Lockleys Pylon – Blue Gum Forest Walk 14 – 16 March 2014

I recently completed a nice three day walk in the Grose Valley Area. I started out from Leura, in the early afternoon, walking out from the station along the Mt Hay Road to the Lockleys Pylon Track. This was about a two hour road bash, which for me was made more interesting by experiencing a thunderstorm on the way. As I walked out I was worried about lightning strikes – some of which seemed very close.

Then I headed out to Lockleys Pylon. I wanted to camp near the Pylon, preferable as high as possible but was not sure what campsites would be like. It took about an hour to reach the cliff line and I spotted straight away some caves not very far from the track. I checked out a few of these and found several that looked quite sheltered and dry. I chose one slightly lowered down. It had one section where I could sleep and another section where I could cook.

After I dumped my pack, I wandered around Lockleys Pylon. It was still raining a bit and there was also some nearby thunder. I was therefore a bit apprehensive about staying too long in the open heath on top of the Pylon.

The storm seemed to be passing over, but too slowly to be clear for a good sunset. But at least it didd mean there could be a good sunrise.

I awoke in plenty of time for sunrise, indeed the sun rises close to 7 am at present. So a short climb on to the top of Lockleys Pylon with my camera with no worry about lightning strikes this time. The sunrise and dawn was quite good.

Then after breakfast, I packed up and walked the short distance down to Blue Gum Forest in the Grose Valley. I straight away could not help noticing all the fungi that was out. Autumn is a good time to see fungi in the Blue Mountains.

At the big tree, where the track heads up to Perrys Lookdown, I was dismayed to find tape over the track into Blue Gum Forest blocking off the way. This is ridiculous! Blue Gum Forest is not closed! The track from Blue Gum Forest to the Upper Grose is closed due to bushfire damage, but why put a barrier on the track right at the start of the forest and well outside the burnt area? A lot of visitors will miss out on seeing Blue Gum Forest. I must admit I ignored the tape and spent several hours altogether nearby in the forest.

I set up camp at Acacia Flat and then spent the rest of the day wandering around with my camera, photographing the trees and fungi or the Grose River or sitting out more thunderstorms in my tarp.

On the third day, I walked slowly out via Govetts Creek and Govetts Leap. It was a slow walk because I was constantly stopping, setting up a camera and tripod and photographing the fungi. I think it was probably the best display of fungi I have seen in the Blue Mountains. I could have stopped a lot more if it wasn’t raining on and off.

From Govetts Leap, I headed back to Blackheath via the pleasant Popes Glen Track.

More photos are on my website starting on this page. If anyone can correct or add to the fungi identification I would be most grateful.