Grose River Faulconbridge
We met outside Faulconbridge public school on Grose Rd on an overcast Saturday morning. After settling into the 4WD we continued along Grose road until we reached the locked gate (-33.664318, 150.549638). Where we parked the car, got organised and set off at about 08:30. At 09:45 we had a 10 minute rest at the point where a track joined the fire trail (-33.624975, 150.569433). We had averaged 4.6 Km/hour along the fire trail. We continued for about another 30 minutes and we arrived at Faulconbridge lookout (-33.616946,150.565092). It was quite crowded with half a dozen mountain bike riders in residence, but they left shortly after we arrived. The stunning view was spotted with heavy mist that looked increasingly like rain moving through the valley towards us. We took the obligatory photos and marvelled at the steepness of the valley we were about to tackle.
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| Getting started | View from the lookout | A wide view from the lookout |
We started back along the fire trail to where the track intersected and turned left down towards the river. The track quickly dropped into the valley. We walked for about half an hour steadily getting lower into the valley. We crossed a little creek about three times and generally followed it on its way to the valley floor. We then came to an area of lightly wooded forest covered mostly in lush tree ferns, before dropping very steeply to the river. This section required some scrambling and assistance of ropes. We arrived at the river (-33.616946, 150.565092) for lunch at 11:46, an hour after leaving the fire trail.
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| Climbing down to the river | Scrambling across the rocks | The Grose River |
While we were at the river Linda got a tick on the back of her neck. She took it pretty calmly as we sprayed it with Deet, then grabbed the tick by its legs and dug it out with a needle. We left the river at 12:45 and climbed out of the valley. It was slow going and we averaged just over one Km/hour. About half way up, it began to rain and fortunately we found a nearby cave to wait out the shower. We continued back up the track to the fire trail and after a short rest headed back along the fire trail at 4.3Km/hour to arrive back at the locked gate at 15:20, pleasantly fatigued and already planning the next walk.
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| Scrambling across the rocks | Waiting for the rain to pass | Red in a sea of green | Happy faces as we get near the end |
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| Map of the trip | Elevation profile of the trip |