Sublime Point Trail

[Tantell]

Hi everyone, lioking at dping this as an overnighter in a few weeks.

I've never gone to that side of the valley, is there water available Jamison Creek and/or Kedumba River?

Cheers!
Shaun

Sublime Point Trail on AllTrails
https://www.alltrails.com/en-gb/trail/a ... ?sh=1bcygs

[keithj]

I wouldn't be drinking from Jamison Creek and/or Kedumba River... or anything that comes off the KTown/Wenty escarpment.
I've refilled without issue from creeks that are sourced from Kings Tableland - several cross the fire trail & are reliable.
And the one running parallel to the F/T immediately E of the Jamison Ck crossing is usually running.

[sandym]

They are creeks and it's been raining so yeah, there will be water. I have drunk from the Kedumba River but did use the precaution of treating the water. YYMV.

[johnw]

I wouldn't be drinking from Jamison Creek and/or Kedumba River... or anything that comes off the KTown/Wenty escarpment.
I've refilled without issue from creeks that are sourced from Kings Tableland - several cross the fire trail & are reliable.
And the one running parallel to the F/T immediately E of the Jamison Ck crossing is usually running.

+1 for what Keith says. I haven't been down there for quite a few years, but I remember this at the crossing of Leura Creek.
Which is downstream from the old sewage treatment plant site and runs into the Kedumba R.

[Tantell]

Yikes, I'll have a filter and tabs. Thanks for the heads up!

[Tantell]

Thanks for the earlier info everyone.
Reading the closures - it looks like access might be affected.

Fern Bower track between Prince Henry Cliff walk (Grand Cliff Top walk) and Amphitheatre track is closed due to multiple landslides.

https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/vi ... cal-alerts

As I was going to follow: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/austral ... oint-trail is there anyone local who can advise if the trail can be accessed as per alltrails? If not are there any alternatives? Otherwise I'll need to think of something else this weekend.

Thank you!
Shaun

[keithj]

Thanks for the earlier info everyone.
Reading the closures it looks like access might be affected.

Fern Bower track between Prince Henry Cliff walk (Grand Cliff Top walk) and Amphitheatre track is closed due to multiple landslides.

https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/vi ... cal-alerts

As I was going to follow: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/austral ... oint-trail is there anyone local who can advise if the trail can be accessed as per alltrails?

Only the top part of Fern Bower is landslide affected - the bottom 3/4 is open.

There is an alternative (& v. pleasant) tourist track that starts 100m from the top of Fern Bower & rejoins Fern Bower via the Amphitheatre Track & Leura Falls. Maybe be an extra 10 minutes. See https://www.alltrails.com/trail/austral ... er-circuit

As an alternative consider descending Giant Staircase & turning left at the bottom to follow Dardanelles Pass to Leura Forest & then rejoin your route. May add 30 mins.

Both are signposted.

[Tantell]

Awesome thanks Keith, will head down via amphitheatre. Really appreciate it

[skibug]

In regards to treating water....

There are two forms of water contamination you need to be aware of - Biological, and Chemical (or inert). Purification tablets, filtering, boiling and UV treatment all deal with organic contamination - bacteria, virus, protozoa, amoeba, parasite eggs etc (with some variations in effectiveness) - however they do nothing to mitigate the chemical - heavy metals, pesticides, inorganic fertilizers, industrial oils, "forever chemicals" etc etc. (eg see https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... ntains-epa ).These chemicals could, at any time, be in suburban run-off - there's no practical way of testing while bushwalking - so you really just have to check your maps, and if there are streets/houses/factories/businesses and so on upstream, don't drink it at all. This would include Leura Falls Creek, Jamieson Creek, Katoomba Creek, Kedumba River, Govett's Creek - and of course nearly all streams in the Sydney Basin. Other streams that drain from bushland only - eg. Waterfall Creek, Cedar Creek would generally be OK to purify - but even then, there can be unknown contaminations, for example heavy metals from mining (though in the Blue Mountains this risk would be pretty low, except perhaps around active mines near Lithgow.)

Most of the time, those inorganic contaminants will be in such low concentrations that even if you consumed one or two litres from the stream, it's effect on your health would be minimal to zero - but you just don't know. In an emergency, if you're desperate for water, you'd take the risk, but normally you'd try to plan not to have to.

Take care,

Skibug