Monday 2 April 2018

Ian, Simon and Sharon heading off into the bush.

Morning tea on Quart Pot Creek.

Simon and Ian ascending the waterfall.

Simon at ‘No Name Waterfall’.

Leader Ian ‘living on the edge’ at the top of the waterfall.

David, Ian and Simon standing almost on air at the top of the waterfall.

Photos by Mary

Seven club members (Sharon, Mary, Glenn, Simon, Rodney, David & Ian) enjoyed this short, but challenging, walk.  The target waterfall was spotted some years ago on aerial photos and, being remote from roads and tracks in the Monga Wilderness Area, it was finally time to investigate.  The walk was designed as a sister trip to the recent Lyons Creek waterfall walk and in many respects it was similar, but a little more difficult.

We left Quart Pot Road and headed across country northward, crossing Quart Pot Creek and followed the Buckenbowra Fault line with associated Comerang volcanics’ hard rock strata.  From subsequent weathering, this rock spawns some interesting formations in this area’s topography, including waterfalls.

We approached the falls from below, and because the banks were too vine infested, particularly with the unfriendly lawyer vine, we stuck as close as possible to the creek bed.  About 300 metres from the target, we emerged into a pleasant patch of rainforest containing a number of Soapy Box trees and one example of the locally rare Brown Beech.

The creek then narrowed down considerably and solid rock appeared – a good sign if you are looking for waterfalls!  The first cascade was easy enough to negotiate but the following deep rock pools forced us to mountain goat the western sides of the canyon until we reached the base of the falls.

The waterfall is a near sheer drop of 25 metres with another 10 metres, top and bottom, of cascade, making the total drop about 45 metres. Its bottom slopes of solid rock proved to be a great viewing platform and we lingered for photos and lunch.

Because the area is not well explored, and no record of the waterfall (verbal or recorded) had been found, we gave it a name – No Name Waterfall, in honour of the nearby mountain of that name.

After lunching on the rocky ramparts, we rock scrambled to the top for further inspection, and took more photos.  Via a steep narrow ridge we descended back to the valley, the rainforest, and retraced our route to the cars.

This was a short (3 km each way), but strenuous (6 hours), exploratory walk to an unnamed waterfall, previously known only by suspicion, but now bearing the name No Name Waterfall.

It was well worth the trip and certainly confirmed the initial suspicion that a “notable rocky drop” indeed existed at that spot.

Ian