How to get to Glow worm tunnel at Newnes?

Is it true that they got burnt out? Bummer if it is. I so wanted to take her there. And this fiire trail you mentioned: is that the railway line trek I heard about?

Plexus, just to add the other way in is off Wolgan Gap Rd. Stop near a causeway (there's nearly always cars parked there). You have to walk over the river, and it's about a 4-5km each way walk. Might tire the little one out! Cheers, Tony

OK this sounds absolutely great. We're going up this Sunday to try it out. I don't have access to any of these forest maps, and although I've ordered the "4WD Treks Near Sydney" book, it won't arrive until next week. I'd love to wait until I've got the book, problem is access with my daughter is only every 2 weeks so unfortunately we live our lives with her by the calendar, so we'll go now. Just hope the normal NSW road maps will be good enough :)

OK I've found some quite comprehensive information about Newnes on a web site, showing access roads, and places to go. I must say that the Lost City, the Shale Oil Ruins, and of course the Glow Worm Cave, present drool opportunities for my photography. I have a question though: I'm a total newbie, only purchased my Landcruiser on Monday this week, and haven't any recovery gear yet. I was looking for a nice easy introduction to getting my wheels dirty and getting some experience. Am I nuts going to these places (in dry weather)? I want to make sure the 'cruiser makes it back in one piece. In a year from now, I'll be experienced, no worries. But today? Your thoughts please.

Yes I fully intend to join a club and get some training etc. The Toyota Landcruiser Car Club looks good because they meet in a suburb which is only 10 minutes away from my place. I just want to make sure I can do this trip this weekend without going to the School Of Large Dents.

We took the southern approach from the Zig Zag and the Glow Worm Tunnel Road. It was stunning. I didn't know potholes could be so LARGE. Some of them would have swallowed a small car. I have a newfound respect for just how tough these Landcruisers are. We were going over them at 60 clicks and nothing bent, fell off, or failed. Amazing. Mind you, it was funny when I could see enough air between my partner's bleep and her seat to slide two telephone books in between. The FJ62 felt indestructible. By the way she was screaming, I don't think she was. Ah well, such is life. That grab handle on the dash sure got used yesterday afternoon, let me tell you. Anyway the kids loved it. But then again, they have a greater distance to travel before their heads hit the roof lining. The road is basically level, and there were a few smooth patches, but mostly it's washboard corrugations and potholes. I can't imaging bringing my car anywhere near a place like this. Mind you, at the car park there was a Statesman and a new VW Passat. Sorry guys, I wouldn't do that. The road narrows quite a bit about 3 km from the tunnel so you need to proceed with extreme care: there's nowhere else to go if you have an off. The only potentially nasty bit is about a km or so from the car park, where the road goes downhill for the only time. There's a V-shaped dip with zero room either side of the vehicle, sandy edges, and one wrong move to the wrong side and you're over the edge, one way. So remember, as soon as the road gets narrow and starts to go downhill, whoa. The walk from the carpark is easy and passes through some stunning scenery. There were glow worms in the tunnel and the scenery beyond was breathtaking. I bought this 4WD in part for my photography, and being able to go to places like this made the outlay well worth while. You can see some of the images at the following URLs:

http://www.photosig.com/viewphoto.php?id=245371

http://www.photosig.com/viewphoto.php?id=245397

http://www.photosig.com/viewphoto.php?id=245416


I'll be posting more photos on this website later. I've got some real stunners of the ancient ferns and the red creek bed. We tried later to find the lost city, but it was going on dusk and couldn't find the turnoff from the fire trail. Some notes say go down the fire trail for 20m, some 200m, and turn left, but we couldn't find anything to go down so looks like another trip back to sort that out. In the search, went down some trails that were really not for the faint hearted (got the thing tilted at 20° easy and for a newbie it felt great) so I got to do some serious (for me) stuff.

Stunning photos! Really cool.