Sat, 13th Dec, 2014 Wet Caves Reserve, Caveside (Alum Cliffs & Westmorland Falls sightseeing)

A little brighter this morning so headed off to explore. Went down the Pool Road and yes it did go to the Caveside Swimming Pool and Tennis Courts, right beside a creek. Headed into Chudleigh, the Village of Roses. The main street is lined with different rose bushes.

Checked out an old barn – no information other than it was restored in 2003. Fabulous rock wall around the pretty yard with beautiful trees.

All the rose bushes were labelled. Some had only 4 petals, so different to the traditional rose I think of. They all had beautiful scents. Had a lovely walk along smelling them, careful of the many busy bees. Obviously we have missed their best blooming time but there are still plenty of lovely blooms. These were my favourites.

Buff Beauty.

Alba.

Madame Isaac Pereire.

Rugspin.

Information map of the area. Had a cuppa while I did a blog upload as we don’t have good internet reception at the van.

More information about the hut restorers.

The General Store was established in 1886.

These were pretty too.

The Icebergs are a late bloomer so the bushes were full of blooms.

A bit of old farm machinery under a blooming eucalypt.

Went into the Silk Shop and learnt about how silk worms grow etc.

 These were in a little box and flapping their wings furiously.

They also had fudge but we refrained!!! These are lovely little egg carvings.

Therese Bugnet.

Roseraie De L’Hay.

A busy bee on a Blanc Double De Coubert.

Unfortunately no one seems to be doing any weeding. The thistles are thriving.

Amber.

The Honey place is closed on Saturdays so will have to come back another day.  The “Bees of the World” shop has now closed down. There  are a lot of houses for sale in the area too.

They had some lovely flowers and plants too.

Drove back to Alum Cliffs walk. Narrow area between farmland up a hill to a “sculpture” – really!!!

Nice walk through changing bushland with a few information plaques along the way about the aboriginal importance of the area, bush tucker and the hawks. Echidna are apparently a good source of protein!

Great view down on the Mersey River (flows out to Devonport). Looking upstream, left to right.

 Then downstream.

The cliffs looked great – would be amazing abseiling!!! If I was so inclined.

Certainly a straight drop to the river below.

Looking over the Gog Range.

The left side of the ridge looks like the ochre area that only the aboriginal women could go to.

The white flowers make it look like a Christmas tree.

A cute man wheel letterbox.

Into Mole Creek for lunch. No good here to do uploads. Another “Sculpture”, I won’t even try and explain what it supposed to mean.

Read about the railway history.

A bus load of people in fancydress wandered around.

Some old cars drove in and stopped at the pub.

Back past our camp area and up the road to Westmorland Falls (2 hour return hike). As we headed along the track there were a few sticks leaning against a tree, like walking sticks. Steve decided to try one out. I went ahead onto a boardwalk with grass on either side and was greeted by a slithering snake disappearing into the grass. Backed up quick and then stamped my feet so off we went again. Lovely walk through the bush till we hit the climb.

More stairs.

Fungi everywhere.

A letterbox in the middle of the track – it was a visitor book, so wrote our names in it and read a few of the comments. Sounds like it is worth the walk.

Across the bridge. We passed an area that looked like a cyclone had hit the trees. Maybe they had all the timber for the bridge etc helicoptered in to that spot.

A creek went under the bridge but we headed off to the other creek meeting this one just down a bit.

Couple of little falls as we climb up the hill beside the creek.

Got very muddy underfoot.

Finally reached the falls but the boardwalk stopped and a tree blocked our view.  So of course Steve had to clamber out into the creek for a look. He said it was great and I had to climb out too.

Glad I did as it was spectacular. Took a video.

 

Steve climbed further down the creek to check out another falls so took a pose shot of me.

 Couldn’t quite see the other falls well.

Now to climb back out again.

Our van is still there.

Relaxed with a cuppa then Steve started the fire while I heated up some leftovers for a quiet night. The clouds have lifted so hopefully we will get some nice weather for a few days.