Waterfall to Heathcote

Rachel and I arrived at Waterfall station at 10:15am after starting at St Leonards at 8:45am. Despite the sun and the clear blue skies, it was pretty chilly as we crossed the car park and set off down the Uloola Track. As we climbed to the high point on the track, we could see the buildings of the city off in the distance. To Uloola Falls, the track was mostly fire trail, a gentle downhill for the rest of the way.

After a snack at the top of the falls, I wandered upstream a bit and found that there was a sunnier, although smaller waterfall not far up the creek. We both went back for a quick photo leaving our day pack at the top of the main falls ... only to return a find a worried looking pair of guys wondering whether someone had jumped off the top of the falls leaving their bag behind! We reassured them that we were fine!

Then we headed up over the ridge towards Karloo Pools ... and got off track almost immediately. A bit of checking showed that the (correct) sharp turn across a rocky shelf was obscured by a (wrong) well worn false path that petered out along the cliffs above the falls. Back on track, we had good views of the sandstone outcrops across the valley on Uloola Ridge. Then it was down the other side of the ridge to Karloo Pools. We were passed on the way by a one-legged fellow climbing up at some pace on crutches!

Lunch was on a delightful set of rocky shelves in the sun above the trickling creek, disturbed only by a crashing sound in the bushes on the other side of the creek. A group of four emerged and crossed the creek to where we were sitting ... and it turned out that their leader was Martin Pfeil from UTSOAC! They were doing a navigation exercise and Martin was checking on them.

As the sun dropped behind the ridge, we did the quick couple of kilometres up the hill to Heathcote Station, and got there at about 2:15pm. Just in time for the half hourly train.

A nice walk and a lovely winter's day.