Date: 23+24/7/2025
Trip leader: Adam H
Party: Adesh, Katya, Liam, Stefan, Tooba
Lost World lookout is a relatively unknown unfenced lookout in Springwood with a pretty good view of Glenbrook Creek and even the city skyline. If it were not for its distinctive cross commemorating Rev. Raymer (who died in 1953 not at the lookout but rather in Wollongong), it would be indistinguishable from any other nearby cliff edge. I had last led a SUBW party up to Lost World on a day walk in August 2024, and it is very easily doable as a day walk, but this time I wanted to take advantage of the small clearing behind the lookout and camp up there.
We also took advantage of the newly reopened Victory Track which would take us in along Glenbrook Creek. This was the second month of Victory Track being open since it was closed due to “rockfall risk” in 2022 in line with many other track closures at the time. While the others reopened, Victory Track remained closed as, according to the Blue Mountains Gazette, neither council nor NPWS claimed responsibility for reopening the track. Three years on, the council finally assessed the track and deemed it safe to reopen. It’s pretty frustrating that such a good track has been closed for so long due to what simply seems to be a buraucratic error, but the main thing is it’s open now!
An unfortunate missed train meant we would start the walk in 2 groups. Liam led a party of 4 in along the creek and waited somewhere along the track for me to walk in with the final group member. For a track that had been closed for so long, it was very well defined, presumably by Faulconbridge locals continuing to use their beloved daily route in spite of the closure. There were a few trees that we had to find our way around and a few “this way, wait that way, no it’s definitely this way”s but eventually, after a short lunch stop at what is marked on the topo as The Lagoon, we met up with the party and could begin our ascent up to Lost World.
As there is no water available up at Lost World, we would have to collect all the water we needed for the afternoon & night from the creek. My initial plan was to collect from Western Creek whose catchment includes only national park land, but after a bit of a bushbash to intersect it, we found it was completely dry. Instead, we collected and filtered from Glenbrook Creek which catches all the delicious pesticides and chemicals from the homes of the lower mountains. No stress, 99% chance we’ll be fine.
We collected our resedential runoff and then began the ascent up to Sharks Head Cave, the first stopover of our climb up to camp. Sharks Head Cave gets its name as it sits underneath a massive sandstone triangle jutting out from the terrain, looking reminiscent of a sharks head.
Within the cave are scatterings of canned tuna, water of an unknown age, tonic syrup, and a couple of logbooks provided by the Springwood Bushwalking Club in a container. We signed the logbook and continued our climb up.
First, we navigated around a cave wall.
Then, we entered a narrow ravine with a chimney at the end to climb out of. This was a slow one at a time process where each person passed their pack up and climbed up out of the ravine to higher ground.
There are two ways out of the ravine, one is to just climb up the chimney pictured above. The other is to, once you’re near the end, launch off the sides of the ravine and climb up onto a chockstone. General consensus was that this was the easier route for those of us with long legs while the chimney was easier if you weren’t able to leverage your inner spiderman. With the most difficult of the scrambling behind us, the sun was beginning to set. We donned our headtorches and continued onto camp. Once again setting up tents in the dark, something that has become a bit of a theme with my recent trips. It could be trip leader error but it’s far easier to call it an uncontrollable curse than to wake up earlier.
We set up tents, and had a fireless night chatting beside the clifftop that provided a cool view of the lights from Sydney and the stars above. Most of the group was surprised that the city lights were as visible as they are from what feels like so far out. However, with a bit of elevation and a clear night you can actually see further away then you might expect. You can even make out centrepoint tower on a clear day from the elevated footbridges of some Blue Mountains stations, have a look next time you’re up!
Accompanying our dinners and vibes on the clifftop was Dan Murphy’s not-so-finest bagnum. This trip saw a Cupio Pinot Noir bagnum with 3 days of shelf life remaining make its way into my pack.
Pinot Noir is generally more expensive than other wines. It’s hard to make well and so a decent one does not come in a 1.5L bag at $19.59. Drinkable but much more akin to actual goon than the other bagnums I have brought camping. Squealing Pig does a much better bag of pinot…
The next day, at sunrise, the sun rose.
We packed up and left at about 9am, headed across to Bunyans Lookout, down the ridge to Glenbrook Creek, and then back up to Martins Lookout. Along the descent was a retelling of the story of the poor little orphan boy who had been used to hardships all his life.
Following Martins Lookout was a 5km roadbash to Springwood where we parted ways and concluded the trip.
Photos are by everyone but me. My phone camera which was shattered (but still entirely functional!) on a Coxs River crossing 8 months ago finally gave in and died on this trip. I enjoyed the rigmarole of Apple Support from my tent up at Lost World in the early morning hours with a cool view of sunrise. While I don’t like the idea of wasting crucial sunrise hours convincing an Apple agent that yes the glass is missing off the camera and no it didn’t just need a restart, I wanted a replacement sorted by the weekend and it arrived on Friday, just over 24 hours later! 😀
