I had completed the Harrigans lane to Rocky Island section a few months ago, in cold, wet, slippery conditions....
Now it was time to join the 2 sections together. It's off track & remote.
A dusty brown cloud billowed in my rear view mirror, the forest to the right of the dirt road taking me to the Boonoo Boonoo falls,
had seen a burn off or bushfire since the last time I was there. Dried brown foliage, bare ground & blackened tree trunks are all that remained.
I drove around one, then straddled between my tires a second black snake wriggling across the the road on my way in.
Both remained unscathed..dusty, but unscathed.
The old unmaintained track past the falls lookout, zig-zagged gently downhill, to a couple of rocky viewing points with good views of falls &
the river valley below. From here the terrain gets very steep as it descends to a small tributary creek at the base of the falls.
Not an area for the faint hearted, or a place take your kids.
I stumbled out of the undergrowth, hot & sweaty, into a big, bouldery stream bed, running cool clear water.
A big resident sunbaker was warming himself on the rocks. He would have easily been a metre/ 3feet in length.
Around, over & under numerous large smooth boulders, I navigated my way to the falls.
After setting up camp, I headed downstream, rock hopping all the way to Rocky Island, about 1.5hrs away....finally joining all the dots together.
There was some nice long flat slabby sections along the way...which made it a little easier on my knees,
and believe me they needed some easier sections !
From Rocky island it's roughly another 1 hour walk to Harrigans ford.
On the return journey I used the cattle tracks along the river bank as much as I could...
my left knee was complaining about the abuse I had put it through.
Spotted lots of eels cruising the deep pools, on one occasion, I walked in front of one, tapped the toe of my boot on the waters surface &
it changed direction & latched onto my the toe of my boot ! Fearless buggers.
Surprised a few red bellied blacks, who were extremely fast/ agile for that time in the afternoon. Not aggressive though.
More info here http://australianmuseum.net.au/Red-bellied-Black-Snake/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-bellied_black_snake
At days end.. I swam in deep, cool, eely pools, pummelled my aching muscles in a naturally formed jacuzzi,
basked on warm rocks, encountered wildlife, friendly & dangerous....
What more could you want from an adventure !
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by mbiraman
Bookmarks