Sunday, October 11, 2020

Start Point: Katoomba Station (8:30am)
End Point: Katoomba Station (7:30pm)

Distance: 37.31km completed 
Elevation: 1300m
Moving Time: 9:06:05
Total Time: 10:24:52
Calories Burnt: 4736
Weather: 10’C, Sunny (partly cloudy). Wind Speed: 5km/hr.

Difficulty: 8/10 (ascent up to Carlon’s head) -> Taking distance/elevation/terrain into account.

If you want to complete this track, I recommend to do it when the weather is good (no rain the day before or on the day itself), climbing up to Carlon Head can be a bit tricky if the ground is slippery (I would definitely not recommend going down but climbing up unless experienced walker). I will also not recommend this to anyone who is a little bit afraid of heights.

Katoomba Station -> Narrow Neck Gate

Around 3.5km of street walk. If driving, you can park at Narrow Neck Gates, this will reduce about 10km of total walking. 

Narrow Neck Gate -> Tarros Ladder 

Around 10km of fire trail. Quite exposed to sun. Track is relatively easy going. Should be able to get to bushwalkers hill (you’ll see a cell tower) within 2 hours.

Tarros ladder Medlow Gap Walk – Campground (Medlow Gap management Trail)

Some steep section down, nothing to serious, just be careful, will start walking through some bush but relatively easy to navigate. Once you reach the bottom,  you’ll walk on relatively easy fire trail again, keep walking and you’ll reach a campground. We had our lunch here (around 1:30pm).

Campground -> Start of ascent up to Carlon’s Head

From where we had lunch to the intersection signboard (turning left here will take you to Dunphy’s camping area) is another hour. Here we go offtrack, instead of turning left to Bellbird Ridge management Trail or continuing on medlow gap management trail, we start our ascent up towards carlon head. This section is steep and is not recommended for beginners. Require some navigation and lots of scrambling.

Carlon’s Head to Bushwalker Hill

From here to Bushwalker Hill is flat ground, but you’ll need a GPS and a map as there’s no obvious path.

Bushwalker Hill to Katoomba

Same way back through Narrow Neck fire trail. Easy. Caught a lift froms someone who parked near the entry of golden stairs to drop me off at Katoomba. A quick subway bite before taking the train back to the city.

Interested in doing this? Here’s the alltrails recording I recorded:

https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/narrow-neck-tarros-ladder-cahon-point-d2361d0?u=m

Strava Details:

Check out some photos here of what to expect

Check out the Relive video here: