August 10, 2022
Day 23: Silent Grove to March Fly Glen
It rained last night about 2am and there was a cacophony of zips being done up around the campsite, but it was only a few drops. I filtered some more water, ate my damper and then pootled off to the gorge around 7:30. It was 10k in of pretty ordinary road but unloaded it was fine. There were even toilets to get changed in at the gorge. You walk down a slope and along a creek about a kilometre to the top of the falls.
Then you can walk across the creek and up the other side, then scramble down a reasonably marked path to the bottom of the falls. The path only seemed to be marked halfway down and after that I was just following my nose down
There was no one else down there so I jumped in the water and swam to the falls. These are very picturesque cascades but not great for watching water fly over the edge. I’d overheard someone saying in the campsite you could swim down the creek so I put my shirt on (sun safety) and set off. The rocks were very slippery with plant matter so I was extremely ungraceful when I had to stand up in shallow bits but I eventually made my way through a few pools to the top of another waterfall. I saw a rock wallaby on the way but no people. The falls weren’t that high, about 15m maybe but the pool at the bottom was massive, with pandanus at the other end, and you could see further down the gorge. I have no photos due to the swimming there but trust me it was amazing.
I pretended I was an intrepid canyoner on the way back but first got freaked out by a snake on a rock on the side and gave it a wide berth then ripped my shirt all the way up the back getting beached on some shallow rocks. So much for sun safety. There were lots more people at the bottom pool when I got back including Ralph. I ate one of my donated muesli bars then set off back to the carpark. Again I passed several tour groups going down.
I rode back, packed up my tent, loaded up, sat in the neighbours’ chair for a bit eating chips, then headed off into the heat about 12:30. I couldn’t pick the point where I’d met Ralph but made it reasonably quickly to the creek and then turn off anyway. I also couldn’t find the road leading into the campsite those people had told me about yesterday on bell creek so just stopped on the road and ate a peanut butter wrap where the creek crossed the road, as after that, the range crossing happened for real.
There was a long but not too steep climb up along the range, then a total mess of corrugation at the top.
Then the road curved round to a pass with another lookout and more tar.
I pulled in to March Fly Glen Rest Area to use the toilet but found the toilet was out of order but the teachers I’d met at Adcock Gorge, Phoebe and Tessa, were camped next to it. So I decided to crash their camp.
They also had stories about wild pigs and a bull in their camp on the Adcock river. We had a nice afternoon chatting about hiking, books, bikepacking and questions that have bothered us on the road, like: where did all the people at Manning Gorge come from or how do the reflector guideposts end up curly? Unfortunately none of us can answer these. They also made me a milo after dinner with marshmallows.
The campsite wasn’t that great, with no working toilet but smelly wafts from the old one, and no creek but it was worth it for the conversation.
Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 1,417 km (880 miles)
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