Leura to Blackheath

[robertoman]

I decided to tweak the Mt Victoria - Leura walk in the NPA "Bushwalks in the Sydney Region". Set off from Leura about 10am out along Mt Hay Road. A simple 10km meander along fire trail out to the track to The Pinnacles and Lockley's Pylon. Some nice views and rock formations. The fun begins at The Pinnacles.

The Pinnacles

The rock formations are great, and the ever changing views of the Grose Valley are awesome. Lockley's Pylon was quite spectacular. Finding the track down off the end of the plateau down into the valley was far trickier than I imagined it would be. A few terrifying places where I thought "oh surely not..." (and thankfully they weren't). Eventually two arrows carved into the rock indicated the way down. It still looked hairy enough.

the way down

Had a drink, had a bite, strapped in tight and down I went. Not that bad though. Met a great fellow heading up. Covered in scratches from some off track scrambling around the Jamison. We could have talked longer but we both had missions. At the bottom I faced the choice of wet feet, or a log crossing. Unwisely I chose the log but lived to tell the tale.

the log challenge

I last did the climb up to Perry's Lookdown about 30 years ago, and had completely forgotten how hard it is. It hasn't gotten shorter. It never ends.

nearly at the top

At the top I was running low on water, so resisted guzzling the lot. I headed along Hat Hill Rd and took left turn down to Pulpit Rock, then on to Govett's Leap. The track between the two was lovely, but very wet and muddy. At Govett's I dived on a tap and filled up. I had thought to walk out via Popes Glen, but it was cold and I needed sunlight, so I walked into Blackheath along the road. I was hoping for 3.02 train, but missed it by minutes. Happy to sit in the sun and await the 4.02. A great day. 30km all up.

Attachments

from Lockley's down the Grose Valley

[GPSGuided]

10am to 3pm for 30km, that's 6km/h including a serious climb. Pretty serious stuff. What happened on that log crossing across Govetts Ck?

[robertoman]

training for a run up that way in October, so there was some shuffling along Mt Hay Rd, and other places, with a lot of walking and gawking and photos. Including a slow crawl the last half of climb up to Perry's Lookdown. Halfway across the log I did think "not so clever" but got across. Would think twice about doing it again

[GPSGuided]

That's a pretty big tree trunk but a bit polished and round. Not a lot of grip.

[north-north-west]

Water doesn't look deep enough to warrant the risk, but if you survived it doesn't matter.
Love that first shot.

[puredingo]

Good on ya mate, nice trip.