Newnes NP D Grade Reccie

[jk_menace]

Hey guys sounds like you all had a great day. We are all good, however Eleni's Subaru looks a bit sore and sorry. We were looking forward to today's trip. Hope to be able to get out there soon for a run.
Cheers Dennis

[DanD]

Sorry to hear re the Subi Dennis - so long as everyone is ok though! I have the track in my gps (and head) and uploaded it to drop box (on page 3) if you want to do it on your own - I'll definitely be doing this run again at some point if you're in need of a tag along

[stevet]

Thank's Dru & Kerry for the day..... Thank's to all you folks who attended making it a very good run to get back and wheel around a little again........

[jk_menace]

Sorry to hear re the Subi Dennis - so long as everyone is ok though! I have the track in my gps (and head) and uploaded it to drop box (on page 3) if you want to do it on your own - I'll definitely be doing this run again at some point if you're in need of a tag along

Thanks Dan, no fun on my own lol. I'm happy to do a day that suites you and possibly others that missed out today.
Cheers mate.

[Hamma]

Hey All. I'm keeping my eye on this one too - just couldn't make it yesterday.


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[Dru]

We'll be happy to run this again. Our little bit towards the Jamboree.

Thanks heaps to Steve, firstly because it's always good to have experience at hand, but also for filling in the gaps. That let us link in locations at the Zig Zag end. "Ranger Bob", "Little Bob", "Pipeline", "Powerlines" etc. It's been a while since Kerry and I have wheeled those tracks.

Zig Zag is one of the typical entry points to Newnes NP and just a little bit down Bell's Line Of Rd from Lithgow.

Steve led us out to "Lost Cities". My claim to "D grade" being a touch in danger of having to fend off questions of false advertising. Lost cities is big rock formations. They lit these up in WWII to look like a city to confuse bombers. Like most good plans, it wasn't needed.

We we then tripped through the bottom section of Blackfellow's Hand to turn off to "Kerry's sneaky entry track". This is actually no secret. It's the quickest way from Lidsdale into Newnes NP but requires cutting over a private coal haul road. We simply stick to a short dirt track on the side of the haul road then cross over. The cutting down to the haul road is probable C Grade. We don't really need low range (even climbing up), but it's steep enough that many will prefer low.

Great entertainment, the bog holes on Kerrys sneaky entry were full of ice.



From there on the outskirts of Lidsdale we took to the bitumen up the Wolgan Rd (which goes to Newnes). We stopped on the bitumen at a look out to Wolgan Valley. Apparently the largest valley in the world after the Grand Canyon. Another thumbs up to Steve for pointing out this spot. Lunch.

You could keep driving the bitumen to the "Old Coach Rd" which is the quickest way to Glow Worm tunnel from there. Though we didn't get the chance to do this track, I'll call it a C grade.

Instead we turned back down the bitumen, maybe 1k, to the start of Blackfellow's Hand. On the other side of the bitumen is the start of "Baal Bone". I think "Baal Bone" then Capertee back to Rydal is the second part of these familiarisation trips.

The start of Blackfellow's Hand is the grotto which gives the trail it's name. There used to be cave paintings here, need to use some imagination these days. It's another good stop and walk point. But for brevity we kept on driving. Like Zig Zag, this is one of the most common entry points to the area.


At this part of the NP there is another D grade track, "Sunny Ridge Fire Trail" that runs parallel to Blackfellow's hand. Sunny Ridge doesn't go anywhere, but it's important because there is a little joining trail between them. This joining bit is the famous "Spanish Steps". Some conjecture on the trail rating for the steps, but I'm calling it B grade. Definitely not a D anyway.

We drove past the entry to Spanish Steps and continued through to "Glow Worm Tunnel Rd" think this is called "Newnes Rd" as well. It might be dirt, but it's a flat highway. The start of "Old Coach Rd" is just before the entry to Glow Worms.

This section of road is the old train track, complete with tunnels, for Shale Oil mining 100 years ago. There is a lovely walk (allow an hour there and back) at the end. Most of us got our trecking shoes out to check it out. The glow worms bit is a tunnel about 1k long that is a slight curve and utterly pitch black without a torch. Turn the torches off, let your eyes get their night vision, and you will start seeing the glow worms.


From there, we headed home. Half of the group heading out via Lithgow, the other half back to Zig Zag.

I suspect we may have bombarded the group with information overload, but hopefully it all made sense, and those who wanted to better know their way around, have found it useful.

Think I'll post my thumb nail sketches up in the Jamboree section for general info. When I get a chance I'll add some pics.

It's worth noting, BlackFellow's Hand Trail is in pretty poor condition. Still D grade but bumpy as. This does slow the trip down somewhat.


Note: a couple of the pics are from previous trips.

[uncaged123]

Good work Dru & Kerry, sorry I missed this outing. This virus is driving me crazy because it won't let go. I'll go on the next revisit trip when you arrange it, virus or no virus. I'll slog it out.

Cheers Rob

[Easy77]

Pictures from Saturday: https://goo.gl/photos/i3t3M6SV4NzcV6tbA

Clearly, it was coooldddd. I usually post a link to dropbox but I thought I'd give google photo sharing a try. Let me know if you have problems to view the pictures. Enjoy.

[Steve F]

Great pics all, I grabbed a lot of them for the Jambo facebook page Makes me want to get up there again soon....

Cheers
Steve

[richhenning]

Appreciate the effort Dru and Kerry, even down to printing colour hand out maps of the area for all of us!



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