A day off for all of us. No uni, work, duty, oncall – nothing at all. Was tempting to do nothing, but figured I better earn a drink or two. We decided to head off to Ellenborough Falls, funnily enough it is located on the Ellenborough River approximately an hour west of Taree.
The highway was absolutely nuts with caravans and camper trailers everywhere. We got stuck behind one dick for nearly 15km’s who managed to overtake just two people – you could see everyone getting cranky around us. Got me stuffed why people have to drive like that – to me it’s simple – if someone wants to drive quicker than me, then I let them through.
Anyway we turned off at Coopernook and started to enjoy the drive. The recent rain was very evident, although the further we drove the more we could still see the scars from the fire season.
The gravel roads were rougher than normal (again due to the rain) but they weren’t too bad overall. In fact a few of the bitumen roads were in a worse conditions – I thought a few of the holes were going to swallow the poor RAV whole!!! 🙂
We debated about heading all the way up to Mooral Creek and then cutting across through Warrawillah Rd, but decided against it due to time. Gives us another reason to come back (I’ve driven through there but Loryn hasn’t).
Instead we continued to bypass Taree and Wingham, and went along Middlebrook Rd instead. It looked like the road had been closed a few times of late, especially with the low point around Dingo Creek. The grass has grown fairly high – at times I would say it is getting as high as the RAV.
We turned north onto Bulga Road travelling past Marlee and Bobin. The road turns to dirt just north of Bobin where it climbs up to Elands. It is an easy drive in an AWD but a few drivers seemed to be struggling in their 2WD’s (it isn’t that bad).
We had lunch at the kiosk located at the falls prior to exploring the various lookouts. The kiosk does have a Facebook page which has the menu and open times listed. Unfortunately the top walk to the Knoll is closed due to a fallen tree, but from previous visits I can say it is worth the short walk when open.
The walk down to the lower falls is quite narrow, and funnily enough there are plenty of steps – apparently 641 each way according to the sign. The pathway is very narrow which makes passing people difficult at times. You drop 160 metres in a 450 metre walk, so at times it does give the legs a workout. Of interest it is listed as the third highest waterfall in Australia, after Wollomombi Falls near Bellingen in NSW (220m) and Wallaman Falls in Queensland (300m).
Of amusement today, young Ellie is 3 years old – and was kicking the asses of adults. She walked all the way down and all the way up. Reminded me of Ethan a number of years ago when we were at Freycinet N.P in eastern Tassie.
We travelled home via Colling Road which was in good condition. A stop at Comboyne to ride the cow and have a milkshake is always a bit of fun
Overall it was a nice enjoyable relaxing day out.