Leura forest - track to waterboard clearing?

[skibug]

Hello all and thanks for reading,

I'm trying to find a direct route from the old Kedumba farm to Leura cascades, but on a quick exploration recently I couldn't find the track from Leura forest (ie the picnic shelter at the bottom of all the stairs) down to the large, grassy (?) clearing at the western end of the water board road.

Does anyone know if the track exists, and if so where does it start? If not, how difficult is it as a bush-bash - it looks like less than 400 metres through open rainforest?

Thanks for any relevant info,

Skibug

[christophermoore]

Hi Skibug,

The track notes on wildwalks for the Mt Solitary / Kedumba Valley Circuit should give you some ideas. From memory, there's a signpost on the tourist track that blocks the start of the track down to the water-board fire trail, which starts at the site of the old sewage works. The old road actually runs quite close parallel to the walking track for a few hundred metres, and I noticed a few little pads that linked the two.

[jonnosan]

If you are coming from Fern Bower, you go down past the Linda and Lila falls, then as christophermoore says, keep an eye out for a low (maybe 2 foot high by 4 foot long) NPWS sign on your left. On the other side of that sign is a faint track which goes down to the old sewerage works. From there you will see the very well defined fire trail which goes all the way to the bottom of Kedumba Walls. You will eventually (15KM later) hit another fire trail at a T junction, turn right and a few more KMs to the old farm.

The tracks seem to have all been loaded into openstreetmaps ( http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=-33.7 ... 5&layers=M ) although a bit confusing as the slope makes things look closer than they are. But you can see how close Dardanelles pass runs to the the fire trail, and if you miss the direct connection it is very easy to just bush bash

[wildwalks]

This is the sign which I think Jonnosan describes
http://wildwalks.com/i.html?image_id=319181

Here are the Wildwalk notes that take you from that sign at Lower Linda Falls to the clearing (note that this is not from the actual picnic area)

"From the intersection, this walk follows the faint track that heads directly away from the waterfall and away from the main track from behind the 'Federal Pass' sign. The track leads around the side of the hill (keeping the valley to your right) for about 60m, where this track steps down to join a wider track. Here the walk turns sharp right, and heads downhill for about 20m (noticing a nice cascade to your left), passing a couple of concrete pipe maintenance holes and then crossing a small creek (just downstream of an old timber bridge). The track bends left, leading down through the more open forest for about 200m, to go under a fallen tree and past a metal vent post (on your left). Here the track bends right to cross a small gully, then follows the now wider track as it leads downhill through the fairly moist forest and after about 240m, the ferns suddenly give way to a large clearing. Just past where the track opens up, there is a small campfire scar, and a large re-vegetating site from the old sewage treatment plant (on your right)."

There are otherways down as well, but this is one actually takes you via the clearing.

Hopefully you can piece it together now.

Matt

[skibug]

Hi fellas,

Thanks very much for these replies, they are exactly what I was hoping for; I now need to get back up there and explore it for myself so it gets brain embedded.

What a fantastic resource these forums are!

Skibug