Australia’s great new hike is just 90 minutes from Sydney

Long distance, multi-day walking trails are having their moment in the sun, yet it’s little wonder the Blue Mountains’ new Grand Cliff Top Walk, just 90 minutes from Sydney and achievable for many without taking time off work, is creating a buzz.

Fletchers Lookout near the Wentworth Falls section of the Grand Cliff Top Walk.

Unveiled in March after four years in the making at a cost of $10 million, the 19-kilometre walk links new and existing tracks along the southern escarpment of the Blue Mountains between Wentworth Falls and Katoomba.

It is luring hikers from Sydney and beyond keen to attempt it in its entirety, taking advantage of the trail’s proximity to accommodation and cafes in Blue Mountains villages to enjoy a mini Camino-style “inn-to-inn” experience.

The beauty of the Grand Cliff Top Walk, however, is that it can also be done in bite-size chunks, so hikers can join the walk from different locations, for as long as they choose. Some may be time poor or prefer to spend a couple of hours stretching their legs.

Recognising this, the National Parks and Wildlife Service has Saturday morning guided tours that not only serve as an introduction to the walk, but also provide expert insights on the local environment, its flora, fauna and geology.

It’s a shocker of a day when I meet NPWS discovery ranger Greg Davis at Wentworth Falls Picnic Area – the skies are blue, but winds gusting at 90km/h make it difficult to stand, let alone hear. Davis gives an acknowledgement of Country, explaining that to the Gundungurra and Darug traditional owners, this land was considered ngurra, meaning home, a place of belonging, family.

A spectacular section of the Overcliff-Undercliff track.

Just two other participants are braving the blustery conditions – a couple from Sydney’s northern beaches – but as we make our way to the junction of the Charles Darwin Walk and the Undercliff/Overcliff track, we take in a rare and memorable sight. The wind is blowing spray from the mighty Wentworth Falls backwards up the rock face in wild airborne eddies, the whirling chaos haloed by a vivid rainbow.

Beneath the cliff-line, we’re better protected from the wind and we begin the hike in earnest. We make our way through a landscape that changes from open woodland to hanging swamps, from creek beds to temperate rainforest.

The temptation is to gaze at the awe-inspiring vista to our left, of Mount Solitary standing sentinel above the vast Jamison Valley, muted by its defining blue haze.

The cascade of Wentworth Falls, reached via the Charles Darwin Walk.

Davis encourages us to examine smaller features closer to hand: rapier-beaked honeyeaters collecting nectar from banksias; exquisite leafy greenhood orchids blooming on the side of the path; and ethereal, critically endangered flowers that cling to the moist sandstone cliffs such as the delicate white rock sprengelia (Sprengelia monticola) or clumps of fuchsia heath (Epacris reclinata).

“A lot of people think the Australian bush is one-dimensional – they see eucalypt and a bit of shrub and they don’t think much about it,” Davis says. “But today, we’re moving through five different ecological communities in a short space of time, and going in and out of them every 100 metres.

“So that coupled with the really special moments – like pointing out plants that are endangered or critically endangered – gives people a sense of ownership, knowing what the Australian bush has to offer in terms of its diversity.”

Following the wayfinding emblem of the track – a black cockatoo (wumbarrung) drawn by local Gundungurra artist Kelsie King – we duck under rock overhangs, picking our way along solid sandstone stepping stones painstakingly laid by NPWS crews, designed to keep feet dry for another 100 years.

National Parks rangers guide hikers on the Grand Cliff Top Walk.

The craftsmanship is incredible, but no more so than we see in the vestiges of the original path built in the late 1800s – hand-hewn steps, ironstone walls protecting perilous lookouts, and even sandstone wells for collecting drinking water.

Detouring from the main track, we also delve into Den Fenella, a cool and mystical slot canyon cut by a pretty, terraced cascade and swathed in lush rainforest, a tangle of vines, ferns and dominant coachwood trees.

We pause at the lookout to gaze into the chasm below. Beneath us, flying low over the canopy of trees on the valley floor is wumbarrung, black wings outstretched as it catches the thermals, its haunting squeaky-door screech a fitting coda to this brief immersion into this special place, this ngurra.

The details

The Grand Cliff Top Walk Guided Tours run on select Saturday mornings from 9.30am to 12.30pm, starting from Wentworth Falls Picnic Area. Adults $20, children 5-16 $12, family (two adults, two children) $50. See nationalparks.nsw.gov.au

The writer was a guest of the National Parks and Wildlife Service.