Forty Foot Falls

I have a friend, Tristan, who I use to work with, doing Bush Regeneration in Shellharbour. He has since began working in the Southern Highlands. He told me of a walk he wanted to do known as the Forty Foot Falls Track in Mittagong. We organised to do it with another friend, Biris, still working in Bush Regeneration in Shellharbour.

We organised a day and a spot in Albion Park for Tristan to pick me up and we began heading to the Highlands. We talked on the way up, Biris mentioning to me that K-Mart had Jurassic World shirts for sale, I told him to turn around unzipping my jumper to reveal I had bought that exact shirt the day before and was currently wearing it.
We talked and joked on our way up, driving pass signs leading to Mt Gibraltar and I joked about my blog about it. We stopped in somewhere (I honestly have no idea where it was) so the guys could get a coffee, and continued on our way.
We finally arrived at Lake Alexandra, a quaint little pond with ducks all around. It was a particularly cold day and we were all keen to get moving.

I asked Tristan where it was and he pointed us in the right direction, telling us he had worked along the track that heads to the falls but had not been there himself.

We began heading down a dirt track, walking beneath a large piece of frayed rope hanging from a tree that looked like it had once potentially been a swing.
We crossed a small wooden bridge looking over a small rust coloured stream, before coming to a split in the path with no signage.

Biris and Tristan

I asked which way we planned to head and without even a reply Tristan began heading up the stairs in front of us. This lead to a track heading to our right but there seemed to be little tracks shooting of from it heading through the bush. I commented that there were so many paths with so little direction, while Tristan, looking at his phone diverted off from the main path and headed through the bush heading uphill.

We came along a dirt road, heading down to our left and up to our right, (Tristan said he believed that following the road right lead to Sixty Foot Falls, which in my mind I questioned why were wouldn't go there if the fall where meant to be bigger) with a small track through the bush ahead of us heading forward and uphill that we followed.

In the icy air without warming up, we all felt the sting of the cold on our lungs and we started heavily breathing. We came around to some big rocks with a random piece of clothing laying beneath them before continuing further up the track. Tristan was looking at his phone and as we continued along the path he told us we were heading the wrong way. He pointed down to our left saying the track was somewhere that way and headed straight through the bush, no path heading in the "general direction" we needed to go. I followed behind, bemused at the whole situation, watching my footing on the loose topsoil and watching to not trip on any protruding sticks.

We came to a big slab of rock and the guys made quick work getting down it.

We soon made it back down to the dirt road we and previously left and continued following that along.

We turned off down a small track to our right once we reached a section of the bush that looked like it had had fires (if not controlled burning), with a little wooden marker painted red on top to show the way. We followed the track along past the burnt out bush with a lush green valley down below us on our right.

Along the way we noticed a burnt out car up on the hill shocking Biris who was confused to how it go there. Tristan told him it had been there for years and that there had been more trails out here in the day for them to get through. Biris made a comment about it looking like the Weasley's car from Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets. We continued through admiring how beautiful and lush it was, saying how much better it would be to work in proper bush land compared to the limited sections of bush in Shellharbour.

We soon reached another split and began heading down towards the gully.

As we got down we looked up at the magnificent rocks looking down on us. I joked that we should climb them before telling the guys that my Wife had specifically banned me from doing any climbing, or anything silly or reckless, as she was still anxious from the rock climbing accident with my Dad.

Don't wander off alone, that's how you get eaten by Compy's

We continued up the winding dirt road, Tristan mentioning that although Lantana wasn't really a problem in the highlands there was heaps of privet pointing it out down in the gully which was now to our left.

As we progressed further up the track I pointed out a massive boulder with a huge sloped side. I said we should climb up to the top and touch a small little tree that was growing from the top of it. They both joked about being forbidden to do it, but soon enough all three of us were clambering to get to the top. Tristan made his away around, climbing on top of another boulder and up on top touching the tree first and I slowly and awkwardly made my way up the rock, feeling how slippery it was and making sure not to lose my grip less I face the scorn of my Wife. I soon reached him and touched the tree while Biris followed up the path Tristan took. It was an effort and we were all puffing, making our way back to the path, smiling from the adrenaline.

We soon began to here the noise of traffic passing underneath a massive overpass.

Biris commented on how good the area looked given that it must have been a massive construction job and the area didn't seem to have any major disturbances to it.

