Leader: Bernie Hunt

Blue Mountains National Park: Exploring the Grose #1: Faulconbridge to the Grose River

18th May 2019

An 80 leaders walk

Photos top: Steven Sim

Photos below: Bernie Hunt

A candid photo preparing for morning tea

The view from Faulconbridge Point Lookout

The track down to the Grose River

Nick shows how it is done

Kris prepares her path down

A great rewarding place for lunch

Then we have to come back up Tim

Participants:

Bernie Hunt, Barry Wise, Roslyn Croft, Adrian Jones, Julie Jones, Nick Rutledge, Kris Moore, Wayne Moore, Steven Sim, Tim Yewdall, Rosemary MacDougal

Walk description:

We will hike from the locked gate 6.5km to Faulconbridge Lookout, where we'll have morning tea. We then return and take the Grose River Walking Track 370m down to the Grose River and continue along the river for about 1.5km to Atkinson Gullies (a really lovely area for a swim and lunch). We then return to the Grose River Walking Track and meet up with the Faulconbridge Ridge Trail. The last descent is quite eroded so we'll carry a tape to assist. Bring a pair of gloves to avoid rope burn. Map: Springwood Topo

Report:

The walk started with a meetup at the commuter carpark at Faulconbridge. As everyone came by car due to track and platform maintenance we used a shuttle of 3 cars to the locked gate on Jennings Road to avoid congestion. A pleasant Autumn day with some scattered cloud cover and temperature in the low 20s as we walked 6.5km along the ridge to Faulconbridge Point lookout with a great view looking up the Grose valley.

Here we had our morning tea before backtracking 1km to a track taking us down 350m to the Grose River. It was enjoyable to travel through the different foliage and listen to a colony of bell birds. The track winds down under a canopy of trees with small grass trees (Xanthorrhoea) and ferns as it meanders across a dry creek. When we reached the first of the two rock face climbs, it was all hands on deck passing down packs and giving instructions as to the best placement of feet.

It was at the river where we stopped to take in the isolation and view the river. Although it is dry there seemed to be more water in the river than 18 months earlier.

Here we had lunch while some walkers caught up in dialogue and others were exploring by climbing over the rocks along the river's edge. After lunch it was time for our return up the two crags reaching the Faulconbridge Ridge trail then back to the locked gate completing 18km.

It was great to lead a fine bunch of hikers who changed their position in the line and were all interactive.

A big thank you to Adrian for his assistance as tail and Nick for giving assistance to one of the hikers.