After church this morning Ann and I did a bushwalk into Sassafras Gully, beginning in Faulconbridge and concluding, in one iteration, at Springwood. This is the Victory Track and it winds in an unassuming though fairly typical way down to the valley floor, crossing a trickling creek and many creek beds, numerous times. The lack of rain was evident in the slow flows in the gully and underwhelming force of the waterfalls. Clarinda Falls was barely a dribble though still very pretty.

The walk is somewhat chaotic in parts, with a huge number of fallen trees, and signage that was either smashed or absent. Doubtless this will all be rectified in the fullness of time. But it meant that we were often wondering which track intersection led where or how we might eventually get ourselves out on the Springwood side. Fortunately all went well with only one wrong turn.

Now I have relocated my 'How to See the Blue Mountains' by Jim Smith (long out of print) I hope that we can do many more walks, including redoing all the ones I did when I first moved here 30 years ago. Jim's hand-drawn maps are as good as they get, better in my estimation to the fancy ones online.