Snowy Mountains Bumbies

Snowy Mountains Bumbies

Grand Cliff Top Walk Trail – our critiques

Grand Cliff Top Walk Trail – our critiques

The Three Sisters from Wollumai Lookout, 1898

The Three Sisters from Wollumai Lookout, 1898

The Cutty Sark

The Cutty Sark

Our Tour Director Steven Ridd at the Cutty Sark, | Greenwich, London | 19th August 2024.

Small Group Walking Tours

Wilderness Experiences

Countryside Extended Touring

A Megalong pastoral getaway

In May 2026, Nature Trail’s Tour Director took time out to have a getaway with his wife, but not too […]

Blue Mountains wilderness

Blue Mountains wilderness

A Megalong pastoral getaway

2026, 3-Day, Accommodation, Autumn, Concept, Countryside Tour, Megalong, Tour Yarns, Wildlife by Chance, Winter

In May 2026, Nature Trail’s Tour Director took time out to have a getaway with his wife, but not too far a drive from Katoomba – try 45 minutes door-to-door, and staying Blue Mountains local. We returned to one of our favourite retreats – The Megalong nearby – somewhere.  Megalong means ‘valley‘ in Aboriginal, so it’s quite a tautology to […]

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Cutty Sark and Gipsy Moth legends

London, Tour Yarns

In 2024, Nature Trail’s Tour Director Steven Ridd with family, travelled afar, indeed to old England; not for the first time but. One’s ancestry is 100% British Isles – actually from all five countries within and pre-Norman Conquest (1066 AD) and the pre-Dane Invasion of Britain (793 AD).  The old English surname ‘Ridd’ is Anglo-Saxon centred around Tawstock in North […]

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Our best quality getaway and luxury stay ever in the NSW Hunter Valley

2025, 3-Day, Concept, Countryside Tour, Luxury 4x4 Touring, Tour Yarns, Touring Vehicle - Range Rover, Winter

‘The Convent‘ 4-star heritage accommodation hotel at rural/tranquil 88 Halls Road (off Broke Road; a 15 minutes easy drive west of Cessnock town in the heart of the best of the Hunter Valley wine region)… This convent of Coonamble town was in 1991 saved from impending destruction and instead relocated holus bolus by an entrepreneur benefactor investing in multiple road […]

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Grand Cliff Top Walk Trail (MT-GCT)

2025, 7-Day, Autumn, Blue Mountains Council Bushland, Blue Mountains National Park, Concept, Experienced Adult Hikers, Half-Day Tour (about 5 hours), Healthy & Fit Adults, Katoomba, Leura, Multi-Day Treks, Recce, Spring, Summer, Tour Yarns, Wentworth Falls, Winter

(AUTHOR’S NOTE TO READERS:  This article is a work in progress.  This article is long because the trail we are critiquing is long.  So we have divided up our critique into chapters, that in time will evolve into another one of our webbooks, free for all.  So, we continue to update the content when time permits and in the process […]

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Blue Mountains ‘Grand Cliff Top Walk’ – a misleading promotional article

2025, 7-Day, Autumn, Blue Mountains Council Bushland, Blue Mountains National Park, Concept, Experienced Adult Hikers, Half-Day Tour (about 5 hours), Healthy & Fit Adults, Katoomba, Leura, Multi-Day Treks, Recce, Spring, Summer, Tour Yarns, Wentworth Falls, Winter

This 19+km trek is officially promoted equivalent to a proverbial ‘walk in the park’ as being do-able in just 2-days… like ‘easy peasy’?  Yet, from our on-ground hiking experience of this trail, it seriously is anything but! The Parks Service’s (NPWS) March 2024 public opening launch of its new concept ‘Grand Cliff Top Walk‘ in the Australian Blue Mountains, was […]

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Blue Mountains ‘Grand Cliff Top Walk’ – Misleading Flyer & Press Release

2025, 7-Day, Autumn, Blue Mountains Council Bushland, Blue Mountains National Park, Concept, Experienced Adult Hikers, Half-Day Tour (about 5 hours), Healthy & Fit Adults, Katoomba, Leura, Multi-Day Treks, Recce, Review, Spring, Summer, Tour Yarns, Wentworth Falls, Winter

In the Australian Blue Mountains, during the cooler months of June and July 2025, Nature Trail’s Tour Director, Steve Ridd, has decided to undertake a series of segmented practice reconnoitre trips (‘recces’) of the recently and mostly upgraded and renamed amalgamated hiking tracks branded the ‘Grand Cliff Top Walk‘. This track is situated in the central upper Blue Mountains Region, […]

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Blue Mountains ‘Grand Cliff Top Walk’ Our Critique – SEGMENT 1:  Wentworth Falls Railway Station to Conservation Hut  

2025, 7-Day, Autumn, Blue Mountains Council Bushland, Blue Mountains National Park, Concept, Experienced Adult Hikers, Half-Day Tour (about 5 hours), Healthy & Fit Adults, Katoomba, Leura, Multi-Day Treks, Recce, Spring, Summer, Tour Yarns, Wentworth Falls, Winter

