Hyperventilating from the cold, I swam on my back between the canyon walls, my backpack with drypack floating on my stomach. I wanted to get to the towering walls of green – my favourite place in my canyon repertoire.
This is the side track from the main Grand Canyon walker highway (described by Walk my World). I found myself here after cycling to Evans Lookout from Blackheath and taking the endless stairs down. Turning off the path into the canyon I was suddenly transported into solitude with nature. A few scrambles over logs and mossy boulders, and I made it to the swim. This is the barrier that stops people following. Drypack and determination were my friends.
I didn’t sleep well last night – too tired from yesterday’s Hat Hill Falls adventure, and I found myself getting up at 5:30 to go for a walk around Govett’s Leap. Better than lying in bed not being able to sleep.
Cripps Lookout
The early start and big Grand Canyon walk meant that I decided not to cycle to Lithgow. Instead, I caught the train. I am getting slack in my old age.. 🙂
Called Fantasia by lostmtns, this waterfall has been on my radar for some time. It was a bit of a scramble, but well worth it – an amazing place to bask in the sun.
Transition periods are wonderful. A life chapter ends and the next one is locked in. I think back to the summer of 1992-93 when I finished university in Adelaide, Australia, and was waiting to start the next exciting chapter – a PhD in the Netherlands. It was a summer of carefree fun with my uni friends, and excitement for what was to come. This time, I have finished my last job, and have a week to kill before the new one starts. What better way to spend the week than to enjoy the last rays of summer in the Blue Mountains before the winter chill sets in?
My humble abode for the night.
I thought I had been everywhere in the Blue Mountains – been to every waterfall, swimming hole and lookout. Cycled every fire trail. Well, there are still some places I haven’t been as I discovered in the ‘Swim’ book by lostmtns. My week cycling in the backblocks of the Blue Mountains, to Kanangra Walls, towards Yerrendarie ticked off some of these spots. Today, visiting Hat Hill Falls (also known as Fantasia), was on the menu.
A short cycle from Blackheath to the start of a walk, crossing bare plains before a steep descent to the Hat Hill canyon.
The path to Hat Hill creek
I love canyons. Walls of green rising up to the heavens, big mossy boulders, little unexpected beaches and showers of waterfalls sprinkling down from above. And sometimes the sun shines in, twinkling in the water and spotlighting the moss and ferns on the rocky walls. This canyon involved a cold swim. And it took my breath away.
Hat Hill CreekHat Hill CanyonHat Hill CanyonHat Hill CanyonA sprinkle of water from aboveHat Hill Canyon
Before the falls, the canyon opened out. The layers of platforms were bathed in the late summer light. The water rushed along, plunging into holes, just to emerge at the next platform. I lay on the slab of rock and breathed in the view.
Approaching the fallsThe water drops away
I couldn’t stay for long, though. I needed to get out of the canyon, and pass the icy swim, before it got dark and cold. But once out, and back on the plateau, I visited a little lookout and watched the sun set below the horizon, washed with smoke haze.
Welcome to the first of a series of posts on cycles that are a day trip from Sydney.
Starting train station: Blackheath
Ending train station: Woodford
Total distance: 77km Strava link
Hanging rock is an amazing pedestal of rock hanging out from the cliff-face edge overlooking the Gross Valley in the Blue Mountains. I was there at 7am with no-one but me, the gentle breeze and the early morning sun. Some other lookouts in the area include Pulpit Rock, Perry’s Lookdown and Anvil Rock. Hanging Rock is only a short 7km ride from Blackheath station along a good quality dirt road.
Hanging Rock
Hanging Rock
Pulpit Rock
The bike
Ingar pool is beautiful, peaceful pool 15km downhill from Wentworth Falls with about 10km along a moderately bumpy dirt track. The road is blocked off for cars, and only the occasional lost cyclist makes it there. It is a very steep drop and then climb to make it to Woodford station.
arctic-cycler.com 