Tristan commented that this was sort of the point where he wouldn't really no the way anymore and I pointed to our left to some stairs that had a sign leading the way to Forty Foot Falls as well as the Boxvale Track. We questioned while we walked down the stairs whether we should do that one too.

We proceeded down the stairs to the creek where we came upon a sign saying not to drink the water. Tristan informing us that water from a water treatment plant came into the creek.

We walked along the creek line, admiring the beauty of the valley.

I was a little behind taking photos and when I caught up to Biris and Tristan I heard them discussing a plant. I said "The Maclura"?

Which it looked like from the distance with its thorns and Biris had assumed the same. Tristan told us it was just small leaf privet that had lost all it's leaves and on closer inspection we could tell he was right.

Let's play identify the plant

We soon reached a fork and took the left path staying close the the creek, soon reaching a section that had been hit by floods where the creek had dried up (although it seemed to continue behind a little island away from us. We had to climb over a few knocked down trees and while walking across them we had to hop down, I went first and heard a noise behind me.When I looked Tristan was leaning up against a big boulder on a different fallen tree apparently he had taken a fall from the main tree, he mentioned that he had hurt his hip a little, though not too badly. I joked that he had taken the "Forty Foot Fall" and Biris commented that he would have to do it for everyone that passed so they could see it too.

The path came to an end although there was a rock to our left that we climbed up to the main path that the fork in the path evidently led to (which we verified on our way back). We continued along the track, reaching the turn off to Welby via Boxvale Track.

Along the path we came to a massive fallen tree that had a section cut out for people to walk through, we squeezed through before coming to and open area just down from the falls.

Tristan mentioned that there were Platypus around, although not in this particular section as they like water spots with trees and tress branches to nest under. I mentioned that I had only ever seen a Platypus in the wild once at Bombala, while on a schoolies road trip with my Dad.

From here it was a small walk on uneven rock up to the falls. We were greeted to our first view of the waterfall with a massive rainbow glistening in the water in front of it.

I commented to Biris that Tristan was hunting for a pot of gold

While Tristan was off underneath the falls looking into a little cave I sat with Biris who was having a drink while I quickly smashed some vegemite sandwiches and as Tristan made his way back to us all three of us went off to have a look in the cave.

I sure hope this isn't treated water

We came out of the cave, crossing over a heap of tree branches that look liked they had been cut down by people and made our way uphill and up a small metal ladder, to the top of the waterfall.

Biris and I both made comments about Tristan making sure he didn't get to close to the edge. I'd had enough stress with my Dad's rock climbing fall to last me a lifetime so I didn't have any problem making sure a friend watched himself as the rocks around the edge were covered in very slippery moss. We spent a lot of time appreciating the falls before trying to decide whether or not to follow the other track. However Tristan and Biris hadn't packed food (as we only planned to do that track) so we agreed we would come back another time to follow the Boxvale Track (and maybe go to Sixty Foot Falls too).

We made our way back, and all three of us found coming back up tiring, which reminded me my fitness had once again dropped as not that long ago I had done the Otford to Bundeena Hike in a day.
We eventually made it back to the car agreeing we should all hike together again soon.


If you have enjoyed this post, or my blog in general, please follow it, or like my page on facebook or follow me on Instagram.

Thanks for reading! - Steven








Extra tidbits! - The previous weekend before this hike I had done a spicy pizza eating challenge with my friend Stuart at D'Amato's Family Restaurant in Unanderra. I'm a huge chilli fan eating ridiculously hot things my friends call me crazy for. We signed the waiver and began eating... and it DESTROYED US. It was insane. I eat scorpion chilli sauce on many meals and overall I would have eaten just over 2 pieces (2 and a half, maybe 2 and a quarter) however I was eating it with a knife and fork so according to the rule I technically only ate 1 slice. But it was rough, though a good laugh too.

That Sunday my Wife and I went to Nowra Trees Adventure at Shoalhaven Zoo as we had got passes as a Christmas gift and decided we should use them. We booked in first thing in the morning and went down. It was a via ferrata climbing route with zip lines too. My Wife has a huge fear of heights so I did an easier climb just to see how she would do. Ultimately she didn't end up doing any as she was too afraid and I ended up proceeding through the courses on my own, starting with the second hardest (which you had to do before doing that hardest) after this I completed the hardest course which actually was a physical challenge which made me happy as I didn't want it to be too easy. After this I proceeded through completing all the other courses, and even enjoyed the easier ones. I defiantly got my worth of climbing and completed all available courses. It was way more fun than I anticipated it to be and now want to try other such courses around the country.