Some places you just want to keep a secret….

and we visited just such a place yesterday.  One of the ladies in my photography group is a mad keen bushwalker.  She is in her 70's but age has, and never will, stop her.  She was telling hubby and I about a waterfall that she had found on google maps and that she would like to try and get to it.  Hubby jumped right in and said he would accompany her if she liked, so a date was set. I didn't realise at the time that I was also included in the invite!  Now, I don't mind a walk through the bush as long as the path is marked out and well used.  I'm not very courageous when it comes to tackling thick scrub where you mark out your own path, so I told them that I would go but would stay at the car….in case of an emergency.
We set off at about 7am and arrived at our embarking point about an hour later.  I don't know what happened, maybe it was breathing all that beautiful fresh air so high in the mountains, but driving up the mountain, I decided that I would also attempt the walk. I had a bit of a panic attack when I looked at the thick scrub that we were going to be heading into but hubby assured me that I would be fine.
Our erstwhile leader was well equipped with a GPS and was as sure footed as they come as we headed into the "jungle".  It was all fairly steep downhill going and I did wonder how I would tackle the uphill coming back up but best not to think too much about that at this stage.  Our leader took it nice and easy and it took our party of four about an hour to reach our destination.  We could hear the falls well before we saw them.  Our leader brought us out into the open right at the falls!  Not bad!
The falls were amazing and all thoughts of aching knee joints disappeared as we took in the beauty above and below us.  We came out onto rocks right in the middle of the falls.  These rocks would undoubtably be a raging torrent in the wet season but there had been little rain in the past months so the rocks were dry and a great place to sit down and enjoy the beauty around us.  We nibbled on some dry fruit and drank plenty of water before we ascended a little higher to get a better view.  The top of the undulating falls were still way above us and we "may" get to the top another time.
We stopped at the falls for more than an hour, taking photographs and exploring, before our leader called us together to make the trip back up the mountain.  It was steep and difficult.  We had drunk most of our water so that had lightened our back-packs a little but they still felt like they weighed a ton! However, we took it nice and steady and stopped often for a breather.  We took a different route on the way back that was certainly shorter but perhaps a bit steeper.
It was almost lunch time when when came out into the open and saw our vehicles waiting patiently for us.  We had another spot marked for lunch so we all clambered into the cars quite quickly so that we could enjoy some air-conditioned cooling.  I will tell you about the next part of the day in tomorrows post.

Setting out along the track, following our leader

The beginning of our bush walk

Sometimes the scrub was so thick we could barely see each other

The first sight of water

And then we stepped out onto a ledge and looked down to this

And up to this!

It was indeed picture perfect

The trek back up the mountain was no mean feat!

Some of the little orchids growing on the trees