Hi all! I hope you are all having nice holidays (insert smiley face here).
After the copious amount of walking yesterday, you would expect that we would have a little bit of a calm, restful day. But, no, 8.9km uphill/rock scramble instead!
In the morning we left our lovely caravan park to drive first to Whaler’s Lookout, then a blowhole and then to a fish shop (all in Bicheno). The Whaler’s Lookout had a wonderful view, looking out along the coast and onto Governor’s Island, a marine reserve. The walk was steep uphill but the view was eventually worth it. Next was the blowhole, a slightly unexciting spray of water gushing up every minute or so, set on a platform-like group of long rocks. It was pretty, but not exactly thrilling. Before leaving Bicheno, we visited a fish shop and bought some fish (wow) and squid (om nom nom…).
And here, ladies and gentlemen, we have the 8.9km walk. The Douglas Apsley National Park was quite the pretty setting, with many different plants including yellow dogwood, bull oak and eucalypts (ah, information signs). To begin the walk, we walked around a small pool of water and began our steep ascent. We travelled for over a kilometre upwards, with the track varying from stone steps, a slightly worn gap in the bushes and our best guesses. Next was the (also steep) descent. That was also over a kilometre and was slightly better signposted with stone steps and gaps in the bushes. And finally, at the gorge! Large rocks and pools of trickling water greeted us. I stayed and took of my to dangle my feet in the water while the others explored further a bit and found a little waterfall. We moved there and relaxed for a few minutes, skimming stones (Dad is very skilled in that area, but I am not) before moving on. The next few kilometres was very enjoyable, as we hopped over, climbed around and walked onlarge rocks. And then I spotted a snake curled up on a fallen log! It was very scary, despite its small size of about half a metre. We managed to move on without disturbing it, and breathed a collective sigh of relief. Travelling on for a few more minutes, it began to rain. Yay. We only had a short way to go, and managed to escape falling into the water, despite our best efforts (Maddy slipped and only just got a foothold, and I slipped off a rock and stepped into some shallow water). Eventually, with aching feet and slightly wet clothing, we made it back to the bus for lunch and drove off the Iron House Brewery at Four Mile Creek. There we ate four yummy entrees, consisting of: duck croquettes with chilli jam (very yummy), some sphere-shaped breadcrumbed rice-y things with tomato-y sauce (yeuck) arancini balls, sticky chicken wings (yummy) and 3 different dips (sun dried tomato, eggplant, beetroot) and pita bread (extremely yummy). With full stomachs, Mum drove us to our campground at Lagoon’s Beach as Dad had consumed several tiny glasses of a selection of beers. Unsurprisingly, we made it back alive and spent the afternoon walking on the beach and playing cards (I beat Maddy at Hand and Foot, hehe).
-Gabby
Fauna: a SNAKE, various birds, geese, cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, horses, yellow tailed black cockatoos, dogs and numerous skinks that are hell bent on giving me a heart attack, pretending to be snakes.
Wicked Vans: 3
Vehicles Overtaken: 0
No comments:
Post a Comment