I like how the trunks of the tall gum trees stand out in the afternoon light. A beautiful sight.
Tag Archives: blue mountains
An Endearing View – Part 1
We’re back for a short visit to Wentworth Falls on a clear afternoon in early spring. The cliff line is verdant after all the winter rains.
Apples – Blossom
More interesting I think was my photo of these apple blossoms. I love the contrast of the soft pink against the clear, blue sky.
Unfortunately, that’s all I have from the orchard this year. I’ll have to look around for something else interesting to post about now.
Apples – Picking
Remember last year’s visit to Bilpin – the glut of apples, all ripe and ready to be picked. I was so intoxicated that I vowed to go back the following year. But things weren’t so rosy. The apples had been eaten by fruit bats. What survived their attacks had been damaged by hail weeks before. Hence the apples weren’t exactly so perfect, nor were there many to pick. BB and I however managed to pick 13kg, which were distributed to our families. There will be weeks of apple crumbles, tarts and pies to come.
Spring has sprung – Part 6
Spring is also the beginning of azalea season. They’re always lovely and bright.
Undercliff and Overcliff
The Wentworth Falls area is criss-crossed by walking tracks. I hadn’t been on the Undercliff walk before and used it to get from the top of the falls to Princes Rock Lookout. It’s a fun little track that winds its way in and out of overhangs.
Princes Rock Lookout is probably the best in the area as it juts out into the valley, giving a real bird’s eye view of things.
I also got a look of just how many steps I’d climbed that day.
Down the precipice
It’s been years since I’ve gone down the stairs from the top of Wentworth Falls. I’ve forgotten how step they were! My legs were a bit shaky by the time I got to the middle of the falls, where I could rest and soak up the view to the top.
The precipice
I eventually ended up where I was a couple of months ago, back at the top of Wentworth Falls.
This time I wanted to see if I could get an alternative view, so I went around to Rocket Point Lookout, a little round walk above the top of the falls.
It gave not only a bird’s eye view of the falls but of the surrounding cliff tops. I like the white trunks of the gums. It reminds me a bit of the ghost gums in the Territory.
While My Rock Gently Weeps
At the end of the Charles Darwin walk I came across another waterfall, this time with a name: Weeping Rock Falls.
I suppose it’s because it falls rather gently over the rocks, or perhaps it’s a place of great sadness to someone or other? You decide.
In the footsteps of change
I made a lunchtime visit to the State Library of NSW a few months ago, and was wonderfully surprised to find an exhibition about Charles Darwin, in particular, the time he spent in Australia while voyaging on the Beagle. It describes a visit he made to Wentworth Falls in 1836 while on the way to Bathurst. He wrote:
An immense gulf is suddenly & without any preparation seen through the trees… The class of view was quite novel & extremely magnificent.
High praise indeed from a man who had travelled extensively and was about to write a book that would change the world.
Having been to Wentworth Falls back in the autumn and seen the sign to the walk, I wanted to explore it for myself. It surprisingly starts off in the midst of civilisation – by the tennis court near the Great Western Highway.
I suppose there would have been no tennis courts back in 1836, nor would there have been any pine forests that the track passed through near the start, but it was quite lovely to have Jamieson Creek flowing alongside as it passes under overhangs and down little waterfalls.
It was also lovely to see the banksias and wattle out in force. Of course, there were plenty of birds taking advantage of the nectar. This one’s a lovely rosella.
Static and Silence 