Walls Pass (4th April 2004)

Party: Dave Lee, James Bevan

The plan was to explore walls pass, off the eastern side of narrowneck, bash down to cedar creek and up to the ruined castle, before checking out the mt rennie tunnel in the afternoon. No probs!

We departed the golden stairs carpark at the leisurely hour of 10.30. The splendid katoomba mist was in, rain was coming down steadily, and we had feelings of deja vu (wrt similar conditions before the notorious 65k epic in November).

We made good time along the road, reaching the fire tower by 11.50. A convenient fire trail opposite took us to the first knoll. The ridge north, while wet, was rather lush with usually dry shrubs. We managed to find a faint pad of a track which took us to pleasantly along the ridge, before dropping off sharply to the rock platform of walls pass. The pass consists of chain running down a 10-15m slab, with a nice 3-4 metre overhang at the bottom. As I didn't know the state of the chain, I'd brought abseiling gear. Dave went first, but was unable to pull the rope through the small bolt.

Dave on Walls Pass

So I derigged and 'abseiled' the slippery chain. The overhang made things a little interesting, but I reached the bottom with nothing more than numb hands, and we were on our way by 1ish.

The faint pad winds its way along the side of the cliff, and we dropped down into the gully immediately south of cedar head. We enjoyed the initial scrambles, climb downs, and even a 3-4m jump. The thick wet sclerophyll forest was a challenge, but as the friendly lawyer vines stayed away, all was well.  Continuing our descent we encountered numerous typed of vegetation. I clearly remember the chest high grasses, which Dave found (by accident?!) it was best to just fall into, rather than walk through. We eventually discovered a creek. It meandered around but seemed to be heading in a generally easterly direction, so we stuck with it. The rain continued and we amused ourselves with a few waterslides and an abseil. After a while, however, we became a little sick of descending Bugger creek. Dave managed to step onto some leaves and ended up knee deep in slush.
A couple of hundred metres before the cedar creek, we encountered thick rainforest. We decided to avoid the lawyer vines by scrambling up to an overhang for 'lunch' (4pm).
We traversed around the dense forest for a while, before taking time to shake hands with a few lawyer vines. By the time we got to cedar creek, it was nearly 5.

Without hesitation, we bolted up the spur on the other side, hopeful of reaching the ruined castle track by nightfall. The lawyer vines stayed away, and we made good progress.

We soon found ourselves in a playground of ferns - every kids dream - right? At navel high they combined with our lawyer friends to allow us to progress at a pass so we could become intimately acquainted.

Not long after, night fell and it was time for the torches. We pressed on regardless and found ourselves faced with a the rather large cliff face of the western arm of Mount Solitary. We skirted round and soom found the track running off the knife-edge...

Knowing we wouldn't be spending the night in the rain (yes it was still raining!), we managed to hop skip and jump the track back to car at the top of the golden stairs....the tunnel by now would have surely been running full, so we thought we'd leave it to another day. Just before 8.30 we were driving back along narrowneck.

Hopefully no one else tries to explore the delights of Bugger Creek.

Walls Pass (4th April 2004)

Party: Dave Lee, James Bevan

The plan was to explore walls pass, off the eastern side of narrowneck, bash down to cedar creek and up to the ruined castle, before checking out the mt rennie tunnel in the afternoon. No probs!

We departed the golden stairs carpark at the leisurely hour of 10.30. The splendid katoomba mist was in, rain was coming down steadily, and we had feelings of deja vu (wrt similar conditions before the notorious 65k epic in November).

We made good time along the road, reaching the fire tower by 11.50. A convenient fire trail opposite took us to the first knoll. The ridge north, while wet, was rather lush with usually dry shrubs. We managed to find a faint pad of a track which took us to pleasantly along the ridge, before dropping off sharply to the rock platform of walls pass. The pass consists of chain running down a 10-15m slab, with a nice 3-4 metre overhang at the bottom. As I didn't know the state of the chain, I'd brought abseiling gear. Dave went first, but was unable to pull the rope through the small bolt.

Dave on Walls Pass

So I derigged and 'abseiled' the slippery chain. The overhang made things a little interesting, but I reached the bottom with nothing more than numb hands, and we were on our way by 1ish.

The faint pad winds its way along the side of the cliff, and we dropped down into the gully immediately south of cedar head. We enjoyed the initial scrambles, climb downs, and even a 3-4m jump. The thick wet sclerophyll forest was a challenge, but as the friendly lawyer vines stayed away, all was well.  Continuing our descent we encountered numerous typed of vegetation. I clearly remember the chest high grasses, which Dave found (by accident?!) it was best to just fall into, rather than walk through. We eventually discovered a creek. It meandered around but seemed to be heading in a generally easterly direction, so we stuck with it. The rain continued and we amused ourselves with a few waterslides and an abseil. After a while, however, we became a little sick of descending Bugger creek. Dave managed to step onto some leaves and ended up knee deep in slush.
A couple of hundred metres before the cedar creek, we encountered thick rainforest. We decided to avoid the lawyer vines by scrambling up to an overhang for 'lunch' (4pm).
We traversed around the dense forest for a while, before taking time to shake hands with a few lawyer vines. By the time we got to cedar creek, it was nearly 5.

Without hesitation, we bolted up the spur on the other side, hopeful of reaching the ruined castle track by nightfall. The lawyer vines stayed away, and we made good progress.

We soon found ourselves in a playground of ferns - every kids dream - right? At navel high they combined with our lawyer friends to allow us to progress at a pass so we could become intimately acquainted.

Not long after, night fell and it was time for the torches. We pressed on regardless and found ourselves faced with a the rather large cliff face of the western arm of Mount Solitary. We skirted round and soom found the track running off the knife-edge...

Knowing we wouldn't be spending the night in the rain (yes it was still raining!), we managed to hop skip and jump the track back to car at the top of the golden stairs....the tunnel by now would have surely been running full, so we thought we'd leave it to another day. Just before 8.30 we were driving back along narrowneck.

Hopefully no one else tries to explore the delights of Bugger Creek.

Dave on Walls Pass

Near the bottom