome. I did not count number of crossings, but 41 is not far off. Jarrod "Bambi" Amoore decided early on to put both his boots well and truly under water and from then on he did the crossings with the determination of a New Zealand tractor - I on the other hand jumped from rock to rock with the grace of a ballet dancer and managed to stay dry until about the 30th crossing after which I adopted the tractor approach - I do not think all that dancing from rock to rock slowed us down much more than an hour :-D

It was great arriving at Cox's River. When you are wet and hungry there is nothing better than to set up camp, get some food and get those wet boots and socks off. At the campsite we discovered yet another plaque, this one was in memory of Miss Oonagh Kennedy, who had died trying to cross the Cox's River in 1967 after a horse-riding expedition had gone wrong due to heavy rain.

I have pointed out before that bushwalking during winter means reduced daylight. When you camp in a valley you cut off at least another half hour in the evening as well as in the morning i.e. you have the chance of a proper monster sleep :-) When you have finished eating there is not much more to do in a dark valley, so we hit the tents and sleeping bags around 7pm. I had no idea what Sunday would bring, but knowing that I had 11 hours to spend sleeping before anybody expected anything from me was very nice indeed :-D