Wentworth Falls

Trip Start Oct 01, 2008
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Trip End Dec 30, 2009


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Flag of Australia  , New South Wales,
Saturday, November 15, 2008

Today we walk from the town of Wentworth Falls. Wentworth was one of the trio of explorers who are credited with opening up the route across the Blue Mountains that connected Sydney with the rest of the continent. There are several different walking routes. We choose the Wentworth pass route that says "hard, for experienced walkers only". What does that mean, exactly? Many of us have been walking since the crawling stage.


Once again the route starts with a steep staircase descent, passing the Empress Falls before walking for several km along a ledge in the cliff on the National Pass Trail to reach the upper part of the Wentworth Falls. We then go down Slack's Stairs, a series of ladders and ledges cut in the rock, to reach a lower level track that takes us to the lower part of the Falls. Some of the ladders are so steep that they have to be enclosed in a metal cage. Not for the vertiginous. The lower trail is less used and much rougher. Some of it involves rock scrambles. At the lower falls pool, we meet a 2ft lizard. I think that it is an Eastern Water Dragon. We walk along the bottom of the cliff through the Valley of the Waters and manage to find our way back with only one navigational aberration. By the time we climb back up it is very hot and we are both quite dehydrated having just taken one water bottle between us. Lesson learnt.


In the evening, we eat at Echoes, a hotel/restaurant with a large deck overlooking the escarpment that has beautiful food and great service. Highly recommended.
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