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Blue Mountains, Australia - Recent Trip (img heavy)

D

DarkenRahl

Joined
Jul 13, 2007
Messages
30
Hello folks,

Just thought I'd share a few pictures of a recent trip I took to Mt. Solitary in the Blue mountains near Sydney Australia.
I planned to spend 3days/2nights doing this walk and generally taking it easy as I am far from fit. I ended up finishing it in two but was pretty buggered by the end of it.
I expected near freezing temperatures at night but the weather was glorious. At 5:30 am I was wandering about in a thin body shirt.


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This is the view from the start of the walk as I descend into the Jameson Valley, that is Mt. Solitary in the distance.


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Some of the many ferns in the valley and plenty of Bellbirds around.


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Here's a photo from a previous trip showing the route up Mt. Solitary.


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The walk up Solitary is along a thin knife edge and involves some very steep scrambles. I passed one chubby old couple on the way up who looked like they had bitten off more than they could chew.


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The views begin...


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My camp site in the first saddle on the top of Solitary. Down the other side of my hammock is a steep slope, nice view to have as you sway around.


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Kind of view I had from my camp site.


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Rather misty the next morning, ruined the views somewhat.


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You could fall off these cliffs and not see the ground until you were a meter or two away from splatting into it.


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A long armed self pic. The mist still hasn't burnt away yet...
 
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About 400 meters to the bottom of the cliffs here. You can hear Lyrebirds from way out in the middle of the valley clear as a bell from up here.

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The track down the other side is really steep, this photo doesn't show it well though. There was one section where I was sitting on my arse and sliding down about 30 meters with a stick in one hand steadying myself.


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Still on the way down the other side...


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The top of that cliff in the distance is King's Tableand and where I need to be in 3 hours if I'm to finish this walk by dark.
I'm almost at the Kedumba River now.


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Down around 200m in altitude now which sadly means 800m to climb out again before nightfall... That log was the way across the river by the way. I sissied my way across on my hands and knees. *grin*


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Great country for snakes but sadly I didn't see any, in all my time out in the wilds of Australia I've seen about 4 snakes and they have all dissappeared very quickly.

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I've hit the fire trail out of the valley now. The setting sun makes for some nice pictures.


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Starting to get out of the valley now.


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King's Tableand on the right.


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Sun is over the horizon now and I actually stopped to put a shirt on.
 
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I stopped here for a snack. I was on a tiny little rock ledge over a precipice.


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I sat down here and wondered whether to set up for the night, walk 6km's down a dirt road to the train station in the dark or be lazy and call a cab.
The decision was made for me, there was one car in the car park and the owner walked out a couple of minutes after me and offered me a lift to the station. Woohoo!

Apologies for the quality of the photos. I planned to borrow my sisters fancy pants camera but ended up with my 2mp phone camera instead.

I hope you enjoyed this small slice of the Australian bush.
 
Australia has always been in my top 5 places to go! I will get there some day!
Thanks for sharing your adventure!
 
tonym said:
Australia has always been in my top 5 places to go! I will get there some day!
Thanks for sharing your adventure!
Click to expand...

Same here. Threads like this get me that much closer to getting around to filling out the passport info.:o:p
 
I find the 2nd last one and the 5th last one to be extremely beautiful pictures. I'm so jealous... I had no idea Australia had such phenomenal landscape.
 
I loved your pictures, looks like it was an awesome trip. I'd love to go to Australia sometime, sadly not as soon as I would like. Thanks for sharing.
 
Excellent pictures and great storyline to carry us through your trip. Thanks for sharing. Australia is on my list of wants also.
 
Nice pics! I guess I'm not the only hammock camper in the blue mountains.
Did you collect water from Kedumba? I've heard some stories about the quality...
 
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