Party: Tim and Michelle Vollmer, Leah Charlson, Naser Ghobadzadeh, Colombina Schaeffer, Jana Fromm, Naomi Rellum, Yumi Hong, Terence Nhan, Murray Booth, Adrian Dries (and friends)
A steady stream tumbling over a waterfall into a large, deep pool which is skirted by a beautiful sandy beach and towered over by cliffs on one side.
From the first glimpse you get as the track breaks free of the bush onto a rocky outcrop above the water hole, it’s no surprise that the area is known as Paradise Pool, or more simply Paradise, to the locals.
Swimming across the water hole at Paradise
With a forecast of beautiful clear blue skies, without the full heat of summer, it seemed a perfect day to spend a few hours enjoying the sunshine in our own little private escape.
We all arrived in Linden just before 10am — which was a tad miraculous given CityRail was providing the transport for half the group — cramming into the three cars to get down to the starting point of the walk at Caley’s Repulse.
I’d been introduced to this swimming hole about five years ago by some local friends, and on that occasion we’d been abused after using their traditional entry route through private property. I’d decided to have a look at the map and spotted an easy access route that would hopefully save us any of that trouble this time!
We were quickly up on the ridge top where we briefly followed a fire trail before a relatively new National Park’s sign appeared (it certainly wasn’t there when I last went through), indicating the start of the track without actually saying what was down there.
I’d advertised this trip as possibly the easiest I’d had ever run, and I was true to my word. The track was quite clear, there were only a couple small scrambly sections as we descended, and within about 25 minutes we were at our destination.
In fact we’d done it so quickly most people hadn’t even worked up a sweat, and most of the pool was still shaded.
After some relaxing on the beach and some snacks, people slowly slipped into their swimmers, first wading into the chilly water before we started climbing up above the waterfall to some of the spectacular water jumps that are possible into the pool.
Most of the group did at least one, if not several, first leaping off the waterfall itself before moving up to a rock ledge about a metre higher that actually offers the easiest and safest jump, even if it can seem terrifyingly high from the top.
We all enjoyed lunch on the beach, which was basking in sunshine by now (I have the sun burn to prove it!) before a few more swims, jumps and a buddha impersonation on the rock shelf under the waterfall.
We even found a few interesting volcanic rocks, which were examined by our resident geologist Terence.
I had to get back to Sydney for work later in the afternoon, so not long after 1.30pm we packed up and set off back up the track.
Leaping off the high ledge into the deep pool
After a brief navigational blunder (I’m lucky Michelle had her eyes open or we’d have ended up in Woodford) we were climbing back up the track to the cars.
Back at the cars a local started chatting to us, and was telling us about some volcanic rock in the headwaters of the creek, which explained where our little specimens must have come from. It was good to know, as the closest volcanic activity I knew of was about 8kms away on the other side of the range.
We drove back to the station, where half the group departed for the train, while the rest of us cruised back onto the highway and headed for home.
It was a nice way to start a work day, and a pleasure to meet so many new faces from the club. Best of all, it was a reminder of just how magnificent this little Paradise on earth is. I’ll have to remember to visit more often!
Sabrina McCarroll
January 15, 2012
Hi, I was unwell and unable to come on this walk – will you be doing this walk again at some point or other easy, short walks? Many thanks
Tim Vollmer
January 15, 2012
There will definitely be some other short, easy walks coming up. Because I am now working nights I’m trying to do some trips on weekdays that finish by about 2pm. Over the next month or so there will also be some similar short, easy introductory canyoning trips.
Naomi M
January 16, 2012
Hi Tim,
Thanks for putting that all together. It was nice to re-watch the waterfall jumps! Looking forward to the next adventure, Naomi.
weezmgk (@weezmgk)
January 23, 2012
Hi Tim, I was the ‘local’ who chatted to you as you came back to your cars. Glad you had such a great day out at Paradise.
Some of the basalt formations I described are pictured here: http://is.gd/0zuoyw
Please visit us any time you like! However, be mindful that closed shoes (Blundies are good) and sturdy, long pants are advisable for the walk down to Paradise- I have spotted brown snakes in my back yard and in the adjoining valley out by the fire trail. The adult snakes are usually smart enough to avoid you but juveniles may be surprised and try to bite you. Not a good thing.
