The Goat Track and the Kedumba Pinnacles – 7 September 2017

This was a very interesting walk with Bob in the Kedumba Valley. Many years earlier, I had observed a detached pinnacle under the Kedumba Walls. On a recent trip, at Sublime Point, with the benefit of late afternoon light and a telephoto lens, I could see that there were in fact three pinnacles all in the one area. Bob had seen my photos and was keen for a look.

The Kedumba Pinnacles

We arrived on Kings Tableland at Wentworth Falls and first stopped at Sunset Rocks Lookout. This lookout is situated fairly close to where the pinnacles are. I had visited this lookout a few times but could not however recall seeing any pinnacles below. Our visit time confirmed this. The rock platform the lookout is on give fine views of the Jamison Valley, but it is too far away from the cliffs to see down. 

Bob at Sunset Rock Lookout

So, we next headed to the barrier, and set off down the Kedumba Road.

Lion Head from near the barrier

At the top of Kedumba Pass, is the Cleary Memorial Lookout. Again, more fine views, but we could not see the pinnacles from it.

We walked a little further down the road, to a hairpin bend. This was the top of the Goat Track, our intended descent route. But we could also see the pinnacles from here. Sure enough we could observe the three pinnacles where we thought they were.

I have climbed up Kedumba Pass many times, but never visited the nearby Goat Track. This is an old historic track used by the Maxwell Family, the former landholders at Kedumba Farm as a walking route to Wentworth Falls. It was later replaced by Kedumba Pass, a road that was blasted out of the cliffs. The Goat Track climbs up to the top of Kedumba Pass at a sharp bend. It is not an obvious route and one would think that a pass n that vicinity is unlikely. But it does go without too much difficulty. It is steep in about two places, but otherwise quite easy. One spot had a short bit of old rope hanging down, but it is not really needed by confident scramblers. Lower down we could see bit of the old benching from the original track. The route on the whole is not well marked and quite vague. Best to take the most obvious and easy way – thats the right route.

We soon arrived again at the Kedumba Road, and this time, we walked back in the opposite direction for a few minutes to arrive at the turn off to the old Sewerage Road that heads east to the bottom of Leura Falls. Here there are some magnificent Blue Gums.

We followed along the old Sewerage Road for about 2 km before turning off and heading uphill and off-track to the pinnacles. In some places, it was steep going but fairly open walking.

Lower Pinnacle

We climbed for about 300 m to reach the lower pinnacle. It didn’t appear to be easy to climb and it had crumbly base. But it is the lowest of the three in height – perhaps about 10 m. We climbed a bit higher to the middle pinnacle. This is a lot higher, about 20 m and on the uphill side there is a large chockstone wedged next to it at about half height. Again, there seems to be no easy scrambling route up it.

Middle Pinnacle

Middle Pinnacle

Middle Pinnacle

A little further up, is the top pinnacle, and it lies quite close to the cliffs, separated by quite a narrow chimney. The chimney was a real wind tunnel and we didn’t stay too long. This pinnacle looks about 30 m high, and also looked quite tricky to climb.

Upper Pinnacle

Upper Pinnacle

We then descended below the pinnacles and stopped for lunch in a nice terrace a bit lower down. After our break, we continued down to the Sewerage Road again and walked back to Kedumba Pass and Bob’s car at the barrier.

Stopping for photos near the top of Kedumba Pass, we spotted what is probably the support for an old telephone line to the valley.

On the  drive back to the highway, we visited one last lookout. This one is near the Microwave Relay Tower on Kings Tableland. Near the fence for the tower, an old road goes around it to a nice rock outcrop that provides good view of the Jamison Valley. Again, no view of the pinnacles from here, although this would be the closest place to reach the cliffs just above the pinnacles.

As well as visiting the pinnacles, we were fortunate to see six species of orchid on the walk –

More photos of this trip are online here on my website.