Grieving losses: Fire at Banks Walls and Mt Banks, Grose Valley, NSW

We visited and walked this area in April 2010, and this was a lovely place to call in for a leg stretch when travelling the Bells Line of Road through the Blue Mountains to or from Sydney. Sadly bush fires engulfed most of the Bells Line of Road on both sides this summer, and this is just one small area to remember.

Further along the tar we turned off to Mt Banks picnic area, driving along a dirt track through low windswept heath land and, after a picnic lunch, tackled the walking tracks. We elected to take the longer, but reputedly easier, fire trail to the junction to the summit, but when we reached it we chose instead to continue out to Banks Walls. The fire trail took us steadily upwards but also repeatedly downwards (with views over the ranges to the west), as we rounded a bank of sandstone cliffs which edged the lower realms of Mt Banks, sloshed across wet patches and negotiated awkwardly angled stepping stones across a small shallow creek before emerging to heath land which we crossed to a lookout point on the edge of Banks Walls.

This gave us spectacular views along and across Grose Valley – the most extensive views we have encountered so far – and we easily picked landmarks on the far side. We could even see Bridal Veil Falls, but looking straight down into the course of the Grose River and being able to clearly discern its tannin coloured waters was the most exciting aspect for me!

We continued further along the track a short ways before electing to turn back as views of Grose Valley were hidden behind low hills. Soon after this we passed a couple with a book on day walks around Sydney, and a map of the walk we were on indicated that there was another lookout at the end of the track. Maybe another day!

Upon reaching the intersection with the track up to the summit we took it and initially climbed steadily up a badly eroded 4 WD track, stopping for a rest on convenient rocks on the path and observing the antics of a brown- breasted Eastern Spoonbill as it sipped on red Devil’s Claw blossoms whilst we dined on stale muesli bars!

Then the track progressively narrowed until, in the jungley vegetation growing on the basalt cap, it became overgrown and we had to thrash our way through shoulder high vegetation, some of which was prickly. Finding this to be extremely unpleasant and heeding the advice of others that trees hid summit views, we began to descend as soon as we intersected with the shorter and reputedly more difficult upward track.

Initially we still needed to thrash through jungle vegetation, but eventually we came to open heath land and found it quite delightful to walk along a narrow yellow sandy track across the ridge where side tracks took us to cliff edges for more spectacular views over the Grose Valley.

At one point we met two males who claimed to have walked to here across the tops of ridges and who assured us that all the tops had vegetation resembling that on the top of Mt Banks, and that the area we were standing in was only open due to bushfires. As they appeared to be very sure of themselves and not likely to enter into debate, I kept my knowledge of the landscape to myself (i.e. that basalt caps were rare and that heath land forms on windswept slopes with thin soil coverage).

The last section of this walk continued to be delightful and we reached the Land cruiser shortly thereafter, thankful to sit as we returned to Lithgow.

Remember: I'm thankful for my struggle because without it I would not have stumbled across my strength. Anonymous