Lindeman Pass - Wentworth Falls to Leura (Blue Mountains NSW)
One way track section from Wentworth Falls to Leura through Lindeman Pass.
Day Trip: 7hours + time spent commuting
Difficulty: challenging parts with steep climb to ascent from the valley, track not maintained but relatively easy to follow, couple of old landslides to cross. Elevation gain 1400m.
Starting point: Wentworth Falls
Finishing point: Leura
Track notes: Taking morning train from city to Wentworth Falls - Blue Mountains and meeting rest of the group at local cafe. About 9am we started the walk joining Charles Darwin Walk and then cut across the village through Armstrong St towards The Conservation Hut. Other option would be to continue on Charles Darwin Walk to Wentworth Falls and Wentworth pass - assuming it would add extra 30 - 45min to total time.
From Conservation Hut we descended to Valley of the Waters - passing Empress Falls and Sylvia Falls. Up to this point everything is well marked and easy to navigate in direction towards National Pass Track (that one is permanently closed since the big landslide a few years ago). Just at the beginning of National Pass Track we turned into Vera Falls Track and followed it for about 10min. (If you were coming from Wentworth Pass this is where you would join this track). From Vera Falls Track take sharp right turn on Roberts Pass (reaching here at about 10:15am) - there is actual sign "Roberts Pass" - this section it a bit uphill with some muddy parts, lot of ribbon marker and cairns on the way. Keep walking on Roberts Pass for about 45min until it joins Lindeman Pass. Here again is a sign "Lindeman Pass" telling you, you're entering remote area and unmarked route. Nevertheless the path is pretty straight forward and surprisingly easy to navigate.
In less than 30min we passed turn off to Gladstone Pass (optional exit point) and stopped for early lunch at Dash's Cave - technically it's just a rock overhang. Just passed the cave you will get to the first landslide section - still easy to cross and stay on the path. Truly amazing view of the surrounding cliffs. Not long after (10min walk) this first landslide there is another one, which looks like it happened more recently and doesn't look very stable, but you can clearly tell there is a path and people's been walking across. We took extra care to get across this one and walked one by one.
At about 1:15pm we reached turn off to Copeland Pass. This was our exit point. There is no sign here at the bottom of the track apart from big cairn of rocks and ribbon markers to show the track. It's a steep scramble uphill, takes about an hour to get to the top. On very end there are two short sections with fixed ropes. I wouldn't recommend descending through this pass. Going up is a bit of workout but very doable.
At about 2:30pm we reached Sublime Point Lookout. Awesome views of Jamison valley with Mt Solitary and Ruined Castle.
From here we decided to take walking track (instead of taking Sublime Point Road) which follows the cliff and offers some beautiful views - Grand Cliff Top Track, passing Golf Links Lookout to Pool of Siloam and return to Leura through Lyrebird Dell Round Walk and arriving to Leura town at 4pm.
Just enough time to have a hot chocolate and get on the train back to city (or Wentworth Falls - if you drove over in the morning).
Strava map records: https://strava.app.link/e15FJAPRuY
More links about this track:
https://www.beyondtracks.com/walks/blue-mountains-national-park/wentworth-falls-to-leura-via-national-pass,-linderman-pass-and-copeland-pass/ https://lotsafreshair.com/2014/03/31/the-mysterious-lindeman-pass/ http://www.jamisonproject.org/index.php?pageid=2&subid=25 https://fatcanyoners.org/2010/08/23/lindemanpass/ http://www.david-noble.net/blog/?p=10338 http://mntviews.blogspot.com/2015/12/roberts-pass-lindeman-pass-prince-henry.html http://wildbluewanders.com/2015/06/lindeman-pass/ https://www.subw.org.au/2010/10/20/lindeman-pass/ https://haere.net/Gladstone-Lindeman-and-National-Pass http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=9274
