The Overland Track – Day Five

Day Five kept up the beautiful weather. The start of the walk was crisp, cool and sunny – and was a nice gentle sort of terrain too.
We were making the 9.6km hike over to Windy Ridge and also planned a couple of detours to see the local waterfalls.

Occasionally we would break out into the light, but most of the walk up to the waterfall crossroads were forested areas

We kept up our rule of packs down every hour.
The mottled light was still giving my camera a headache 🙂

We came across one of the historic huts – Du Cane Hut. Built in 1910 by Paddy Harnett, who was a snarer, miner and bushman.

 

We found Rachel at the crossroads to the first waterfalls, abandoned our packs and took a walk down to check them out.

The first falls (and the prettiest) we got to was D’Alton.
It was quite the view from the ledge we were perched on

It was pretty great sitting here and soaking up the view
If you leaned out far enough you could see back down the river

Scrambling back up the side of the hill – using handy tree roots as ladder-rungs – we walked over to Fergusson Falls

Not as picturesque but still fabulous to sit by it and get deafened by the roar

And why not clamber down the edge to get a better view and a photo?

Back at the top to collect our packs and seek out the next waterfall

One of the group guides, Nick, pointed out to us the leatherwood tree blossoms. While it flowers, no other trees do. Bee keepers move their apiaries into areas where the trees are to get leatherwood honey.

Again – great to take a walk sans packs!

Heading off to find Harnett Falls

 

At the top of the falls there was a great little spot to sit, relax, dunk your feet or head in the water and generally enjoy.

I lay back and soaked my head in the water and it felt sooooo good!

Rachel photosynthesised.

One of the guided groups sensibly had their lunch down here!

A few of our fellow hikers highly recommended we expend the extra energy and take ourselves down the path to the bottom of the falls.
We are so glad we did. Even though it looked like a long way down (you have to think ahead – going a long way down inevitably means you have to haul yourself back UP again!)

But it was beautiful.

The clifftops seemed to loom over head.

 

Time to get back to our packs and continue out hike over to Windy Ridge. The waterfalls were only a little over half way there.
And it mostly went up.
And up.

Most of the pathways were lined with oversized rocks which was challenging for my short legs. Not least because today I took on ‘tent duty’
The extra weight was ok, but getting that weight up two foot high ‘steps’ gave my legs quite the workout! I started to get quite whingy about when the ‘up’ was going to turn into ‘down’!!

I was so thrilled to finally come across a section of boardwalk that was flat I had to stop and savour the moment. (and take a photo)

Going down had its own challenges. Balance for one!

It was a pretty walk down to Windy Ridge Hut and camping areas, but again – nice to find our platform and set up camp and take the boots off!

Nothing more to do than have some dinner and watch the sun set over the Du Cane Ranges.
Cheers!