Lockley Pylon

Despite the forecast for a few showers, Rachel and I headed up to Leura and out along the Mt Hay Rd to head down to the Blue Gum Forest via Lockleys Pylon. We followed one car to the parking area, and there were a couple of other cars parked at the parking area near the trackhead.

The weather up to that point had been mostly fairly sunny, but there were some ominous grey clouds off over the valleys. As we left the shelter of the trees and headed up toward the Pinnacles, the full force of the wind hit us, and made staying on the track quite difficult. Occasionally we got hit with passing showers, and the wind caused the rain to sting as it hit our faces nearly horizontally. A brief stop at a lookout over Fortress Creek was curtailed as I couldn't stand near the cliff edge with any degree of safety.

We passed through a section of forest on the tops, which gave us a bit of welcome respite from the wind. I didn't realise we had passed Mt Stead until we neared what turned out to be Lockleys Pylon itself, with the signpost pointing up to the summit. The view from the top was spectacular but foreboding, Dark grey clouds raced down Govetts Gorge to the Grose, bringing more horizontal rain and a driving wind. I took a few photos facing away from the wind while Rachel sat on the summit, before we huddled behind the cairn to keep out of the rain. After a bit of discussion and a look at the weather we decided to abandon the rest of the walk down to the Blue Gum. It looked like it would be pretty unpleasant.

On the way back to the car we bumped into Martin Pfeil and a friend with the same plans us - to head down to the Blue Gum. We felt like pikers heading in the wrong direction, but I don't know whether he made it or not. We were soon back at the car and on our way back to Sydney, a long drive for a short walk!