Posts tagged ‘time out’

A little journey to Mt Wilson

26 November 2010

At this time of year more than any other I tend to be in work mode pretty much non-stop. And then it gets to Christmas and I fall into a heap of exhaustion! Which is not terribly sensible, so this year I’m trying to take a bit more time out during the silly season.


Driving into Mt Wilson

This week I fairly unexpectedly managed to take a little journey not too far from home, but in an area I’d never been to before. My fellow explorer and I were heading for the beautiful Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens which is to the north of where I live (but requires a big semi-circle of a drive to get there!) when we decided to take a little detour to have a quick look at Mt Wilson, a little town which is also part of the Blue Mountains.

And it was wonderful! We felt a bit like we’d arrived in heaven – and we never did get to Mt Tomah in the end.

We meandered around the streets of the very pretty town, spent time exploring the church grounds and tiny cemetery, wandered through the Cathedral of Ferns and even managed a little bushwalk through the wildflowers out to Du Faur’s Rocks lookout where we had a stunning view over the Wollangambe.

So seeing as we had such a lovely, relaxing day at what is normally a completely crazy time of year, I thought I’d share some photos with you.


A number of the graves in the church yard at Mt Wilson have beautiful tiles on top of them – something that definitely caught my attention!


These truly gorgeous little native boronias were dotted all around where we went bushwalking. The subtle scent from them is wonderful! I wanted to bottle it.


Left: View over the Wollangambe from Du Faur’s Rocks lookout, Mt Wilson. Right: Inside the Cathedral of Ferns (which is mostly difficult to photograph well!) at Mt Wilson.


Glimpse of Mt Wilson church seen through the garden along the fence. This lovely little church is made of fibreboard!


Left: Gorgeous waratah flower spotted while bushwalking. These enormous flowers were everywhere in Mt Wilson! Right: Wandering through the ferns. The ones at the bottom were around chest height!

I can’t wait to get back there again for more of a look – and once again feel grateful that I live in an area with such beauty.

There are more photos from our little trip on my Flickr.

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Much needed time out

28 July 2010

I took a whole day (mostly) away from work yesterday. And I spent part of it walking in the wilderness with a friend. I’ve been struggling with some health issues in the last few days and decided I need to do something inspiring to help me feel a bit better – and as if I’m not just a work machine!

So we headed out for a brief exploration of Butterbox Point near Mount Hay in the Blue Mountains, a few kilometres away from where I live. I’ve been wanting to go to this spot for about a year now after seeing some beautiful photographs of it.


Butterbox Point – also called the Hay Monolith, I believe. To give an idea of scale the cave seen at the base of the rocks to the right is almost as tall as an average room.

To get there requires a relatively slow drive of 15km along a narrow, winding and hilly dirt road, which for about 90% of the way is surrounded by nothing but beautiful wilderness. After a fairly scary (and very slow!) drive along a slippery and uneven section of cliff face, we soon came to the end of the road, with the top of Mount Hay looming in front of us and a walking track heading off into the heath.

Right from where we left the car the views are spectacular, but of course they got better the further we walked. And the landscape surrounding the track is very beautiful. Even on a grey day in winter it looked very pretty and there were plenty of wildflowers – in a couple of months time I imagine the area will be carpeted in them.

We walked out to Butterbox Point which is perched on the edge of the Grose Valley and around to the back of it, where we sat for a while and enjoyed the amazing views down into the huge valley wilderness below. There wasn’t a soul to be seen apart from ourselves and it was very still and quiet, apart from some birds singing.

We pondered a memorial carved into the rock for someone who had died in 1997 and wondered if they really had died at that very spot (the drop into the valley is a few hundred metres from that point and there is no fencing). And then we turned back, feeling that what we could see of the rest of the track was a bit too exposed and covered in a few too many loose rocks to feel especially safe.

So by the time I got home I did feel better. And I’m feeling very keen to go back out there again to do some more serious exploring – and much more serious photo taking (I had my camera on the wrong setting and the photos I did take are mostly terrible!).

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Time out in the Blue Mountains

29 June 2010

Bridal Veil Falls at Govett's Leap.I have to confess that I basically suck when it comes to taking time out!

But living in the Blue Mountains is definitely helping to motivate me in that regard as it’s easy for me to head off for beautiful walks or to take in gorgeous views or to explore a town I’ve not really looked at before.

Today was one of those days when I felt inspired to take some time out to enjoy a perfect blue sky day with incredibly crisp, fresh air (which is also very cold!).

After a pleasant breakfast I headed up to Blackheath – a few towns further up the Mountains from where I live – to go to Govett’s Leap lookout and take in the spectacular view over the huge Grose Valley, including of the very pretty Bridal Veil Falls.

There were a handful of people there from all over the world taking it in with me and it made me happy to think that I can come and enjoy it whenever I like!

Govett's Leap view over Pulpit Rock, Mt Hay and Butterbox Point.
View over one of the labyrinth-type areas of the Grose Valley, taking in Pulpit Rock, Mount Hay and (I think!) Butterbox Point where I plan to go walking very soon.

I took a few photos, gazed at the view for ages, took in lots of fresh air, wandered to different spots around the lookout and wished I was wearing my walking shoes to do a bit more exploring (next time!).

Now I’m home again I thought I’d share what I enjoyed.

Plants clinging to the cliff top at Govett's Leap.
Remnants of some flowers clinging to the top of the cliff.

To give an idea of scale, you have to remember that the carpet of green in the valley is made up of full size (ie. very tall!) gum trees. The tops of the cliffs can be up to 500 metres above the bottom of the valley floor.

Grose Valley view with Bridal Veil Falls to the right.
Grose Valley view with Bridal Veil Falls to the right.

I’ve got more photos from today and lots of other photos from the Blue Mountains in my Flickr if you’d like to see more.

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