Australia 2020 - Day 13 - Launceston
Tuesday
Cataract Gorge is just a 10 minute drive from our hotel and we weren't sure whether to expect a tacky theme park (one of it's major attractions is a chairlift) or a place for someone with poor eyesight but in fact it is a huge natural canyon on a most impressive scale.
Huge vertical and horizontal fault lines met in the Jurassic period (145-200 mya), causing the fractures in the columns of Dolomite that we see here. It is hard to describe the scale of these rocks, they really are colossal. The Aborigines believe they are warriors protecting their spirit and some of them really do look like tall bodies with heads on top.
The South Esk River looks very benign today and a few hardy souls were swimming in the first basin and playing on the rocks but the area can be prone to flooding as the catchment area for the river is 15% of Tasmania.
There are two suspension bridges that traverse the gorge, one at First Basin and another at Duck Reach and both have been destroyed by flooding twice. The last major flood was in 2016.
We spent the morning walking to Duck Reach with spectacular views of the gorge. Amazingly we met two girls on the walk that we had seen on our walks in Cradle Mountain both yesterday and Sunday, how strange that we should all be on the same walks at the same time three days running!
We crossed the suspension bridge and explored the remains of the first hydroelectric power in Australia . This was destroyed in 1929 by flooding. This video shows how high the water came in the 2016 flooding.
We then took the Steep Gully track through the bush to get back to First Basin, there was the most gorgeous smell as we walked through the trees (we think Bergamot). We also met a Echidna otherwise known as a spiny anteater - one of the few egg laying mammal.
Then we walked the other way through the gorge to where it opens out into the basin area of the City. There is a walkway either side of the river, we chose the Zig Zag path first. Wow this was a steep climb almost to the top of the gorge and back to river level again where we crossed the road bridge and had a much easier walk back to the car park.
What a fantastic day.
16000 steps, 7 miles
Cataract Gorge is just a 10 minute drive from our hotel and we weren't sure whether to expect a tacky theme park (one of it's major attractions is a chairlift) or a place for someone with poor eyesight but in fact it is a huge natural canyon on a most impressive scale.
Huge vertical and horizontal fault lines met in the Jurassic period (145-200 mya), causing the fractures in the columns of Dolomite that we see here. It is hard to describe the scale of these rocks, they really are colossal. The Aborigines believe they are warriors protecting their spirit and some of them really do look like tall bodies with heads on top.
The South Esk River looks very benign today and a few hardy souls were swimming in the first basin and playing on the rocks but the area can be prone to flooding as the catchment area for the river is 15% of Tasmania.
There are two suspension bridges that traverse the gorge, one at First Basin and another at Duck Reach and both have been destroyed by flooding twice. The last major flood was in 2016.
We spent the morning walking to Duck Reach with spectacular views of the gorge. Amazingly we met two girls on the walk that we had seen on our walks in Cradle Mountain both yesterday and Sunday, how strange that we should all be on the same walks at the same time three days running!
We crossed the suspension bridge and explored the remains of the first hydroelectric power in Australia . This was destroyed in 1929 by flooding. This video shows how high the water came in the 2016 flooding.
We then took the Steep Gully track through the bush to get back to First Basin, there was the most gorgeous smell as we walked through the trees (we think Bergamot). We also met a Echidna otherwise known as a spiny anteater - one of the few egg laying mammal.
Then we walked the other way through the gorge to where it opens out into the basin area of the City. There is a walkway either side of the river, we chose the Zig Zag path first. Wow this was a steep climb almost to the top of the gorge and back to river level again where we crossed the road bridge and had a much easier walk back to the car park.
What a fantastic day.
16000 steps, 7 miles
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