Day 13: 28 September 2019
A highlight of our second day on this 3-day leg of the trip (Kia Ora – Windy Ridge along the Overland Track (OLT)) was a side track down to the waterfalls on the Mersey River.
We had both been to these falls before however the chance to visit them in early spring with plenty of snowmelt around was not to be missed. There are two separate tracks from the OLT and most walkers leave their packs in the forest and walk down to either D’Alton and Fergusson Falls or to the impressive Hartnett Falls.
Knowing a secret little pad that connects the two sets of falls and having plenty of time, we took our packs down and walked along the river through the delightful rainforest. Our trusty Helinox chairs provided us with a lovely lunch spot between the falls.
We were soon back to the OLT and heading up over Du Cane Gap, the dividing point on our trip. All rivers so far had been flowing north to Bass Strait. Now they started flowing south into the Derwent and the Southern Ocean. A bit of an exaggeration to assume its all downhill from here – but crossing the divide was something to celebrate.
The other reality of the day which was not something to celebrate was the large number of apparently healthy mature rainforest trees that were down in the forests. Many of these were trees in their prime which had survived many storms and weather events in their centuries of life, but were now toppled, fallen giants. We were amazed at the number and size of these trees. We heard many times stories of a recent, particularly wild storm but it was not clear if that was the cause of the tree falls. Some of the trees were still quite dangerous, hanging or suspended in other trees. Our journey took quite a bit longer as we scrambled over, around or under them as best we could.
