Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales. Serving as the Western limit of the Sydney basin this area is rife with fantastic tracks and landmarks that are easily accessible by car (about an hour from the inner suburbs) and/or a short hike.

A seemingly unimpressive looking route on the maps, Mitchell’s Pass has a lot of history behind it. It was the first major road across the seemingly impassible Eastern Slopes of the Blue Mountains. The most significant landmark of this route is the sandstone bridge that straddles the small Lapstone creek. This bridge, known as Lennox Bridge is the oldest surviving sandstone bridge in mainland Australia. Built between 1832 and 1833 it was the main route across the mountains until Knapsack Bridge was converted to a roadway in 1926.

Not a lot denotes the significance of this humble landmark. A mere smattering of plaques announces it’s history to the traveler willing to linger on an otherwise quick shortcut back to the emerald city. However, there are also tracks that lead to the creek bed itself where you can walk underneath. It had been raining for a number of days previously and so the bushland was quite verdant and made for some great shots.