The Long Walk

Just realised that my last post was Thursday night, bit slack of me….

But not much happened this weekend.  I went to the NRL match on Friday night between Parramatta and St George and my Dragons got absolutely trounced.  On top of that, it was raining so I sat in the rain and watched what I would believe to be the worst effort put on by a St George team.  The score was only 24-6 (only!) but given the importance of the match, the fact that Parramatta actually played very ordinary themselves for the first 20 minutes and that on paper, we had the far stronger team – particularly in the forward pack, it was a shocker.

Been stewing about it all weekend… grrr.

Had a lazy weekend though with the highlight being that I did go for a long walk and did the whole Glenbrook / Lapstone walk.  From my place went through the bush and up the escarpment to Elizabeth’s lookout.  Long time Lime Kettle readers may recall the pics… But beyond Elizabeth’s Lookout, the signposts say “Hard Grade” and I have never been down there as I have usually got the girls.

But yesterday I went down the otherside of the escarpment and it was incredibly steep!  At least I was going down, but even with the many staircases constructed, some parts were near vertical and if you slipped off the staircase, you’d have a long drop ahead of you and there was no handrails…  Amazing though, you’re stepping down a heavily wooded near cliff and if you look above you, you can see rock overhangs and the odd cave.  It was pretty impressive.

Got down to the bottom of the gorge and was then at the base of Knapsack Bridge.  I never knew it was as big as it was, but its an old sandstone convict constructed bridge at least 30 metres high.  I should have had my camera and will next time.  I then went back up the other side of the gorge to the old Lucasville Railway Siding which was were trains filled up with water etc in the days of steam and you could see the old platform and rock walls of the station, but the tracks were long gone.  From there I went through to the Siding Lookout and then further up the mountain to the Knapsack Quarry which is where the stone was cut for the bridge I presume.  The rock was cut in high walled tunnels and you could walk through them with 5m rock walls either side of you, but soft grass in between.   I was so buggered at that stage, I nearly laid down for a snooze on that grass!

I then came out at the RAAF Base and had to walk around that and made it to the top of Lapstone Pass where the M4 turns into the Great Western Hwy.  I cut back through the bush rather than risk being hit by a car and headed back to suburban Glenbrook.  I came across the Glenbrook Sewerage Treatment Plant which is hidden from site from the highway deep into the bush and that was weird seeing this compound of ponds and machinery in the middle of nowhere.

From there it was back to Barnet St and past Knapsack Park and into the bush again to cut through to my area of Glenbrook, Mt Sion.  All told I was gone 2hrs and was absolutely stuffed.  I hadn’t packed anything so next time I’m going to do it again with the camera and plenty of water.