Sorry there was no
internet available at where I stayed the last two nights so this
blog will be posted when I get a connection somewhere on the road
maybe on Sunday morning!!!
FRIDAY
This was taken from the
deck at 7am this morning just love the way the mist hovers over the
valley.
I had breakfast and
thanked Jennifer so much for such a completely different and
memorable stay and was on the road just before 9 am.
Only had to travel 25
minutes to these wonderful falls...
Sadly there was no way to
get any closer to them.
The beauty for me of taking the roads less travelled is the sights along the way and today was no exception going through a small town I saw this lady and horse
I asked if I could take a photo and she was more than happy and also told me that this breed of horse is very famous it is the Australian version of the US Mustang!!!
I had then planned to do
the first of two hikes today the first here at Cathedral Rocks.
This was not a rain forest
and the vegetation was different the other thing that was different
was the forest was very quiet...just the very occasional chirp of a
bird.....really the track was uneventful until the turn off to go up
hill to the rocks.
Lots of scrambling and I
had to fasten my pole onto my back pack as on some of the rocks I
needed both hands.
Here is a chain to help up
over this large rock!!
The reward at the top was
quite spectacular and I did sit on the throne and have a sandwich
although I do not think a real Prince would have liked my offering of
a bread and jam sandwich!!!
Great views from the summit!!
The day was a bit overcast
but perfect for hiking.
As usual for me going down
is always harder than coming up
......and the loop about 6 km took me
just over two hours.
The next hike was to here
sounds really inviting
doesn't it??
My first shadow of doubt
came when there was a lack of signs to the track..I made one wrong
turn before I did find the sign indicating the start of the
track....another indicator to me was the very small car park
available and the fact there were no other cars parked.....I had a
funny feeling about this hike.
This was rain forest but
again no bird or animal sounds and the deeper I got into the forest
another bell went off in my head when there was also no water sounds
either.
The hike was not easy at
all a lot of steep steps going down and when I got to the stream the
surrounding rocks were very slippy and moss laden.
I know it is the dry
season right now but there was very little water flowing down the
stream.
From here the track lost
all signs and I had to follow a hard to see track which was covered
in moss and ferns by the side of the stream so it meant you could not
see where you were putting your feet and with all the slippery rocks
not a good plan.
My boots got soaked from
the ferns and to be honest I was not enjoying this hike at all.
The only shot worth taking
was this one...
Then I started to feel
really tired I think I hit the wall!!!
I was in the middle of now
where no one around and I sat down had something to eat and drink but
really felted exhausted and I knew I had a good few km to go and most
of it would be uphill.
My options were zero I
just had to get going take it really easy on the rocks and work my
way out...which is what I did and I was back at the car about 3 hours
later and I was very happy to see Silver Streak.
I cannot imagine how that
write up in the brochure was right..... this was the worst hike I
have been on in a long time and would not recommend it to anyone!!
It was now gone 4 pm and I
had about 80 km to drive to my accommodation for the night but after
driving about 15 km I was nodding off......I soon pulled off the road
into a quarry park and levered my seat back and was soon
asleep......
I slept for 40 minutes
something I never do!!!
I washed my face got a
drink and back on the road and arrived at my destination after
stopping in the town of Armidale to get a pizza to go at around 6pm.
This is another stay with
a family and Cheryl and Gary were happy to greet me and we all sat
around with tea and I had my pizza and they had their meal and we
talked for a while, nice people.
I have a big bedroom
the grounds are lovely
with pool and tennis court
I have my own bathroom
with a tub which I immediately made use of and now it is 9 pm and I
feel still a little out of sorts so going to get an early night read
my book and sleep.
Saturday.
There is no problem not
having Internet except I did not have plans for where I was to stay
tonight so after Cheryl made me a wonderful hot cooked breakfast I
was on the road by 8.30am and the next big town I went through I
went into the library and used their Internet.....I was looking for a
place to stay and worked out my route and time and decided to go onto
the airbnb network and look for a place....normally I do this in
advance with lots of research but today I did not have the
time.....the system works like this...as a guest I choose a place I
want to go fill in the dates and then search through the listings
that come up more often than not you find a place make a request to
stay and then wait till the owners reply they have 24 hours to do
this.....as I was looking for a place for tonight and no internet I
used the other option they have which is called instant booking same
procedure except instead of waiting for a reply you instantly get a
confirmed booking so I found a place with instant booking in the area
I wanted to go it sounded nice a small apartment and hit
request......straight away I got a confirmation and an address so I
now had a place for two nights.....
The area around this part
of the country is extremely dry and they so badly need rain as it is
a farming community you can tell by the color of the ground.
I took a short detour to
see this lovely and unusual church
and bridge
and then back on the
highway the first little while was good roads like this
then about 70 km of really
narrow twisty roads.
There were a number of
waterfalls on this route but I had been told by the gentleman in the
Visitors Information centre where I stopped that all of them were dry
but there was one worth seeing even though there was no water
flowing.
So I did stop here
The gorge was quite
stunning and I could only imagine how lovely it would be to see water
cascading over the top into the canyon below.
I felt better today and
the drive was around 250km, a long driving day for me these days!!
I found the small town
where I am staying called Camden Heads and the home....I knocked on
the door and the lady came and it was obvious she had not checked her
e mail because she was not expecting me....she was profusely apologizing to me and said she just had a busy day and did not check
and that this was a good lesson for her...she showed me the apartment
which looked great but asked if I would mind to giver her 45 minutes
to get it ready for me and this fine with me as I went into the town
looked around and bought some groceries and came back.....
I have the lower half of
the house and it has all I need to cook and relax
it has a washer so I put a
load of clothes on and went for a walk and about 200 yards from the
house is a path down to this gorgeous spit...
that is the headland I
shall hike to tomorrow
the breakwater is to calm
the waters going into the river's mouth
a lovely sunset!!
I came back and cooked
myself a nice chicken dinner which I really enjoyed and enough for
leftovers tomorrow...had a long hot shower and felt good.
There is no Internet here
but there is TV and I watched a good English detective show.
SUNDAY!!
Had a really good sleep
and today was going to be a day of rest for me....took my time over
breakfast and then sat in the front yard with the sun shining on me
and read yesterday's newspaper.
Then found a soccer game
on the big screen TV.
I then tried to activate
my Internet stick which I could not do last night and it worked so
now I am connected.
Around 1 pm I got packed
up and went hiking on the headland
It was a nice hike with
good views and then I sat down on these rocks and had lunch some of
the waves were huge and the pounding and crashing no wonder after
thousands of years those rocks get shaped and molded.
On the way back it was
time for a swim and I sat down and relaxed and then a pleasure to
swim in these calm waters!!!
Back home took a time out
and read out in the back garden, had my delicious dinner and now a
long blog post.
I move closer to Sydney
tomorrow and it will be my last stay before Tuesday morning when I
move to the apartment where I am house and cat sitting for ten
days!!!
Hope you enjoyed my
musings and catching up with me!!
Yashi Kochi!!!
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