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G'day ladies and gents
Alan here, newly joined the site and getting a flavour of the cool exploits you lot get up to.
Its Sunday morning here downunder, glorious dry season weather (which means its lovely and cool at about 25-30 degrees C). We woke up this morning when the boy chased something out of the yard... Didnt see what it was! Rather than the usual morning pre-brekkie loop around the airstrip I suggested to my wife that we go for a walk cross-country. About six years ago we walked upstream into the escarpment from a spot we call 'The Lilly Pond' and found a nice set of cascades and rainforest springs nestled in a ravine there. I recall that after hiking back out we had been completely stuffed! It had been stinking hot weather and very humid.
So the idea today was to try and find our way back to that same ravine, but rather than go all the way to the bottom and work our way back up along the creek, try and find a direct route cross-country from the house. This would substitute for the boy taking me on our morning walk. Of course my wife was all for it. As I said the weather here is glorious.
Actually, we cheated by driving the first couple of kilometres along a property track to get to the nearest point to set out from. We all bundled out of the Toyota at the point which i estimated was closest to our planned destination and struck out cross-country. As I had recalled, the ravine was only a few hundred metres north of the point we had left the Tojo... But at about 160 feet deep (my wife tracked the route on her phone), getting down was pretty hard. So hard that the boy couldnt make it down at first and rushed along the edge trying to find his own alternative path down. He's no mountain goat!
I was pleased we had tracked directly to the site by memory after so many years (and reached it from a different direction). Water levels were really low and the waterfall wasn't flowing (dry season here after a failed wet season!) so it looked different from last time. Pics attached
Me trying to find a way down into the ravine. The boy follows, but its steep....
The boy looking dubious about following me down!
So we finally clamber down to the bottom. Thankfully nobody breaks a leg! Here's a little pool we found just above the top of the falls. Despite the cold weather, this rainforest is crawling with biting green ants and my wife seem to get them all over her!
So heres my wife peering off the edge of the falls. They're dry today, but its about 20m vertically down to the bottom... Don't fall!!!
With our path downstream blocked by the sheer drop we turn and head back upstream. The boy has by now found his own way down to rejoin our team.
Just a little further up we find a second pool at the foot of another dry spillover.
My wife sits underneathe to give scale and of course, the boy's straight in to cool off after his scary climb down!
Anyway, we cant get any further up this ravine on a quick pre-brekkie stroll, so its back up to the house for lashings of tea, eggs and bacon for me and eggs and salmon for my wife (shes vegetarian!). The boy gets a morning meaty bone
Me and my boy, wishing all the best to fellow bushwalkers, campers and nature lovers in UK!
And funny to think that this morning when we woke up, we didnt really know that those two falls totalling about 60m in height even existed just a couple of kilometres from our house! We have others, very similar, just underneath our house, but never seen those particular ones since that first visit six years ago -when we didnt really stop to investigate
We obviously need to do more exploring. perhaps this forum will inspire us....
Have a great weekend folks!
Alan
Alan here, newly joined the site and getting a flavour of the cool exploits you lot get up to.
Its Sunday morning here downunder, glorious dry season weather (which means its lovely and cool at about 25-30 degrees C). We woke up this morning when the boy chased something out of the yard... Didnt see what it was! Rather than the usual morning pre-brekkie loop around the airstrip I suggested to my wife that we go for a walk cross-country. About six years ago we walked upstream into the escarpment from a spot we call 'The Lilly Pond' and found a nice set of cascades and rainforest springs nestled in a ravine there. I recall that after hiking back out we had been completely stuffed! It had been stinking hot weather and very humid.
So the idea today was to try and find our way back to that same ravine, but rather than go all the way to the bottom and work our way back up along the creek, try and find a direct route cross-country from the house. This would substitute for the boy taking me on our morning walk. Of course my wife was all for it. As I said the weather here is glorious.
Actually, we cheated by driving the first couple of kilometres along a property track to get to the nearest point to set out from. We all bundled out of the Toyota at the point which i estimated was closest to our planned destination and struck out cross-country. As I had recalled, the ravine was only a few hundred metres north of the point we had left the Tojo... But at about 160 feet deep (my wife tracked the route on her phone), getting down was pretty hard. So hard that the boy couldnt make it down at first and rushed along the edge trying to find his own alternative path down. He's no mountain goat!
I was pleased we had tracked directly to the site by memory after so many years (and reached it from a different direction). Water levels were really low and the waterfall wasn't flowing (dry season here after a failed wet season!) so it looked different from last time. Pics attached
Me trying to find a way down into the ravine. The boy follows, but its steep....
The boy looking dubious about following me down!
So we finally clamber down to the bottom. Thankfully nobody breaks a leg! Here's a little pool we found just above the top of the falls. Despite the cold weather, this rainforest is crawling with biting green ants and my wife seem to get them all over her!
So heres my wife peering off the edge of the falls. They're dry today, but its about 20m vertically down to the bottom... Don't fall!!!
With our path downstream blocked by the sheer drop we turn and head back upstream. The boy has by now found his own way down to rejoin our team.
Just a little further up we find a second pool at the foot of another dry spillover.
My wife sits underneathe to give scale and of course, the boy's straight in to cool off after his scary climb down!
Anyway, we cant get any further up this ravine on a quick pre-brekkie stroll, so its back up to the house for lashings of tea, eggs and bacon for me and eggs and salmon for my wife (shes vegetarian!). The boy gets a morning meaty bone
Me and my boy, wishing all the best to fellow bushwalkers, campers and nature lovers in UK!
And funny to think that this morning when we woke up, we didnt really know that those two falls totalling about 60m in height even existed just a couple of kilometres from our house! We have others, very similar, just underneath our house, but never seen those particular ones since that first visit six years ago -when we didnt really stop to investigate
We obviously need to do more exploring. perhaps this forum will inspire us....
Have a great weekend folks!
Alan
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, enjoyed reading and seeing the pictures, Thanks for sharing 
