Blue mountains national park is so huge that it would take weeks to explore all, however I reckoned that people should visit the other side of Blue mountains which is located near Blackheath town (circle in red in the map). Though one might say it’s quite similiar, but there are not to me, in fact, this side has its own uniqueness and scenic view different to Katoomba.
Luckily there is bus networks around this blue mountains region connecting the little dotted towns. However, it is never better than having a car because the bus system’s timetable is hard to fit in and dependent on season. December is school holidays, thus the buses operates later than usual and less frequent because there are no school kids to pick.
Still, I managed to fit in as much as I could. Woke up early in the morning to get to Leura then get back to Katoomba to catch the first bus to head off to Blackheath. It’s crazy bit, haha. Rush here and there, but “bo pien”.
The good thing about the bus system is that they are able to drop you off somewhere near some of the track starting point but not all. Still, good enough for me.
Got the bus to drop me off at the Blackheath tourist info centre which is near the govetts leap lookout point. Got the info I wanted though a bit annoyed with the front desk worker because she thought of me as still young and not in adult category so I should have someone accompany me like my parents, +.=!!!!!!!!!! and the info she gave though she walked those tracks before was not accurate. U’ll know what I meant as you read along.
Govetts leap lookout is another AMAZING lookout point of the blue mountains. Not as vast as echo point lookout but somehow I like this spot a lot too maybe I have clear blue sky on that day which made the view more scenic.
Click to see the large size :)
Just next to the Govetts leap ('leap' is a Scots dialect word for cataract or waterfall) lookout point, is the bridal veil falls. You can hear the sound of the falls while standing at the govetts leap lookout.It is the highest single drop fall in the blue mountains where the falls plummet about 180 metres onto the broken rocks at the base of the cliff. However, as it was summer so the water volume was not great but I considered lucky still as there was till water, haha. It was still spectacular to see it!!!! The highest fall so far in my life, yeah!!!
I decided to walk down to the BOTTOM of the bridal veil fall (Govetts leap descent), the tourist info centre worker told me that it is not too bad a walk down and takes 1 hr or so to get down and back up. I was like OK, I’ll give it a try with a fast pace so that I could still have enough time to get to pulpit rock (another point I wanted to get to, remember I have to follow the public transport timetable and be strict on my time).
The walk down was nice as I got to see the wall (picture below) that line the govett leap closer and it just looked so pretty with the mosses and lichens growing on the wall. The wall was soggy with the moist air from the falls blown from the wind and somehow I think there are some underground water that drips down too.
The walk down was like no end and definitely VERY STEEP!!!! As I kept on walking down and snapping photos at the same time, I can’t help thinking HOW CAN THIS TRACK BE 1HR return like what the tourist info centre worker told me!!!! Walking down was easy but slow too so that you do not slip with those small steps and wet areas. I started imagine, OMG, I will have to climb back up this STEEP steps later, SCARY!!!!
Funny, as I got lower and lower, I still can’t see the end of the track yet and the wind was somehow blowing off the water plummeting down and suddenly I realized even if i got to the very bottom, what I’ll see is just vapourized air of the falls and I thought NO WAY, I’m going back up. I’m very sure that the walk down and up would take MUCH MUCH longer than an hour!!! #@#%^$^&%$#%@#$* KNS!!! At least 2 hrs I reckoned!!!
Tracing back was just painful with all the steps!!!!!
I continued straight with pulpit rock track once got back up to the top. This track is a track that walks on the cliff top under minimal shade and under the scotching summer sun!!!! Walked and walked, the destination was still always far away even though it might seems not too far.
Horseshoe walls with the walls having the shape of a horseshoe, looks surreal!!
The intersection point with a nice streamlet flowing by.
The beautiful flowers again growing along the banks.
Bridal veil falls from pulpit rock track. Wondering what am I crawling like that near the horseshoe walls??
To shoot this, horseshoe falls!!!! All these falls would be much more WOW during winter.
Different terrain along the way, this place have plenty of bonsai like tress which amazing :)
I seriously don’t know did this carvings of words got here and in such a great amount of carvings. There certainly are not aboriginal carvings.
This moist area is nice part of the walk pass with little flowers growing up along both sides.
Finally after 2hrs ish of walks, I’m at my destination!!!!
The pulpit rock lookout point.
This was what I hike so far under the scotching sun for!!!! This grant panoramic vista!!!!
Click to see the large size :)
And the weird impressive rock formation –pulpit rock!!!!
Zoom in view of the Grose valley further down (left bottom pic) and the blue gum trees growing all over the Grose valley (right bottom pic).
Initially I thought of camping down at the acacia flat (at the floor of the valley) which is accessible by the perrys lookdown track, luckily I didn’t, haha. No time and no transport of my own, can’t be bother carrying big rugsacks around this short trip.
Got back to Blackheath via Glenn pope trail which was suggested by the tourist info centre worker. It was a nice and easy flat walk but LONG and BORING, the best of this trail is that you are walking along a few creeks with heaps of the beautiful white flower blossom along the creek bank, but still boring for me after I have saw so much of it.
Something I didn’t expect was that I throw up at the end of the glenn pope trail which was perhaps indication of I over exhausted my body under the scotching sun or I have eaten overnight subway that wasn’t fresh anymore for my lunch or my body was too exhausted to digest the subway properly. All in all, I was so weak after the throw up and kept feeling very bad while walking back towards Blackheath town (which is still a fair distance with this weak sick body), luckily I was able to make it back to the backpacker hostel in one piece. Bought choc milkshake spew milkshake, haha.
After a good 1-2 hour rest in the bed, I was ALIVE again at night. Went to the pub and bought myself scotch whisky to chill out, hehe!!! What a day!!!!! But I’m still happy and not regretted a single bit, haha :)
Bar view (bottom left) and a nice painting of a wall in one of the small alley (bottom right).
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