Black Rock Falls

or Spring Creek Falls as they are known locally, are situated at the top of Spring Creek that ends at the Mowbray Valley just south of Port Douglas.
Our hiking friends rang us last week to say that they were going to hike to the falls and would we like to join them.  I didn't immediately say yes as from past experience these hikes can be quite difficult.  However, Philip was very keen so we said yes.  In hindsight I probably should have gone with my gut instinct!
We didn't start our hike until almost 9 a.m, as there was a bit of a mix up with the meeting place.  I had googled the falls and my guess was that the hike into the falls would be about 3km or 6km return.  It ended up being a bit more than that.   Our friends had pre-warned us that we would be walking through the creek for most of the way with occasional rock hopping.
The first few kilometres were a relatively easy hike because we were able to follow quite a well worn path that hugged the creek. The next few kilometres were not as easy as we had to do quite a bit of rock hopping that gradually turned into boulder hopping! The walk is a technically challenging walk rather than a strenuous one.
The men are both like mountain goats and they certainly gave me a degree of confidence.  I terminated my walk at the second falls as my confidence failed me at the rock climb that I had to negotiate to proceed to Black Rock Falls.  The other four in our group continued on but one turned back without reaching the falls.
Our very spritely leader, who is 75, really wanted to get to the falls so the two men guided her the rest of the way.  It took them two hours return from when they left me to reach the falls.  Philip said they had to back track quite a lot to find a suitable path that our elderly friend could negotiate.
The hike took us about 8 hours with a stop of about half an hour for lunch.  We did make a lot of photo stops that were always a welcome relief.  Would I do it again?  No.... probably not.

I terminated my walk right here!

The beginning of the walk

Us at the end of the walk

Rock Hopping

Photographers will find any spot for the perfect shot

Rock hopping became Boulder hopping.  Here we are trying to find the best way to negotiate the way up.

This gentleman followed us up to the falls.  Boy was he spritely!

Spring Creek (Black Rock) Falls