Lerida Gorge Walk – 29 May 2020

This was a very pleasant and interesting walk in the Upper Blue Mountains with Bob and Douglass. Bob had worked out a good plan to visit Lerida Gorge which runs into Arethusa Canyon. It contains Alpheus Canyon which is often used as an exit route by parties visiting Arethusa Canyon. On my last visit to Arethusa Canyon we had exited that way.

We drove to Leura and then along the Mt Hay Road. We were stopped at the barrier due to road work ahead. We set off on foot and soon encountered the road plant. Soon past this, we continued walking to reach the Fortress Ck carpark. We walked out the fire trail towards the Fortress for short way before tuning off along a side ridge.

On the way, we had a good view of a nice vantage point out along Rock Lily Ridge. A nice place to visit on a future walk.

Our ridge was quiet open after the bushfires and we soon reached the end or the spur overlooking the valley of Greaves Creek. Here we found large old cairn.

Bob thought a sloping gully would provide access to Lerida Gorge – but it soon became far too steep. Instead, we detoured to a small lookout with amazing views into the lower part of Arethusa Canyon.

Looking down we could see Arethusa Falls and next to it, the much smaller  volume water of Vida Falls which flows out of Alpheus Canyon (Lerida Gorge).

Further downstream we could see the next waterfall – Medusa Falls.

Our lookout was only big enough for one of us to look down at a time.

Looking up our gorge we could see a camp cave with a constructed wall. We wondered if we could reach it.

Not being able to continue our descent, we traversed back up the gorge on ledges and managed to find a way down further along. This took us to a long ledge which we followed back in the downstream direction.

Following the ledge we soon reached this cave. It was cold and draughty but had an amazing view of the gorge below. There was also a logbook.

We then wondered how to get down to the creek below. There seemed no easy route, so we walked back along our ledge and then found a place where we could do short abseil. Searching later it looks like there is a scrambling route right where the cave is that we could have used.  From below the abseil, we soon reached the creek. We crossed over and starting up the far side. I had been up this way on an Arethusa trip and knew it was easy – if you found the right way. But were we far enough upstream?

It turns out it did not matter. We continued up a ledge and reached a spot with a rope hanging down a short wall. We scrambled up using the rope and continued along the higher ledge – all the time heading in the downstream direction. We encountered a corner. This had a length of tape hanging down. Once up this, it was an easy scramble to a nice lookout at the top.

From the lookout we could see another lower ledge that looked good for traversing.

And we could see the cave we had visited.

This route was quick, but using it we missed seeing an interesting camp cave that I had seen on the previous trip – the Rookery Nook. This cave was used by pioneer Blue Mountains rock climber Eric Lowe. In the early 1930’s he explored the area and used the Rookery Nook Cave as a base to camp in. Later, with some friends including Dr Dark, he ascended Arethusa Falls, and then climbed up the wall above to the Rookery Nook and continued on to the point we were now on. His account of this amazing adventure can be found online at Trove. Eric also named some of the area – Lerida and Vida were his daughters.

The Rookery Nook is one of three caves used by these pioneer bushwalkers and climbers. Dr Eric Dark had a cave nearby, closer to the Fortress, and Frank Walford had a cave on the other side of Arethusa Canyon. When I visited it, there had been a fire place and a few old pots and pans.

We had lunch at the lookout and then made our way along the ridge. It was easy walking back to a fire trail which soon took us back to the Mt Hay Road.