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Plunge pool hunting // The National Pass
Plunge pool hunting // The National Pass (NSW)
Now, I’m a Brit, or as everyone over here likes to say, a bloody pommie, and with that I am not used to the beautiful warmth you guys have over here. Because of this I am a huge fan of exploring coastal regions and National Parks where you can pop in and out of the ocean to wet your brow, have a splash and cool off.
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Now because of this when visiting the Blue Mountains on a hot summer’s weekend I, naturally, went looking for hikes where water would play a role in the hikes. The National Pass became my chosen hunting ground and as much water as I could get my hands on was the game plan in the 32+ degree heat.
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I had seen the Wentworth Falls from above before but had never been down to the bottom, and this was the starting point of the hike. After a few hundred steps, and a shirt that could be wrung for days, we reached the bottom. Now I don’t know about other days and different flows but on the day we went there was a plethora of gouged out pools in the rocks. Deep Jacuzzi-like pools were calling out to be plunged into. Although early on the hike, we stopped here for our picnic lunch and spent an hour messing around in the small, but perfectly formed, deep pools.
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After you reach the base of the falls you can either go further down to the valley floor to the Wentworth Pass or do as we did and take the track that is cut mostly into the rock face (by hand over 100 years ago) half way up from the valley floor with dramatic cliffs rising above you (the National Pass). Along this track is seemed like we were passing through a different environment every couple of hundred meters, Jurassic Park-esque rainforest, then desert like sections with sandstone cliffs rising above, and truly spectacular views of below at the same time.
This particular track was so incredibly interesting and changing that there was no dull moment thinking “yay another bloody fern” after walking through the same scrub for hours on end.
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Now as previously stated I’m warm-blooded and every so often our call for a cool-down was answered by some small falls (some little more than just a large dribble) where we could quench our thirst for a cooling break.
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Near the end of the walk we began to climb back up and as the sun was coming down our imaginations ran to what we thought would be our next dip, back in the showers at the campsite. As we were thinking this, the Empress Falls burst into view, sunshine and all. The deep pool was so enticing we had to go for a dip even though it was getting gloomy, and what an end to the hike that was. We jumped off the rocks into an ice-cold pool, shocking our tired bodies out of the post-hike aches and pains, and ending the day with a picturesque splash!