This Trail Segment 1:  Specifications: This Nature Trail Tour Title: Grand Cliff Top Walk Trek NT Tour Code: MT-GCT/1 NT Tour Code Description: Multi-Day Trek Tour Category Tailored Trail Official Opening Date: Monday 25th March 2024 Tour Current Status: Scouted> Recce > Practised > Commercial Trail partial closure, with roadway detour Nature Trail Version: Grand Cliff Top Walk – Original […]

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Blue Mountains ‘Grand Cliff Top Walk’ Our Critique – SEGMENT 2:  Conservation Hut to Fairmont Resort

2025, 7-Day, Autumn, Blue Mountains Council Bushland, Blue Mountains National Park, Concept, Experienced Adult Hikers, Half-Day Tour (about 5 hours), Healthy & Fit Adults, Katoomba, Leura, Multi-Day Treks, Recce, Spring, Summer, Tour Yarns, Wentworth Falls, Winter

(Content TBA)   This lead feature image is our snippet photo of an Australian native Broadleafed Geebung  (botanical name is Persoonia Levis).  This particular trail segment of the 2024 ‘Grand Cliff Top Walk’ is situated in an sunny exposed escarpment heath open woodland natural environment. This flaky paperbark type rich red coloured bark is of the inner peel layers within […]

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Blue Mountains ‘Grand Cliff Top Walk’ Our Critique – SEGMENT 4:  Gordon Falls Picnic Reserve to Leura Cascades Picnic Reserve

2025, 7-Day, Autumn, Blue Mountains Council Bushland, Blue Mountains National Park, Concept, Experienced Adult Hikers, Half-Day Tour (about 5 hours), Healthy & Fit Adults, Katoomba, Leura, Multi-Day Treks, Recce, Spring, Summer, Tour Yarns, Wentworth Falls, Winter

Nature Trail has specially selected this trail segment of the 2024 Grand Cliff Top Walk trail because it is has a relatively medium grade hike (yet with still many staircases up and down) which may be undertaken in a manageable half-day duration, yet by only hiking-fit adults and teenagers, but not sensibly for infants/toddlers nor anyone disabled. This trail segment […]

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Blue Mountains ‘Grand Cliff Top Walk’ Our Critique – SEGMENT 5:  Leura Cascades Picnic Reserve to Echo Point Lookout

2025, 7-Day, Autumn, Blue Mountains Council Bushland, Blue Mountains National Park, Concept, Experienced Adult Hikers, Half-Day Tour (about 5 hours), Healthy & Fit Adults, Katoomba, Leura, Multi-Day Treks, Recce, Spring, Summer, Tour Yarns, Wentworth Falls, Winter

On Friday morning 4th July 2025, Friends of Nature Trail chose our recce of this particular segment of the Grand Cliff Top Walk from west of Leura Cascades Picnic Reserve to Echo Point Lookout.  This is because currently  Leura Cascades Picnic Reserve is closed for council upgrade, plus a recent landslip on Round Track has close the track route as […]

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Blue Mountains ‘Grand Cliff Top Walk’ Our Critique – SEGMENT 6: Echo Point Lookout to Katoomba Falls

2025, 7-Day, Autumn, Blue Mountains Council Bushland, Blue Mountains National Park, Concept, Experienced Adult Hikers, Half-Day Tour (about 5 hours), Healthy & Fit Adults, Katoomba, Leura, Multi-Day Treks, Recce, Spring, Summer, Tour Yarns, Wentworth Falls, Winter

(A) Brief Background: On Thursday 31 July 2025, Nature Trail managed to reconnoitre the 2024 ‘Grand Cliff Top Walk’ trail version which we have decided to label as ‘SEGMENT 6: Echo Point Lookout to Katoomba Falls.  We have hiked this track many times over the years, being so close to home. However, this recent trail infrastructure upgrade project deserved our […]

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Blue Mountains ‘Grand Cliff Top Walk’ Our Critique – SEGMENT 7:  Katoomba Falls to Megalong Head

2025, 7-Day, Autumn, Blue Mountains Council Bushland, Blue Mountains National Park, Concept, Experienced Adult Hikers, Half-Day Tour (about 5 hours), Healthy & Fit Adults, Katoomba, Leura, Multi-Day Treks, Recce, Spring, Summer, Tour Yarns, Wentworth Falls, Winter

(A)  Brief Background Let the truth be known, the ORIGINAL ‘Grand Cliff Top Walk‘ as proposed in the 1980s was to construct a hiking track to extend from the original Weatherboard Hut (from 1814) site all the way to the Explorers’ Marked Tree (from 1813) – to create an epic  30+ km amalgamation mega trail concept to link up old […]

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Blue Mountains Village Tours

Blackheath, Favourite Road Touring, Full Day Tour (7 to 9 hours), Half-Day Tour (about 5 hours), Healthy & Fit Adults, Katoomba, Leura, Medlow Bath, Mount Victoria, Mountains Village Tour, Public Transport, Tag-Along Standard Vehicle, Touring Vehicle - Range Rover, Villages Touring and Walking, Wentworth Falls

Nature Trail offers insightful and comprehensive morning and afternoon tours of the key features and valued local knowledge of villages of the Central Upper Blue Mountains. Blue Mountains villages are not suburbs.  Established since the 19th Century, the villages of Upper Blue Mountains from Wentworth Falls to Hartley feature attractive countryside character, each with its own distinctive personable charm, and […]

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Rainforest to Scenic 1.5hr

Short Tour (about 3 hours)

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