Day Five – Waterfalls & Fungi

Hi there! Find a comfy chair and grab a cuppa. I failed to whittle the photos down very far. This might be quite the ramble!

Well… we made it to day five – and didn’t the morning start beautifully! Almost clear blue skies! The ranger came into the hut the night before to give us the updated weather reports and the fellow got a hearty round of applause and cheers as the bringer of good weather news!

Even though a number of the hikers had camped the night before, it was still chaotic in the small hut finding gear and getting ready to go… not to mention getting those wet socks and boots back on. Actually I treated myself to clean socks this day. I knew they’d be wet in no time, but the other ones were… well, I’ll let your imagination do the work.

It was always a good feeling to get the packs back on and be on our way each morning. And with the sun shining, today was no exception.

Of course, there were no shortages of mud puddles to navigate!

Some mudholes were still iced over too

Everywhere we looked the sun was streaming in. Put everyone in quite a good mood!

The first main stop (if you like to stop) was the Du Cane Hut.
Its the oldest remaining hut in the National Park, built in 1910 by a man named Patrick Hartnett, from split King Billy Pine shingles and was still used up into the 1970’s.

Its an interesting place to go into and see how spoiled we are with the new huts!! Loads of character though!

A different sort of visitors book I guess!

Inhabited by hairy multi-legged individuals (That’s an educated guess)

Conveniently, if a call of nature should arise… follow the sign.

Yup – thats a hand carved toilet lid over a hollowed out stump. And according to some of the more adventurous hikers in our group who bravely lifted the lid – still in use!!

We found Leah, Austin, Skye and Kelvin in a prime morning tea spot. They had hot beverages on the go and were soaking up the sun in a most beautiful spot.
Fiona kind of shattered their peace a little when she rocked up to say hi and put her pack down – discovered a bulge in her shirt/top and surprised herself (and everyone else) by flinging about a pair of undies she had somehow stored there!!!! (I have been assured they were clean ones… ) 😀

Anyway – we forged on, looking for the first waterfall turnoff track.

We really enjoyed putting the packs down and walking (floating) on down to see the falls. We figured that after all the rain and snow, they would be a bit spectacular.

I think today I really started missing my other camera lenses. Next trip I will make room for a lot more gear and make space in my walking schedule to stop a lot more to get particular photos. (Probably will have to do it alone! haha)

There were a few minor waterfalls to walk over on the way down.

There was a LOT more water compared to the last time we were there!

The roar of the falls was impressive as was the water it was kicking up! We got a bit soggy standing there

We left the din behind to move on to the second falls.

I started missing my macro lens

But then, as we dragged ourselves away from the fungi and mosses, we reached Fergusson Falls at exactly the right moment.

Spectacular!!
Its actually hard to see these falls properly without clambering down and around which didn’t seem safe, but I was more than thrilled with the light rays beaming down to pretty everything up!

It was a bit hard to leave

Back to the fungi…

So many and so varied!

I like the way these little orange ones lined the path!

We broke out of the forests again and set off down to Hartnett Falls – sans packs

This was the place we lay down on rocks last hike! Water a little deeper this time!

We found the perfect picnic spot right on the lip of the falls, sitting on an old tree!

I nearly ate it all before I remembered the photo!!

Such a wonderful place to sit and rest!

Of course, rest can’t last forever on the Overland, so we set off to the base of the falls

The track down is much improved since I was here a year ago… still steep, but there are two fairly deep spots in the river to get across.
Our gaiters were worth their weight in gold!

Even though we couldn’t go far up the river this time, I think the views from below are just as rewarding.

Then we dunked our heads in the water to give them a scrub – so refreshing!!!

It was like a little fairyland down here with all the moss, water, ferns and fungi

Sadly, what goes down (us) has to go back up again (us)

Time to sling those packs back on and head towards our next hut – The Burt Nichols hut at Windy Ridge.

There was a fair bit of ‘up’ to manage before reaching the Du Cane Gap.

A lot of tree roots and boulders to skip across

And of course, mud.

Occasionally we would get a bit of boardwalk reprieve!

There are very few signs on the track. This one was most welcome. It basically says ‘You will be going downhill now’

And downhill we went.

Then in one heart-stopping moment, Fiona took a fall! She was navigating those tree roots and boulders when a misstep caused her pack to shift and throw her off balance

OK – yes I took a photo.
However… it went like this:
Me: “Are you alright, are you ok?” (panic panic)
Fiona: (Muffled with head in a rock) “I’m ok I’m ok… I just can’t get up”
Me: “I am coming down, I just can’t run”
Fiona: (Still muffled) “Take a photo!!”
Me: “Um… OK” (Snaps one hurried shot and takes pack off so I can properly rescue my poor cousin!)

Very very luckily, Fiona only hit her head slightly and with some effort, we got her pointing back up the right way. She later discovered a nice bruise on her leg, but we were more worried about the knock on the head, which thankfully wasn’t so bad.
She hadn’t packed her pack so well that morning and the pack itself didn’t seem set right. There was a LOT of play in it that day, which isn’t great for hiking on uneven ground!

We found the funny tree with its massive burl and Fiona decided to give it a hug (we are tree huggers after all haha)

The track got less tricky and the amount of fungi and lichen seemed to increase!

And for Fiona’s final trick of the day, she slipped on a bit of wet wood over a small stream crossing, her pack threw her off again and I looked back to see her pole dancing with a sapling over the creek!!!
I just took the photo from the hip as I dashed forward to complete my second rescue of the day!!

Glad the sapling was sturdy! That would have been a cold soggy end to the day!

We finally made it (in one piece) to the hut to find most of our fellow hikers on the lookout platform admiring the sun setting, and catching up on the days events!
Time to get our beds made, get clean sleeping gear on and dinner in our bellies!

A really wonderful days adventure!
Cheers