After yesterdays' heavy rain, when Armidale itself received 45 mm of rain (getting on for 2 inches), we headed out to the Gara River and Blue hole to do some maintenance on one of my geocaches located in the Oxley-Wild Rivers National Park. On our arrival, the omens were poor that I could complete my task. To start with the Blue Hole was no longer its usual colour and was instead muddy brown with all the sediment being washed downstream.
Below the Blue Hole the Gara river was raging, and when we reached the metal bridge across the creek, the water was almost up to the top making it dangerous to cross, especially if the water level were rising! Since the bridge was the only way to access the path beyond it was possible I'd be marooned on the far side for a day or so! The cache itself lies atop the gorge, so there was no way it would be damaged by the torrent.
Anyway, we went for a lovely walk along the top of the gorge looking at the craggy rocks, the lovely wild flowers including the rock orchids shown here, the odd shy rock wallaby, pools of water coloured with blue-green algae, and glimpses of the raging waters increasingly far below.
After the walk we took morning tea at one of the many tables provided by the National Parks service for visitors. The park itself is world heritage listed - part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia region stretching along the Great Escarpment from the Barrington Tops north of Newcastle to South-East Queensland. This distance is almost 500 km (over 300 miles) long and includes 40 separate rainforest parks!
AS
Below the Blue Hole the Gara river was raging, and when we reached the metal bridge across the creek, the water was almost up to the top making it dangerous to cross, especially if the water level were rising! Since the bridge was the only way to access the path beyond it was possible I'd be marooned on the far side for a day or so! The cache itself lies atop the gorge, so there was no way it would be damaged by the torrent.
Anyway, we went for a lovely walk along the top of the gorge looking at the craggy rocks, the lovely wild flowers including the rock orchids shown here, the odd shy rock wallaby, pools of water coloured with blue-green algae, and glimpses of the raging waters increasingly far below.
After the walk we took morning tea at one of the many tables provided by the National Parks service for visitors. The park itself is world heritage listed - part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia region stretching along the Great Escarpment from the Barrington Tops north of Newcastle to South-East Queensland. This distance is almost 500 km (over 300 miles) long and includes 40 separate rainforest parks!
AS
2 comments:
Wow - It must have been a while since there was that much water in that river?! I remember 'rafting; there at the end of Year 12 after a big storm - that's when we lost the paddle to our inflatable boat. Don't think you'd get me in that gross brown water now! Wish I was there with you - looks like you had a fun day out :)
Thanks, Em. For the record the bureau of met's 5 day forecast is interesting! A very deep depression in the Coral Sea off Cairns is dumping heavy rain in eastern Qld. It will drift south to Coffs Harbour and deepen during that period and we are slated for 5 days of rain!
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