Wentworth Falls, Blue Mountains
Bushwalk Extreme
Starting Point: Conservation Hut
Track Intended: Valley of the Waters Nature Track
Finishing Point: Conservation Hut
Length/Duration/Grade: 4km Circuit / 3 hours / Medium grade walk
Okay, by "medium" it means, some steps and stairs. For people who walk occasionally. We thought okay, we're doing this.
Although by the end of the day, this is how it ended up being:
Starting Point: Conservation Hut
Track Taken: Valley of the Waters Nature Track + Wentworth Pass + National Pass (a bit of it) + Burrell Dr + Short Cut Track
Finishing Point: Conservation Hut
Length/Duration/Grade: ~10km / ~5 hours / Hard grade walk
Given the weather conditions, we figured we would be in for a decent day of walking. First idiotic mistake was using the old busted 50 year old toilets just before we started... only to find the cleaner, more modern toilets inside the Cafe/Conservation Hut which was literally 10m away. /facepalm
We ate some spring rolls, grapes and pods just to give our bodies a last minute energy surge. From there our trek into unknown territory commenced.
That sign is a little wrong.. well compared to our information.
We went on 4 of those.
Starting off easy...
Initially the track began relatively easy. The wide large steps that descended into the valley made it obvious then, that this probably wasn't going to be the strenuous exercise I had envisioned. But I was wrong. Walking along the main track opened up doors to detours that just asked to be taken. So whilst Jasmine probably objected to the idea of taking wrong turns or killing unnecessary time, Lenny and I proceeded to explore and the outcome was worth it. For the most part it took us to views that wasn't made for lookout points for the general public, also allowed us to discover an old site used to "sacrifice children".
Next to the cliff edge.
Lenny falling asleep 1m from the edge.
Viewtiful
One of the lookouts
Santstone. The Rock formation was awesome.
I only took this photo to give the impression I was climbing up, but we went down these.
Resumed our walk, we often stopped to admire and observe the views, rock formation, and carvings made into the rocks..... not by the indigenous people, but by people who've tagged their names. About an hour into the walk, I was already breaking a sweat. Damn, about 15 MINUTES into the walk I already was. But anyway, by this time, we still had plenty of energy left (only because it was going down the valley), we had experienced a number of fairly big steps that required a bit of precaution because the rocks were wet and covered in moss, or as Jasmine would say "moss covered in rocks".
Lower down the valley it got very dense, this accounted for a change in everything. The coolness and the moisture gave us the cooldown we needed. The ground water and moist also introduced mud. This sucked because it meant slippery grounds and forcing us to go around the mud because we're so conscious about the shoes we wore. LOl. Heading along down we encountered our first waterfall which was being used for wetsuit-clad abseilers. We watched them for a bit before taking our first break.
Moss covered rocks.
Gladiator challenge #1
Jasmine told us to tie our shoes and look in random directions.
Ate some more grapes and Pods, then resumed our walk. 10 minutes later, we came across another waterfall (I'm not sure if that's the right term to describe these type of falls), that gave off an awesome view on the opposite end (above). Being the unsafe rebels that we were, we climbed over the fence to take a closer look, and at the part of the cliff/drop where the water falls, was a broken tree lying on its side sticking out about 3m off the edge with about a 5m drop below (pic below). It wasn't much but if you stacked it on that and fell, or if the tree fell, you wouldn't be able to stop yourself from going all the way to the bottom.
So being the enthusastic photo-op capturer that I am, sat on the tree to test it.
Making sure it was stable. Yep.
We threw leaves into the stream and watched them get stuck.
Ancient tomb.
Sad, confused Jasmine.
The bridge we were expected to walk across (smaller than you think).
Making our way further down, we came by other visitors walking in the opposite direction and asked how much further it was to Wentworth Falls. A couple of Americans told us 45-60 minutes. So we continued our trek. We made our way down to this small river/creek that we had to cross, but didn't really look like the track progressed any further. We had our doubts, but spotted the small 10x10cm icon that signified that the track was here. -.- Climbed over some huge ass boulders and carried on.
Looking at this now is nothing compared to the strenuous climb at the end.
I like this shot.
Bumped into 2 girls and asked them how much further it was to the falls. They told us about 3 minutes, so a part of me was cheering, and then warned us about some steep stairs/ladders and ropes that you had to use to climb up back to the top. I thought AWESOME, BRING ON THE CHALLENGE.
About an hour later we eventually reached Wentworth Falls, where some Korean/Japanese dudes were taking photographs. The waterfall itself was spec-tac-u-larrrrrr. Would've went in the water if we had a change of clothes, but didn't so we spent some time there then began our ascent up the mountain.
Wentworth Falls
LJA, or.. JAL? Japan Airlines? No.
I also like this shot.
"Sensible" footwear indeed.
This is the point where a little part inside of me died.
Walked up Slack's Stairs and hit our first fork in the road in our uphill climb. We spotted a sign and it said "Experienced Walkers Only". By this point we knew we had taken a different track to what we had intended to take in the beginning. Asked another passerby and told us to go right, so we did. This took us along the side of the cliff, and then reached what I considered to be the biggest bitch of the walk. The steep incline of steps, that almost would be considered a series of ladders, ascended about 200m+, and that wasn't even to the top of the cliff. The idea that put me off wasn't the fact that was at an 85 degree angle, but the fact that these steps came in about ~20 steps at a time, and there was a shitload of them to climb up. Although after every set, came another great view.
Using a rope tied to a tree to climb up this rock.
lol poor Jismine
"Are you serious? I have to do this?"
Steep stairs. Or ladders. Whatever they were.
I look so orange.
Me taking a break every 2 minutes.
Jasmine was leading us and I figured she had no problem climbing these, same with Lenny. But I was struggling hard by the half way point. I was the one mostly asking to take breaks after every 2-3 sets. For every 5 minute break we took, it replenished about 3-4 sets of steps worth of energy.
My Darth Vader breathing again. Although I'm pretty sure all of us complained at one point.
I was almost on the verge of collapsing. Not really, but to the point where I could feel a pulsating sensation in my ears. After finally making up to the top, this indicated another resting point. We bought ice cream and made our way to the Short Cut Track back to the Conservation Hut (our starting point). We cut this 20minute walk short by running up the last flight of stairs. Which was still a huge set. But they weren't the steep ones. Just the normal 1m^2 huge steps.
Final photo.
By now, I just wanted to get in the car and sit down. This experience, although put so much stress on my legs in the climb, is one I would do again. Although next time, I'll come prepared.
The track we took.
