Conquering power of nature (Part 2)

Part 2 of the hike is when things start to get real rough. But first, the photo from weeping rocks that I promised in the last post.

This is a 5 shot HDR photo taken with my Canon EOS 50D and EF 24-105 f4L. There is also another photo of a cascade found in the Charles Darwin trail

Again, this is also a 5 shot HDR, with the same camera and lens. The HDR technique had to be used since the afternoon sun was causing havoc with exposure.

Now that we got all that out of the way, we'll get to the rough patches. From the top of the waterfall, the track turns into a narrow, rocky cliffside trail. This lack of space is further compounded with steep and even narrower staircases which lead you around these cliffs and eventually to the wentworth pass track.

The path leads to a fork, one leading to the experienced hiker trail, and the second leading to the amateur/beginners trail. Knowing us, we decided to take the quicker and more direct way down (turned out to be the experienced track). Some stair cases were as steep as ladders, and descending down those steps with a camera backpack, SLR hanging from the neck and a tripod in the left hand was a bit of a task.

Long story short, we didn't manage to ge tt othe very bottom like we initially wanted to. Mostly because the sun was abut to set, and thinking about the return trip in only the moonlight was a tad daunting. Nonetheless, I made a promise to myself that I'll go back there during summer (longer days) and earlier with one goal in mind ... get to the bottom.

After a determined and even more painful trek back up to the top and our car, we drove to Echo Point, where you can see the Three Sisters. Temperature would have been about 2 degrees, with gusts of wind battering against our jackets and tripods. Here is the best photo I could get with close to zero light, zero focusing ability, and zero body heat.

With that said, it was an awesome day, and there is great satisfaction to completing 2 out of 3 trails. Next time will be even better, photos too.

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Conquering power of nature (Part 1)

Wentworth Falls is about an hour and a half drive from Sydney (Parramatta). It is also home to one of the biggest, most awe-inspiring, photogenic waterfalls you will ever see. It is a 3 stage waterfall where 3 smaller (still huge) waterfalls combine one after the other.

To get to the very bottom, you have to descend approximately 600m, with the trek beginning at the Charles Dawin Nature Track which is about 2km. Near the end of the trail is a track called the "weeping rocks circuit" (will post these photos tomorrow). If you keep walking for another 5 minutes, you'll find yourself standing at the top of said waterfall (stage 1). On either side of this are plenty of lookouts called "Fletcher's lookout" and "Rocket point lookout" to name a few.

This is a 12 photo panorama from Fletcher's Point lookout, taken with the EOS 50D and EF 24-105 F4L lens. From here we began our descent in our quest to get to the bottom. Along the way there were a few photo opportunities that I had with my Lumix LX-3, it was very handy to have around for quick snapshots, portraits and group shots.

These are a few of the photos done with the LX-3, and you can see the colour and contrast came out quite well despite the harsh lighting conditions in these valleys. When the trek first started we thought the conditions were pretty rough, it was slippery, muddy, wet, tiring ... had a couple of falls along the way and shoes were soaked from walking through shallow creeks. But the trail from here on made the beginning look like child's play ... seriously. To give you an idea, it looked like something straight out of "Man vs Wild" (great show by the way, learn a lot of survival tips).

Since most hikers and photographers end their journey at this point, I'll end part 1 of this post here as well. Keep an eye out for part 2 :)

p.s. If you do decide to embark on this journey, you need to be determined to atleast make it to the lookout, which is the end of the Charles Darwin Nature Trail ... the view is exhilirating and definitely well worth it.

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