Day trip to Glow Worm Tunnel and Pierces Pass

Last Friday, I was looking for an opportunity to break away from my busy work and all of a sudden I noticed a beautiful picture on my colleagues desktop. I did not waste a second to ask him the details and I was set for my next adventure.

History of the tunnel

We planned a day trip to visit “Glow Worm tunnel’ at Wollemi National Park, near Lithgow. The tunnel was originally part of Wolgan Valley Railway, the line opened in late 1906, while the last regular train ran in the 1930s, the line was dismantled in 1940. The tunnel is approximately 400 meters in length and curves through almost 180 degrees and therefore it is very dark and a small creek runs through it creating ideal conditions for “glow worms”.

There are couple of ways to reach the tunnel, we travelled to Lithgow through magnificent Bells Line of Road. From Lithgow we followed Inch street and then turning left to Atkinson street and following approximately 30Kms of gravel road. It is not advisable to travel this road of a night. We left our car at the parking area and had an easy and enjoyable 5 Kms walk to the Glow Worm Tunnel along the original railway formation. During the walk we passed through unusual rock formation.

Sign Post to tunnel

Beautiful rock formation

The tunnel was dark as Egyptian night and one should be careful as creek was flowing through the middle of the tunnel. We were carrying our flash lights, however we have to switch off the flash lights to see the glow worms. It was a stunning formation resembling the milky way in no moon night; thought bit extra bright. It was a marvellous experience.

Glow Worm tunnel entrance

 Look at the picture above a bit carefully to see the glow worms:

Glow Worms

We headed back to Sydney through Bells lines of road. While passing through Mt. Tomah Botanic garden we decided to take a break at Pierces Pass. The entrance to Pierce pass is on the right of bells line of road.We left our cars at the parking and walked for 1.2 Kms. The views of the Grose Gorge from the top are incredible  Pierces Pass leads to the Grose River and eventually to the Blue Gum Forest.

Track from Pierces pass

Grose river vally 

Views from Grose Gorge  

The round walking trip from the car parking was two hours and worth every bit of effort. The local area is also famous for its apples, fruit stalls, galleries, craft and antique shops.

It was a great outing for us involving healthy forest walk (bush walking), stunning rocks, exquisite glow worm formation, and finally beautiful panoramic view.

Bilpin – Apple picking experience

It was a boring Sunday morning after a dull Saturday. I was itching for some activity and something different, however too lazy to plan anything.  It was than my son 'Aryan' who pursued me to move out of home. We both didn't knew the answer to next obvious question where? And again Aryan recalled a place, we drove through during our last visit to Dubbo.  'Bilpin', A pretty little hamlet located on the Bells Line of Road. As we vaguely remember the place was on hills and famous for Apple orchards and great apple pies. Sounded like music to my ears, an opportunity to drive for couple of hours and apple picking sounded like fun. 

Royal Gala

After some web research (Goggling) we started for Bilpin, it was 90 minutes drive from our home at north shore and was just after Richmond. A beautiful drive once you cross the Richmond and drive through Kurrajong heights. Kurrajong is the aboriginal name for ‘shade tree’, which grew in abundance in the town. From Kurrajong Heights, you can see the orchards, the beautiful rolling green hills intermingled with the rugged bush covered rocks and views of the Grose Valley. It was sunny and even more beautiful as autumn season was setting in. 

Apple Farm

Aryan having fun

Catch one

Our first stop was The Bilpin Fruit Bowl, one of the numerous charming coffee stops featuring homemade apple pies, jams, local honey, Bilpin Apple Juice and Apple Cider Vinegar. We had our breakfast and discovered that the apple-picking season is almost over and only one orchard is still open. We rushed to Shields orchard to try our luck. To our disappointment apple picking was only allowed through pre-booking , which we obviously did not have. It was just than our luck turned and a family called up for last minute cancellation, allowed us a slot.

Humming Bird

Humming Bird

Shields is a large orchard with mainly three types of apples Royal Gala, Pink Lady and Granny Smith. One of the orchard employee explained us the map of the orchard and gave us the directions to find different type of apples. This was end of the season, so we really don't have to worry a lot about picking the ripened fruit. Most of apples were ready to be picked. We spent couple of hours selecting and picking plenty of apples. The apples were good, definitely tested much more fresh and juicy than our local supermarket. My son tested an apple and said ‘it is really fresh as if I have just picked it from tree’ and we all laughed. He has actually just picked the apple. The orchard was also the home of lots of beautiful humming birds, lorikeets and singing bellbirds.


While coming back from shields orchard, we stopped at a place called Tutti Fruitti, famous for its real-fruit ice creams. If you happen to drive through this area, don't miss out the Tutti Fruitti ice cream of this place. The ice cream is freshly made with fresh fruits, picked the same morning and blended with berries of your choice.


Overall, it was a great day out and a good fun with kids. I will highly recommend visiting Kurrjong Heights and Bilpin.