Jingga Pool is one of Sydney’s best wild swimming spots. The huge pool and waterfall is surrounded by dense bushland, giant boulders and craggy rock walls. The size of the pool and lack of rocks in the water allows for long leisurely swims in perfect serenity. It’s hard to believe you’re less than an hour from the CBD!
In the unlikely event you arrive to find Jingga Pool is busy, there are two additional pools located along the same track that never seem to get any visitors!
Here’s everything you need to know about visiting Jingga Pool and the hidden spots nearby.
The Jingga Walking Track
The stats
Distance: 3.8km return (including the extra pools)
Elevation gain: 150m
Difficulty: Moderate
Trailhead: Victoria Road, Wedderburn
Summary: Though the walk to Jingga Pool is short, after an initial easy stroll on fire trail you’ll descend steeply much of the way to the pool. Parts of this descent are on small loose stones and losing your footing is easy.
However, we have some tips for keeping on your feet in the track notes below. Finding one of the hidden pools requires following an old unmaintained track, but it’s in fairly good shape.
Starting the trail
From the parking area (full details below) you’ll head around the locked gate blocking the fire trail and reach a junction 130m later.
Heading right would take you to the gorgeous Minerva Pool, though due to its significance to the Dharawal people, only women and children are allowed to swim there.
Continuing straight will take you to the start of the Jingga Track and anyone can swim in Jingga Pool.
Roughly 270m from the junction with Minerva Pool you’ll come to the official start of the Jingga Track on the right (it’s well signposted). Up to this point the trail is all flat.
The steep decent
After heading right onto the Jingga Track you’ll continue on a flat path until you reach another locked gate 130m away. After passing around the gate you’ll begin the descent.
It’s another 115m before you hit the first section, which is steep and made up of loose stones and gravel.
I’m not a fan of this kind of terrain and I came close to loosing my footing a few times. In the end we realised the trick was to stick as much as possible to the gullies which had some bigger more stable stones, allowing for more secure footing.
There are a few humps in the trail which give little breaks and the gradient does slacken after just under 300m.
You then have 100m of much less steep, easier walking until you reach another short steep section, but nowhere near as bad as the first hump.
These next steeper bits were all the kind of terrain it’s quite easy to run down which made it much less slippery.
The secret pool detour
If you’d like to check out the secret pool located down the old forgotten walking track, you need to look for a turning on the right just under 1.2km from the parking area, or around 500m from the start of the steep descent.
If you know to look out for it you can’t miss it, but if you weren’t looking it would be easy to walk right past the turn off. The detour to the pool is 250m each way.
You’ll see a good set of stone steps leading downhill into the bush on the right side of the trail. They soon give way to a dirt/sandy track and the path becomes a touch overgrown, but not too scratchy.
Considering it’s not maintained, the path is actually in decent condition and easy enough to follow as it leads you downhill towards the water.
It can be uneven underfoot but it’s not slippery (when dry). You’ll soon see a little bit of sand right beside the pool.
Stokes Creek Pool
The pool is absolutely gorgeous, with the prettiest water colour of any of the pools we’ve visited in the area. It’s emerald in colour, which is quite surprising as it’s really close to Jingga Pool which is a totally different shade of green.
It’s also more sheltered than Jingga or Minerva Pool so the water is very still which gives beautiful reflections from the surrounding rocks and gum trees.
It’s a tranquil spot and feels completely secluded from the walking trail above.
The only downside is that accessing the water involves negotiating a bit of debris, both on the little sandy entry point and in the initial part of the pool.
It’s really just a few steps to get over it, but as some of the branches may be sharp, you do have to take care.
Once inside the water it’s deep throughout much of the pool allowing for a proper swim, though there are some shallower areas with rocks you need to watch out for. In that sense it’s not as good a place to swim as Jingga, but if you like spots which have that hidden away feel, you can’t beat it!
The final stretch to Jingga Pool
From the secret pool turn off you have just 400m to go to reach the top of Jingga Falls. You’ll continue heading downhill but the going is more gentle and there aren’t any more slippery bits.
It’s still fire trail, but much more picturesque than the first bit of the track, as you have a big cliff wall to your left and you get glimpses down to the creek on your right.
You’ll reach the end of the fire trail and then follow the steps carved into the rock to the top of Jingga Falls.
To access the pool you have two choices, and I would say accessing it via the side you initially come to is the easiest option.
Pool access
On the side you initially come to you need to follow the rock platform left towards the sloped giant boulders you can see leading down to the water.
The rock is very grippy when dry, but there is one short (few steps) where it’s narrow and slightly slanted so care must be taken.
You can then walk easily down the rocks towards the water. However, the last couple of steps does require climbing down a large bit of rock onto a smaller one below.
There’s a good foothold in the rock, but it does feel a little steep and slanted, so it’s not as easy as most pools are to enter. You sort of have to stretch your leg down a little.
However, this is a lot better than entering on the far side in my opinion. To do this you need to go to the top of the falls and follow the steps down by the dam wall to cross the shallow pool on top of the waterfall.
Take care as the rocks may be slippery, especially where the green algae is.
After this you need to climb up and over a few different bits of rock and boulders and then head through a small amount of debris, before rock hopping the last few metres to the pool. If you’re bare foot this is a pain and it takes a lot longer than the other route.
The actual water entry is much easier on this side, as you can step off the rocks and straight into shallow water, but getting to this point makes it overall the harder route.
Swimming at Jingga Pool
Jinnga Pool is a truly sublime place to swim. The pool is absolutely huge and the cliff walls and tall gum trees make it very atmospheric. The pretty waterfall is the cherry on top.
When inside the water it shimmers with all the greens of the surrounding trees, which makes it appear a completely different colour to what you’ll see from above looking in.
It really is a wonderful place and it catches the sun right the way through the afternoon. Golden hour is also a lovely time to be there, especially in summer when the water is really warm.
And on that note, the water is very warm in the hotter months, not actually that refreshing, but maybe that’s just me as I do like a cold water swim!
Little Jingga Pool
Just 50m beyond the entry point to Jingga Pool you’ll come to Little Jingga Pool. There are a few rocks and boulders to climb over to reach it, but after that access to the water is easy, you just need to step off the stony riverbank and into shallow water.
There are a couple of rocks in the water at first, but then it gets quite deep. It’s not as deep as Jingga Pool, but it’s another lovely spot, with the same beautiful bushy rock walls and green water.
The middle of the pool has a good stretch of water that’s deep enough to swim (shoulder height on me) and it feels nicely tucked away from the main pool, which is good if it happened to be busy - though on that note, we’ve never actually seen Jingga busy, so you’ll probably be fine!
When you’re ready to leave the pools you simply retrace your steps back to the car park.
Keep them wild
Please remember to take all rubbish with you and keep these places wild and pristine - as with anywhere in the outdoors. It’s important to leave them exactly as you found them so they will remain beautiful for generations to come.
Litter tends to breed litter, so if you do spot any and are able to pick it up and dispose of it outside the national park, it will go a long way to keeping the area clean.
Parking for the Jingga Track
The car park for the Jingga Track is located at the end of Victoria Road in Wedderburn, Dharawal National Park. There is a long drop toilet located close to the junction with the track to Minerva Pool.
The trailhead is around a 20 minute drive from Campbelltown and around an hour from Sydney CBD.
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