National Pass Walk, Blue Mountains NSW.

  
 


There are lots of great walks in the Blue Mountains and this is surely one of them.  It's a must do for the area, but it's not for the unfit or fainthearted.  It's an easy walk down via a steep staircase to the start of the cliff ledge section of the walk. This is a magical staircase in itself and affords great views of the cliffs and mountain ranges.  The walk is interesting with waterfalls, flora and fauna to see on the way and of course fantastic valley/mountain views.  Going up again is a different story, it's plain hard work, so you need to take your time and go at your own rate.  Going up is also very interesting as you follow the Empress falls upwards ( if you go the way we did).  On this leg you can sit and watch the abseilers doing their thing.  It gives you a chance to rest with nobody noticing.  We hoped to find some orchids on this walk and we did, not what we had hoped for but a new orchid, none the less.  We took around 3.5 hours as we often stopped to take photographs and look around for orchids.  The photographs start at the Wentworth Falls Lookout.

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Click on a photo to start a slideshow with larger photographs.

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We started at the Wentworth Falls Lookout.  Here is
Mt Solitary in the distance.
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Sheer cliffs line the valley.  We descend down these soon
to get to the lower walking level.
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Again looking around the vast view from the lookout
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Looking down at the lower Wentworth Falls.
3 photos (above) were used to make this widescreen photograph. 
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This is a map at the lookout.  We start at the 'You are here'
sign and head left then down to the National Pass walking
track (Red), go all the way to the right and walk up along
 side Empress Falls and up to the Conservation Cafe and
then back via the 'Shortcut' track to our car at the
Wentworth car park.  If you have time the Undercliff walk
is a longer but more scenic way back.
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Past the falls one starts the steep journey down the stairs.
This is at the start in a rather sheltered area.
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Moving further down we get to the open
steep area of the walk
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Looking back across at the Wentworth Falls.
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A number of plaques are adjacent to the track and give
information on the tracks history. 
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Added stairs and natural rock stairs.  The flats are good
spots to rest if you're walking up.
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The Wentworth area cliff face.
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This photo shows the cliff face that the you descend down
to the lower level (taken the day before)
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A closer look.
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Another across the cliff face view showing the interesting
nature of the track in this area.
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If you look closely you can see people on the
Undercliff Walk, the National Pass is another 100 m down
below them.
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Barriers are used to stop you falling - over the
vertical cliff face.
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Rough rock steps
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Going down rather quickly
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But the views are great.
Another stunning panorama taken half way down the staircase.
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As you can see the stairs are steep.
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Down the bottom - Keep on this level
Don't turn off and go down Slack's Stairs.
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We pass by Wentworth Falls again
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Just one of the many stages the creek goes over
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on the way to the canyon floor.
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Hand carved Sandstone spans the Wentworth
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Initially the walk heads out into a wet cliff face.
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with steep drop-offs.
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A low spot - watch your head.
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There are many wonderful plants on the walk -
This is one of my favourite Sundew's - Drosera binata.
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Looking back at the Wentworth falls.
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Looking up - barren cliff face - straight up for a 100 + m
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Drosera again.
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Epiphyte orchid leaves.
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Another waterfall - this one you walk under/through.
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Again more vertical cliff faces.
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Even in high Summer - wet spots along the way.
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Mt Solitary again - always out there on this walk.
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Stepping stones in the really wet sections of the path.
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Nice to know we have made it half way.
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The habitat along the path gets drier from here
to near the ascent point.
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More vertical cliffs.
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Amazing stuff!
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A skink found along the way
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Yes another waterfall - quite cooling
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The habitat gets wet again.
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A beautiful part of the walk
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I was surprised we had to go down -
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But in doing so it open up some great views.
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Yes we are here - Seems everyone points to that an
have rubbed out the detail. 
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An orchid in flower - Rimacola eliptica
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The turning point - up we go
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Spectacular views all the way up!
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Rough steps
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Rounding a bend and about to 'jump' through the break
in the rocks I saw a Water Dragon.  Safety shot
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A close up
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Then a bunch of excited tourists who don't care about
noise and Dragons
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Make the lizard scurry to safety
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To our surprise we saw a guy in a wet suit standing
in the water.
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It was an abseiling group
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Some went slowly - some looked good
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Some had trouble
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But all got down safely.
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We were reminded later that 2 of our kids had done this
abseiling tour - and had a ball
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Up, up again
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We  went out to a small lookout
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Just as we were moving on out popped an abseiler.
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It looks much higher than when we were at the bottom.
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The final panorama - taken from the lookout.
Last shot before we 'walked' up to the Conservation Cafe
and back to the car via the Short Cut track. 
This took another 25 minutes
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On the Short Cut Track we did find a few common but still loveable orchids. 
Left: Cryptostylis subulata - Large Tongue orchid Centre:  Caleana - major Flying Duck orchid and
Right: Dipodium variegatum - Common Hyacinth orchid
 

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