The best time to visit the waterfalls of the Blue Mountains is just after (or during) rain. It had been raining for the past few days and the creeks should be up – an ideal time. My friend Roger, was going up the mountains to help with a school excursion, so grabbed a ride. After a coffee stop at Springwood, I left and caught a train to Wentworth Falls.
I then started down the Charles Darwin Track. The creek was flowing quite nicely. It should be good conditions for photography further downstream. Nice soft lighting helped. The only penalty was getting wet feet in the numerous pools on the track – a small price to pay.
The small cascades were very beautiful and misty conditions added to the atmosphere. Weeping Rock was particularly impressive.
I continued down to the top of Wentworth Falls and down the track to the bottom of the upper falls. Here a continual blast of spray from the torrent made photography very trying. I then went along National Pass, which offered great views of the two major falls that make up Wentworth Falls.
A lot of the National Pass track is relatively sheltered by natural overhangs of the massive cliff above. In places like below Den Fenella expect to get a bit wet.
National Pass takes you to The Valley of the Waters. Here photography was also a bit difficult due to spray. I had to keep wiping the camera lens between photos. At Empress Falls I was able to photograph a party of canyoners abseiling down. The waterfall was certainly quite spectacular given the high water.
After talking to the canyoners, I made my way up to the Conservation Hut, where I met up again with Roger. His duties at the excursion where over, so we headed to nearby Leura Cascades for some more photography. Again -a very wet track, but more than made up with by beautiful and powerful cascades.
More photographs are on my website here.
