I try to start a post with a catchy sentence. Today I don’t know what to choose. An amazing cave and canyon – an adult playground. News of a new hiking trail from Lithgow to Mudgee. And some less pleasant – bed bugs and the steps to not bring them home. Road closures that found me cycling with trucks crawling down the slopes and churning up the dust. They all happened today.
I woke today with a few spots – on my cheek and a couple I noticed on my hand. Later, when it started to itch, I discovered the extent of the feast. Lines of bites up my arms. When I got back to the hotel, I told them about the bed bugs and changed rooms. When I returned my old key, the guy at the reception said, ‘yeah – we have had a lot of bed bugs all through the hotel.’ Wonderful. Well, after some research, I now know all about bed bugs and have a plan in place to ensure I don’t bring them home. Sealed garbage bags, uncontaminated new clothes stored in sealed bags until the time is right. Use of the clothes dryer on high heat. All part of the plan.
Then we had the road closures. The main road from Mt Victoria to Lithgow is closed for road works. This is the main road into Sydney from the west. All traffic, including the big trucks, are diverted to the other road from Lithgow – the Bells Line of Road. This should all be uninteresting for me, as I always take a little side dirt track up to the Newnes Plateau – State Mine Gully Road. Well, that road is closed for road works too. And, they are also doing some maintenance on the one remaining road out of Lithgow to the east. So, I found myself climbing out of Lithgow with all the slow trucks, and returning in the evening, crawling down the steep descent behind the trucks, at the end of a line of cars. I had to take a different dirt track onto the Newnes Plateau past the quarries, and the trucks churning up the sand.
Having said all of that, the quarries can be beautiful, and were especially so in the evening light.
Sunnyside Canyon was on the menu for today, on recommendation from Walk my World. The Sunnyside Ridge Road has been recently opened, and signs all point to Bird Rock. On speaking to a park ranger who took my photo in front of a Bird Rock sign, I found that this is all part of a big scheme to create a multiday walk from Lithgow all the way to Mudgee – the Wollemi Great Walk. It will be an amazing walk when it is ready. Bird Rock is a stopping point of the walk.
The Sunnyside Ridge Road is a 4WD track that gets bumpier and sandier after the turnoff to Bird Rock. Firetrail number 8 that leads out to the canyon finally peters out, to become not even detectable as a path at all (unless you know there is meant to be one there). Some cycling, walking and bush bashing later, I found myself in the most awe inspiring canyon with towering pagodas and a big drop into the depths below.
Walk my World describes it as an adult playground, and I agree. It is a lot of fun scrambling up and down rocks, crawling through narrow gaps, straddling the canyon to avoid a dip. And the beautiful acoustic cave – it made me break out into song. And the view into the canyon from there is stunning.
The end of the canyon has a nice view (if interrupted by trees) out over the Wolgan Valley. To exit the canyon you climb up an amazing slot before bush bashing back to the almost disappeared path. All in all, a very enjoyable day (if it weren’t for the bed bugs).
arctic-cycler.com 