Florabella Pass
Dorathy Wall, Author and illistrator of the iconic children’s book series, Blinky Bill, lived in Warimoo during the time she wrote the book Blinky Bill Grows Up. The Bush land around Florabella Pass and Glenbrook Creek was a large part of the inspiration for her writing.
Address:
58 Ross cres. Blaxland or 12 Plateau parade Blaxland on one side.
The exit for the walk or the Entrance if you do it the other way around is at 56 Florabella st Warimoo.
Distance:
About 6km Hard Grade walk from one side of the track to the other, a 2-3 hour one way walk with an optional 1km return walk down to Glenbrook creek along the way. So there are 3 options for the walk, car shuffling if you have some helpful friends, doing the walk twice.. making it a 12km return journey or else looping the tracks following some streets, mostly the great western hwy. It took me less then an hour to get from the Florabella st exit back to my starting point at Ross Cres. doing it this way.
If you would like to take a shorter walk, choose either the Ross st or Plateau parade entrance as a start and just exit through the other. This will give you a 3km walk (Hard Graded) with a little over half of it on some quieter streets that link the two sides of the track.
It was a cold and windy day, in fact it was snowing about 30km away in Katoomba but I had planned the walk so off we went anyway.
The decent down into the pass is a little steep but nothing overly difficult and the views are gorgeous.
There are some narrow pathways on some rather high cliffs though, so watch your footing and do not get blown off on a super windy day.
There is some very pretty rainforest as you get further down into the valley.
There are also a lot of interesting rock outcrops and caves on your way through the pass to check out.
Once you have reached the lower part of the pass keep an eye out for a sign indicating a 1km return walk down to Glenbrook creek.
The rock formations and caves along the creek walk are even more amazing!
The creek although a little dry was very pretty and the tranquil rainforest was a nice change from the cold and blustery clifftops above.
The track was in pretty good order, a few trees to climb over but it had been a windy few days so it was probably recent damage.
Some lovely walks through the peaceful and quiet forest type bush along the way. No people seen along the walk this cold Saturday morning.
Some beautifully made steps taking us back out of the pass and its a long way up! Good for the cardio though 🙂
It’s always a nice feeling when your finally standing up on top of all those stairs and enjoying the view.
If you choose to take the option to make this a loop walk by following the roads, (all with pathways) you can stop off at Possum park, which is close to the Florabella st exit. Possum park is a memorial to Dorathy Wall and the fact that a lot of her inspiration for Blinky Bill came from the bush that we just walked through. How cool is that? Blinky Bill was born down there!
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