We made it! After a spectacular walk through the gully we made it to the base of Deane’s Creek Falls

There is something special, really magic, about going to new places, enjoying new experiences, learning new things.  Mix these emotions with a dose of adventure when the GPS is your only guide, add in a group of new friends who are kindred spirits and top if off with a light rain that ensures you are slightly soggy.  The final product is a great day of fun, exploration and camaraderie.  Such were the ingredients recently as I joined another adventure with the bush walking club and we explored the deep gully formed by Deane’s Creek in the upper Blue Mountains.

The weather for most of the day was variable with mood swings between hard rain and bright sunshine but the majority of the time it lingered somewhere in between.  We bush bashed our way through the wet undergrowth and weaved our way through the gums until we made the ridge of the deep gorge formed by Deane’s Creek.  Here we climbed a tall pagoda with its amazing contours carved by eons of weather, and enjoyed morning tea while we took in the vast views of the many large pagodas and the deep gorge below us.

The going was a bit slow in the early stages and we relied on the GPS to get us to the ridge above the creek’s gully

Great views from our spot for morning tea on the top of a pagoda

The hearty group of bush bashers take a mid-morning break to refuel and admire the views

We dropped into the gorge and followed a break in the escarpment walls on the east side of the creek which allowed us to track under the ridge line and take in some of the amazing caves and slots that featured here.  Some of the caves, or large overhangs to be exact, were big enough to build a house under.

One of the large caves we found under the ridge of the gully walls

Another huge cave, this one steeper and full of ferns

We then came to a narrow slot between two huge rock features which we had to pass through, followed by the trickiest part of the walk as we had to crawl along a very narrow ledge.  With a hint of black humour this feature was quickly named the Ledge of Death.  We took off our packs and slowly scraped our way along, trying hard not to slip off the ledge and at the same time not hit our head on the overhang.  I managed to at least achieve one of those objectives.

This narrow rock crack had an interesting feature we had to pass under

I came out the other side of this foreboding rock feature…but there was more to come

The Ledge of Death required a combination of courage and crawling

Fortunately the Ledge of Death did not live up to its name

There were amazing scenes around every corner as we walked along the base of the escarpment up Deane’s Creek

Some of the bush we walked through was very thick – and wet from the recent rains

The official objective of this trip was to explore the upper reaches of Deane’s Creek and reach the little waterfall that is currently the only source of water in the creek.  But it was tucked away in a little fold of the ridge wall on the other side of the gully and we had to cross a fallen log and scramble up the other side before reaching the waterfall.

We finally made it to the base of the falls in a secluded corner of the long deep gully

Just to prove I made it!

Our leader Chris had never been to the waterfall but had gotten us there following waypoints on his GPS (impressive stuff).  Geoff, a fellow walker, wanted to explore some of the canyon beyond the waterfall and as we came around the corner we found a huge amphitheatre with vertical walls perhaps over 50 metres high and a floor of thick soft ferns.  This amphitheatre, as immense as it was, was hidden from view and we speculated whether non-indigenous people had ever been here before.  Yes, almost certainly some hearty explorer had stumbled on it at some time, for sure, but then again, you never know, maybe we really were the first ones…

My thanks to Chris and Geoff for a couple of the photos.

A hidden gem – a huge amphitheatre hiding beyond the waterfall

Our (late) lunch spot – sitting on top of a magnificent pagoda enjoying the views and savouring the moment