Day 137 New England National Park Monday 22nd October 2012

Hi Readers,

We arose at 5:45 this morning as Susan wanted to see the sunrise from the lookout as it is supposed to be worth watching. We made it up there about 5 minutes before the anointed time. There was some cloud on the horizon and the result was probably not quite as spectacular as we hoped for but still OK.

Dawn!

Panorama (click to see the big image)

We returned by 7 after publishing yesterdays blog. After breakfasting we attended to chores. Susan washing her hair and hanging out yesterdays washing. I took advantage of the sun to fiddle with the solar controllers. I have lots of readings written down and now have the best running condition ascertained. The weather was sunny and quite breezy and with the bushfires burning and the unknown fire ban status we had decided there would be no fire later on this afternoon. A pity since I chain sawed up some wood yesterday.

At 10:40 we had a short drive into the park to start our walk for the day to the “Cascades”.  We walked along the fire track a very pleasant stroll first through regrowth eucalyptus and then through gnarled old beech trees. We descended down to the Cascades and into the Beech forest. The Cascades were very pretty and it was an excellent stroll along the stream periphery (5 Day creek). We then climbed up out of the gully and rejoined the track for the walk back to the car. Total distance was 6.0km and we actually achieved it in 2 hours 40 minutes well short of the advised 3 hours 30. Susan attributes this to her knees being a lot better of late and being able to walk faster!

Blending into the scenery

Cascade scenery

Where's Wally?

We returned to camp by 1:30 for a tuna salad lunch. At 3 or thereabouts we hopped back in the car to return to Point Lookout to avail ourselves of Telstra for internet (me) and a patchy but functional Optus for telephony (Susan). As we were driving up we began to see a ridge of what appeared to be low cloud or worse smoke. It turned out to be low cloud and by the time we reached the top it was quite misty. After completing our errands Susan drove very slowly back down through the thick and now quite damp low cloud. I kept expecting us to exit it as we descended however it also enveloped our camp site.

Most campers had used this change as a green light to light fires as we did also using the coals to cook vegetables in the camp oven. The weather has gradually deteriorated and it is now raining lightly but steadily and our breath is readily visible.

gloomy

gloomier

gloomiest

We had planned to depart tomorrow and that may now be in doubt. We are unsure of the weather forecast so we just have to wait and see in the morning. It is now blowing hard as well. We have had a nice hot tea and are retiring for a movie in bed.

This camp is 1344 metres above sea level so the weather can be cold and wet for extended periods. Fingers crossed that this isn’t one of them.

Night folks

Cheers Simon

Dawn

Cascades