Lindeman Pass, 17. Oct 2010
Party: Bahereh, Chaita, Mike, Kosta
With Fiona bailing out due to too much Saturday night action, the four of us met up on the train to Wentworth Falls where where we started our walk. The first leg of our trip was following down Jamison Creek all the way from the station to the magnificent Wentworth Falls and further down the Slack Stairs and the old Hippocrene Falls track. We left ample time to watch and photograph the stunning waterfalls and finally settled at the Hippocrene Falls for an early lunch and some of us went for a cold swim, too.
From there we went up Valley of Waters Creek past Vera Falls until we reached the Roberts Pass turnoff. Roberts Pass is officially closed due to some landslide, but since it wasn't fineposted, we decided to take our chances and have a look. The actual landslide turned out to be a bit of a joke. If it wasn't signposted that this is the one, we probably would have dismissed it as just another random damage in an unmaintained track. It's about two metres wide and there is still a ledge to walk on. And while unnecessary, someone even put a rope there to ease the crossing - or to confuse some people.
We then consulted both, watch and map and predicted that we should still be able to make it up Leura Falls during daylight and entered the actual Lindeman Pass. Following the track through a really nice forest, we eventually had to face some problems due to Bahereh having a sprained ankle, Lindeman Pass being in part hidden by landslides and fallen trees and Chaita showing signs of dehydration. After fixing Chaita up with more water, we slowly continued on the path and started considering a hint from Dave about a way up at Sublime Point. At Sublime Point we found a marked path that went up the ridge and decided to take our chances and follow it. At first it started fairly easy, but later demanded more and more scrambles that all of the group mastered very well. Eventually the increased presence of empty beer bottles announced that we are close to the top. This is probably the only time ever, we were - at least in some sense - happy to see trash in the bush. Shortly after that we arrived at the lookout, still in daylight, and ordered a cap to bring us to the station.
At Leura we got some Chinese take-away and realised the real disaster: The Chinese shop refused to sell us beer due to some stupid licensing laws and the nearby bottle shop was already closed. Eating our food and drinking water, we finally boarded the train back to the city. All in all everyone enjoyed a great day in the bush with a more bludgy morning and a more adventurous afternoon. And counting all the leeches Mike made friends with, we easily doubled our group size by the end.
Cheers, Kosta