Wentworth Falls & Falconbridge

So quiet a bit has happened in the past few days, once again. First of I went to Wentworth Falls, a waterfall with a drop down of about a hundred metres (that is at least what the warning sign said). Took a train from Springwood to Wentworth Falls station and took a walk along the Charles Darwin trail, a route Charles Darwin himself apparently walked when he visited Australia. I noticed quiet a few other walkers, some of them Chinese or Japanese, so I was already prepared for the place to be swarming with tourists. Add to that that it is school holidays and we have the perfect scenario for overcrowded tourist sites. I met some younger people going my way with some loudspeakers with them, so some music was in the bush. Also saw some black cockatoos after a got away from the four young guys. Pretty impressive animals compared to the white cockatoos, they make a parroty noise which gets annoying after some time. Lots of small skinkes around, always running for cover once they notice the presence of something larger. They where mostly sunbathing on the warm wooden walkways of the trail. I had a rest next the stream which supplied the Wentworth Falls and relaxed a bit. Further on there was a small waterfall, which was also rather peaceful. Then came the main and spectacular waterfall, overrun by tourists as predicted. Might be because they built a parking space not 15min away, but who am I to judge, coming from Nesselwang, a town that thrives on tourism. Enjoyed the view out in to the Blue Mountain canyon, don't know how this one is called, and got to a higher location after some time to get some good pictures of the waterfall. Also less people up there, most of them went down to the bottom of the falls, but I decided against that. Better view from the top. I made my way back after some time and met an old woman from the Philippines, who was here to visit her Grandchildren. I had overtaken said Grandchildren shortly before, on my way back. Me being a sensible human stuck to the pathway, they decided that it would be better to walk through the stream back to town. We waited at a bench for them and shortly after where caught up by four drenched young adults. Pretty lively lot, always laughing and doing something strange. One went swimming in full clothing in a natural pool and still had to sit on the train with them on the way back. Walking back I had a bit of a chat with them and took the journey back to Springwood together, as they where heading for Blacktown. We also met two Americans from Kansas who had been hiking in the Grose Valley for two days, with camping gear and everything for the night. Seems like a lot of the world comes to Australia. Back at Iains I got a surprise phone call from Cathi, asking if I wanted to stay over. As Leanne wasn't felling to well I decided to leave some peace and quiet in the house agreed.

So next morning I was picked up by Cathi (a bit late) and dropped of all my stuff at hers, which I had previously only taken 30 minutes to pack. After that I helped move some dirt around the garden, as she is doing some work here at the moment. She showed me around the garden properly and it is rather a large ground. Some chicken, some fruit trees and some vegetables. In the evening I watched a TV series about things to see in Australia. A big storm hit the east coast that evening and I was out in my DSLR trying to get some pictures of a thunderbolt on the camera.

Next day was spent having an interesting driving session with Angus in the morning whilst dropping him of at the station. After that I bought a proper hat to work in. A Kangaroo lather hat, so it is also waterproof which is a plus. Get a pictures sometime the next days. After that it was back to garden work, this time with the help of a dingo. A dingo in the sense of a small digger type machine to move a lot of earth around. I managed a fair amount in the afternoon and we let the chicken in to do the de-weeding and de-worming. After that a drive around the countryside looking for roo's. I was driving and was not used to driving on the left so some unfortunate events occurred, but nothing car-damaging or heart-attack related. Unfortunately didn't spot any roo's, but I did notice something spidery-shaped move across the road so we stopped and, what the heck, we have ourselves a funnel web spider, one of the most dangerous spiders in the world. Teased it a bit with a stick, but it didn't want to show its fangs and once it had scuttled back in to bush we carried on back to Cathis for some dinner.