Have fun!
Cheers,
Brian
Tim Vollmer
January 28, 2012
Brian, thanks so much for the info. Glad you tracked us down!
I’ll have to come out there and have a look at those rocks, bringing one of my geologist mates with me. From the photos the rock looks very interesting, but it doesn’t strike me as basalt (from what I’ve seen of the basalt caps on Mt Banks / Mt Hay / Mt Tomah etc). The lava flows that formed that particular rock, about 25 million years ago, look very different, and are mostly eroded from lower down in the mountains. I am only aware of diatremes / volcanic vents down your way. Those swirly rock formations look a lot like iron stone pillowing (there is a nice example of this I recently saw on Hat Hill at Blackheath). Either way, it is very unique looking and I’d be really keen to hear what a geologist has to say about its origins.
As for the shoes, I always walk in Volleys, in places far more remote and snake-ridden than Linden! The brown snakes don’t worry me much these days. It was the tiger snake that nearly got me in a canyon that made me a little more nervous!
By the way, you’re a lucky bastard living in Linden. My wife and I have been talking about moving up that way for years. One of these days we’ll make it. I’d argue that ‘paradise’ is a term that could be used to describe most of the mountains, not just this water hole!
Tim Vollmer
January 28, 2012
Brian,
I just got a response from a geologist friend who I’d forwarded your photos to. He agrees that the rock does not appear to be volcanic. His comment was that “the rocks in the photos don’t fit the texture of basaltic rocks or folded volcanics.”
He had the following to say about the likely makeup and creation of that interesting rock formation:
“From what I can see in the photos the rocks are all sandstone. It’s a nice outcrop of weathered sandstone. The structures and formations that can be seen are the product of weathering since it was laid down 250 million years ago. I was actually excited to hear of folded volcanics in the Blue Mountains and that an outcrop was easy to get to, but its all a pile of nicely weathered sandstone. I suspect the formations are due to ironstone or a high concentration of iron in the matrix of the sandstone.”
weezmgk (@weezmgk)
February 19, 2012
Hi Tim, thanks for the replies.
If this stuff isn’t basalt, it’s an odd sort of sandstone. It’s much harder than the typical tan-coloured sandstone you find in the Blue Mountains plateau. This case study identifies a ‘basalt’ cap on Mt Hay (~7km NW from here); this layering appears remarkably similar to the geological construction of the rock formations in my ‘back yard.’
There’s a spot about 75m beyond my back gate, where a ~150mm thick layer of gray, finely grained, very hard rock (which I previously identified as basalt as a result of the aforementioned Villanova case study), has eroded and has exposed the underlying sandstone. This is forming a new cave. If this capping layer is not basalt, but rather iron concentration in the sandstone, I’m wondering why it’s grey and not reddish.
All that aside, I need to offer a bit of advice on parking to reach the fire trail that leads to Paradise. Caley Lane does not have improved drainage, so the grassy area on the downhill side (across the street from the houses) of Caley Lane, where you folks and others have been parking of late, can become very soft & muddy when we have had a lot of rain (and it’s been nearly incessant recently). I had to hitch up a chain to my ute to pull out a visitor’s car which had become stuck out of the grassy area the other day. Thank heavens the driver didn’t just gun it and hope for traction, because that car would have gone sideways over the cliff & likely have landed upside down on Glossop Road.
There is another public access point to the fire trail which you can find about 30m west of the intersection of Tollgate Drive and Railway Parade. There is a large sandy clearing right at the mouth of the fire trail where there is room to park at least 4-5 cars. This spot is not prone to becoming muddy. It is public land, along a power line easement corridor, so no one will give you any grief for parking there. You can walk straight on to the fire trail without having to contend with the normally overgrown Caley’s Repulse.
Also, since there’s been an increase in the numbers of bushwalkers on the fire trail, I’ve set up a WiFi access point in the back of my house (SSID DawesParkFreeWiFi) which will cover about 50m of the trail behind my house, for the use of anyone who needs it. 3G coverage up here is really poor, so please feel free to use it. You should find signal right around here. There’s no password required, but please be kind to my 200Gb/month data allowance. A couple of Gb per day for visitors should be fine.
Also, should you be a twitterer, you can find me @weezmgk.
Cheers,
Brian