Today I participated in my fourth hike with the Bush Club and my third “prospective member” walk. Having completed three of these walks I am now able to apply for membership of the club. It is not automatic, but as long as any of the previous walk leaders don’t think I am a potential serial killer, I will get in. It allows to to vote at the meetings I don’t go to anyway, but apart from that I don’t know what the difference is.
The walk itself was in an area that I drive past frequently, but haven’t walked around for many years. It is the area in Medlow Bath behind the Hydro Majestic. This hotel was built in 1904 by department store tycoon and was THE place to go for many years, principally in the time before the widespread use of cars.
Food for the hotel was grown in the Megalong Valley below the hotel and hauled up the cliff via a flying fox. There were spring fed swimming pools constructed in the bush and a vast network of walking paths, many of which are carved out of the side of the sandstone cliffs.
Although currently undergoing renovation, the Hydro Majestic still operates as a hotel, but the pools and paths belong to an era long passed and have fallen into disrepair. It is amazing how quickly nature takes over again when man leaves. We were walking along one part of thick scrub and found what looked like the brick foundations of an old gazebo or summer house. As we walked along through the bush nearby we suddenly realised that the ground dropped off sharply to the left. On closer examination it turned out to be a brick wall and we were walking on the silted up remains of a swimming pool. At several other points in the walk we swept branches out of the way to reveal stone steps leading to hidden caves and other hints of what had once been a much grander looking path system.
We traversed around the cliffs to the lookout for the Glen Rosa waterfall. The term “look out” is appropriate here, as in “Look out, it’s a 100m fall and the safety rail is a single rusty pipe”.
We continued around the cliffs and found several flat areas that had been engineered with retaining walls made for locally gathered stone. The area seems to be seldom visited which is a shame since it has some of the best views to be found in the mountains.
We made our way past Tucker’s Lookout and down to the coliseum (see end note) via Sentinel pass. This pass goes down some steep stone steps, through a rock slot and down a ladder.
At the coliseum there was a lot of stone work and it had obviously an important destination at one stage. When we arrive the wind was blowing fiercely (recorded as 85km/h in nearby Katoomba) but there was soon a lull. It then immediately started raining, or so we thought. In fact the coliseum is tucked in behind a waterfall and when we arrived the strong wind up been blowing the water back up the waterfall. Once the wind stopped, the waterfall behaved as normal.
We returned from the coliseum via the short steep route back up Sentinel Pass and came out of the highway near the railway bridge. A quick walk back past the Hydro Majestic saw us back at our cars.
Note: I had thought that coliseum had been mis-spelt, but according to the Macquarie dictionary ‘coliseum’ is an ampitheatre while ‘Colosseum’ is the name of the big ampitheatre in Rome.
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