Tasmania Trip - Day 18

Day 18 - 11/2/2014 - Lake MacKintosh to Strahan

Even though it wasn’t going to be a big day driving wise we still needed an early start because we were going to do a bush walk into Montezuma Falls, one of Tasmania's highest waterfalls.  Being up early also meant that I could take a few more photos! The morning at Lake MacKintosh was magical.

After a quick fuel up at Rosebery it was on to Montezuma Falls to start the walk.  It was an 8km return walk.  There is a 4wd track into the falls as well, but after talking to the Ranger at Arthur River he advised not driving in by ourselves due to the amount of rain that they have had recently.  He said it would be too slippery. I also didn’t fancy having to spend hours trying to recover myself, been there done that!

We took particular notice of the sign below.  It was a shame to see that the water in the creeks were polluted with heavy metals and acid.  They looked so good you just wanted to paddle around them.

A polluted creek

The track to the falls followed an old tram way so the track was nice and wide but there was still a decent grade on it.  The start of the track created a bit of a false sense of security.  The first 2km were all downhill with the next 2km to the falls uphill.  So on the return it was the reverse.  The last 2km all uphill back to the start of the track.  And to top it all off, the track was pretty sloppy and muddy in places due to the rain.  Needless to say, by the end of the walk Jodie wasn’t really in the happy camper camp :-)

Because it was an old mining area, there were old mine shafts scattered throughout the hills.  How ever there was only one that was accessible from the walking track.  I ventured in for a look while Jodie stood guard.

You couldn’t really see much inside and it had a damp claustrophobic feel, so I didn’t stay for too long.  It made you really wonder how people toiled away in these mines.

We finally made it to the falls.

Montezuma Falls

The suspension bridge that joins the 4WD track to the walking track

A long way down!

Looking down the valley from the bridge

The falls from the bridge

Just as I jumped off the suspension bridge too start the return journey, we heard a low rumbling noise and felt a vibration in the ground.  Because we were in a mining area we thought a local mine must have been blasting at midday or change of shift.  I mentioned to Jodie that I was glad I wasn’t inside the old mining tunnel at that time as it would have really freaked me out.

It was another 2 hour walk back to the start of the track.  

Access to the Montezuma Falls walking track is actually in the vicinity of an old mine site, the Hercules Mine, and an abandoned town, Williamsford Township.  Because the road to the falls parking area wasn’t very well signed and we had the camper in tow, we parked in part of the old mining area and walked down to the start of the walk.  There were heaps of old ruins to explore but because it was already well after midday and we still had to make it to Strahan, Jodie wouldn’t let me do any exploring :-(

Parked in the old mine site

We made it to Strahan and found that there was only one van park in town and no powered sites available.  It didn’t really worry us going unpowered because we ended up in the area where it was far less crowded, and closer to the beach!

After a quick setup we headed into the centre of Strahan to try and book an activity for the following day.  We only had one full day in Strahan so we were going to try and join a tour to see Macquarie Harbour, Gordon River and the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park.  All of the boat cruises were in the order of 6 hours with seafood buffets.  That was too long for us and we aren’t seafood eaters so we passed on them.  We ended up finding a company that does scenic seaplane flights.  We were also lucky enough that the company had another two people that also wanted to do the flight on the following day, so that meant the flight was going to go ahead as we had the minimum, (and maximum), number of people for the flight.