I was heading up the Blue Mountains with Bob for a bushwalk. The weather forecast was not good and in discussing trip we had decide to visit Yondell Ridge at Springwood and look for an old historic track.
I had heard reports of this track that links Yondell Ridge with the Magdala Creek track a few years back, and on Sassafras Gully walks had kept a lookout for it while walking up Magdala Creek. I didn’t think it was Riley to be at the junction of Magdala Creek and Glenbrook Creek as the cliffs there are quite high and don’t break. I had looked in several areas upstream along Magdala Creek looking for the reported old stone steps, but I had seen nothing likely. I knew about a track will upstream that leaves Magdala Creek and heads up onto Yondell Ridge – but that didn’t seem like the right one.
More recently, I had seen photos on social media of bushwalkers on the track and it looks like it had now been cleared and marked with pink tape in places.
A look for this track seemed like a good activity on a likely wet day. Down in the valley of Magdala Creek are plenty of overhangs that would provide shelter if needed. So we headed to Springwood and out along Bee Farm Road and then turned off along Yondell Road and parked at the barrier and the start of the Wiggins Track.
Before we started walking out along the fire road, I noticed some tracks heading down towards Magdala Creek. They look like mountain bike trails.
The fire road was quite a pleasant walk, with lots of flowers to look out for.
There were also some butterflies and birds.
It was not that far to the end of the fire road. So far, we had not spotted any tracks leaving the fire road, so we assume the track went down from the end. This was the case.
The track initially follows the ridgeline down.
There are several places where there old stone steps – either carved out or placed.
The track mainly descends on the left side of the ridge as you descend. It is easy going all the way down.
It joins the Magdala Creek track just near Magdala Falls – the upstream most of the two waterfalls along that section of the creek.
We then continued walking up the Magdala Creek track.
I stopped at the first creek crossing for some photos of the interesting formation.
And further upstream, I stopped again at small natural arch.
We continued upstream to where I had seen that side track coming down from the Yondell Ridge. We decided to explore it and see where it took us. It was an easy track, marked again with pink tape, and it led up to the mountain bike tracks near the carpark. It was a good return track.
I later looked at some old maps to see if any marked the old track. I was surprised to see it marked on the old Windsor 1:63,360 topographic map.
This map does not have the bottom of the track in the correct place. No old parish maps that I looked at had the track marked, nor any other old maps I could find. The cut steps looked old – and I think it is likely that the track was constructed at the same time as the other nearby tracks – perhaps around 1890?
I also searched for “Yondell” without finding any information. The nearby Wiggins Track that goes into Sassafras Gully was named after the Wiggins family that operated the apiary that Bee Farm Road is named after. I could find no property owners with the same of “Yondell” on those old online parish maps. If anyone knows any more, please leave comment.
The only trouble was that it was still vey early. We had an early lunch at the carpark while we discussed option for second activity.
Bob suggested looking for an old Grotto near the St Columba’s Seminary. This turned out to be short and interesting walk. We drove out along Hawkesbury Road to St Columba’s and park short way out. Some scrub bashing took us down to an old path. This led to the Grotto. The path was quite overgrown but we could see some amazing old stonework.
We soon arrive at the Grotto. There was a waterfall.
Here is an old photo (taken from the reference below) of the same place, taken in the early 1930’s. It was known earlier as Kables Spring and was a good water supply for stock animals. It was later modified with lots of stonework and the placement of many statues and was then known as the “Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes”. But much earlier it was a place significant to local Aboriginals.
No statues remain, but there is still some old stonework.
We left the area by a much better track that took us to a fire road. It is interesting that the creek upstream has a much lower flow, as the creek is supplemented by a spring just above the waterfall.
We followed the fire road back to the gates of the St Columba’s. The old seminary has been repurposed as a school. More information about the Spring and Grotto can be found in the Blue Mountains History Journal.
on an earlier trip we had visited the other Grotto near the old seminary.
It was still quite early, so we filled out the days with a short is it to the Wianamatta Nature Reserve at Cranebrook. Here are a few photos –
