Beyond Stoney Creek Falls
September 2021
These Falls are one of those very popular places that I generally avoid. On my walks without my wife I prefer to get away from humanity.
During my break from work recently I though I would try my luck during a week day hoping to avoid the weekend crowd. I had never visited these falls due to their popularity. That said despite being a week day it was still quite busy with couples taking selfies at the base.
Keen to avoid people I walked to the top of the falls where there is a deeper body of water for swimming in. There were people there as well swimming so I kept on walking further upstream. It turned out to be a wonderful day as I walked deep into the bush.
You will see a lot of vegetation like that shown above as you make you way up the creek.
You will also come across some smaller but stunning waterfalls as you journey along the creeks path.
A fair way in and you will come across a very large fig tree. It is nowhere near the size of my Fig Tree in Barron Gorge but it is still impressive. (there is a photo of that Fig Tree in this post)
At one stage it appears that a work crew of some type was based under the tree and dumped all their beer bottles in a pile nearby. There are hundreds of them and they look very old.
It appears that recently lightning may have struck the tree and a large portion of the top has been chopped off and lies at the base on the ground.
By midday it was really quite warm so I found a small pool and took a swim. The water may look quite dirty in the above photo but it was crystal clear. That is just silt and rocks on the base visible through the very clear water.
Plant life seems to grow almost anywhere often suspended from branches and tree trunks.
Speaking of hanging, this vine suspended over the creek bed reminded me of a noose as I walked past.
This waterfall was as far as I went on the day. I had something to eat there before making my way back out but I did climb to the top of the water fall to check out something growing in the actual flowing water of the waterfall.
Above is the end of a plant that is growing from the top of the water fall to the base. Below you can see a photo showing the length of the root system looking down from the top.
If you decide to walk up past the Falls as I did try to avoid rainy days and expect to get your feet wet as you need to zig zag across the creek as you make your way up the hillside. There are no tracks and the rocks are some of the slipperiest I have come across.