An Energetic Walk

The weather was beautiful today, with temperatures approaching +15 C, a cloudless sky, and brilliant clarity of atmosphere. It was just as well because Bec and I had decided in advance to walk the track from Dangars Falls to Salisbury Water. The return journey covers 16 km (10 miles), which doesn't seems so stressful, but the sting is in the tail. The highest point in the journey was roughly 1000 m asl (3250 feet) and the bottom at Salisbury Water was 500 m asl (1625 feet). So, first we had to descend 500 m and then rise the same amount. Going down was tricky because the gravel path was strewn with largish boulders and exceptionally steep; coming up was equally tricky because of the steep gradient, which forced me to stop from time to time to catch my breathe. Trip time was therefore lengthy: 5.5 hours to be precise, with total fall and rise being close to 1000 m (3250 feet)!

This said, the scenery was magnificent and well worth the effort. We also saw some wildlife, especially Kangaroos and Rock Wallabies, and some interesting vegetation in the Oxley - Wild Rivers National Park, whose territory we traversed. This park is one of our favourites and part of the Gondwana Forests World Heritage listed spine of north-eastern NSW. Just have a look at the vistas as they unfolded for us:

Close to the car-park at the start of the walk we were reminded that we are in the midst of a sever drought when we crossed the Gara river which has almost stopped flowing and saw the water level in the pond at low levels.

At the foot of Dangars Falls the pond was also low,resulting from little if any stream flow.

As we walked on we came across a pod of 4-5 kangaroos and this little fellow stood still long enough for his photo to be taken. Likewise with the Rock Wallaby just visible in the third photo. Because of the drought, the level feed (grasses) was very low so I couldn't help wondering how they survived.

The next few photos were taken before the really steep descent into the valley bottoms - from a height of maybe 950 m. The first of these shows the steep sides of the Mihi gorge.

The next three  photos look, in an arc from south-east to north-east, towards to valley containing Salisbury Water - our task was to descend to the valley floor.

Here's the steepish southern wing of Mihi Gorge, and Bec admiring some of the great views.

Here's a grass tree.

And more extensive views of the gorge country to the south-east.

And Bec peering into the valley bottom hundreds of meters below.

A view part-way down to valley floor.

And three photos of the valley floor with its more lush vegetation lying among often large granite boulders or small ponds of water. Nice eh!?

AS