CORANG RIVER, Morton National Park – 8 & 9 December 2018
The Legendary Louise suggested that we walk into the Corang River (one of her special places) and float around on pool rings drinking margaritas! It sounded like a good spring adventure so we put a trip together which morphed into a true MSS Decadence Walk.
Heather R, Trish N and two new friends Michelle S and Julie B joined us for the weekend and in true Decadence Walk fashion, we had it all … blow up pool toys (courtesy of Louise), 3l of Margaritas, guacamole and tortilla chips, olives, beetroot dip & crackers, dehydrated cheese and sugar snap peas, red wine (including glass bottle), and strawberries & mango soaked in Cointreau – life doesn’t get much better than that!
What we didn’t factor in was 30°C temperatures, really too hot to be bushwalking with a heavy pack, but perfect weather for floating around on the lagoon.
Amazingly, we spotted two echidnas in the walk in, you’d be lucky to spot one, so this was a real treat.
The walk in is all on track, and it’s really well defined (no problems walking in, but on the walk out Trish and I lost the track at the beginning, so you do have to pay attention). It starts in open forest but eventually you pop up onto exposed heath that you have to cross (very hot in the sun), you cross four small gullies (luckily with water in them where we could cool off) and eventually reach the river.
We came across lots of this lovely pink melaleuca (tea tree), have not seen it before so must be common in Morton NP.
We reached the campsite at 1pm, Michelle had walked in on the Friday so we met her for the first time when we arrived. She must have thought we were a strange lot when we got the pool toys out to blow up. Heather insisted in carrying in the peacock (it must have been quite heavy).
Usually, from the lagoon (where we camped), to get to the Cascades, people walk cross-country cutting off a big horseshoe section of river. We decided that it was too hot to walk cross-country so we’d paddle upstream exploring the horseshoe section of the river, hopefully getting to the Cascades, but if not at least checking out a sandy bank (for a possible alternate campsite for the future).
All ready to test the peacock in the lagoon.
The peacock wasn’t as easy to paddle as expected, but eventually Trish and Heather (wearing peacock glasses courtesy of Louise) got the hang of it (using my crocs as paddles may have helped).
Michelle lazing along – the water was the perfect temperature.
Julie with her thongs that she used as paddles.
The long pools were great but walking upstream through the rocks was challenging, everything under water was very slippery, and the rings kept on getting in the way
An alternate way of paddling the peacock.
Further upstream.
There were some sections of pebbly bank that were easier, but not enough to give any relief from the slippery rocks.
Looking upstream … it was good to see what was upstream beyond the campsite and before the Cascades, but not good enough to ever make a return trip. We got as far as the “sandy bank” which turned out to be pebbles and not a good spot to camp. We weren’t going to make it to the cascades, ran out of time, so headed back to camp for happy hour.
The peacock made an excellent table (l-r – Michelle, Julie and Louise). We had so much happy hour stuff that none of us wanted to cook afterwards.
Pool rings made a nice chair around the non-existent campfire (park-wide fire ban).
On Sunday morning Michelle and Julie decided to walk back to the cars in the cool of the morning, the rest of us headed off cross-country to the Cascades. We had a bit of trouble finding the start of the track.
But eventually found it, really well defined.
After about an hour, we dropped down into the creek.
And the cascades were revealed. We couldn’t wait to get to the pool to cool off.
Louise heading over to the little side cascade where you access the top of the waterfall.
Trish and Heather taking in the serenity.
We swam/scrambled from one pool and waterfall to another, often encountering challenging scrambles to get to the top.
Louise in the crystal clear water.
We came across these rock slabs, how were the formed?
The next pool and waterfall.
The waterfall up close.
To get beyond it you had to scramble up the side, wasn’t easy, on the way back, we found the easy route.
Looking downstream.
More rock scrambling.
Looking further upstream to what would be the last cascade/waterfall.
Looking downstream. We went as far as this last cascade and then the river opened out, took us about an hour and a half to make our way upstream to the end of the cascades and half an hour to get back to where we left our gear. Mind you we did a lot of poking around.
Trish swimming in one of the pools – a rare photo, she hates swimming.
Heather at the end of the cascades, doing the jump!
We had a bit of lunch and then headed back to camp to pick up our gear. It was still hot (although a breeze had come up), so we had a short dip in the lagoon, to cool down before the walk out. We left camp at 2.10pm and were back at the cars by 5.20pm – very hot and tired and not looking forward to the long drive home.
Thanks to Louise who had suggested this walk (and unerringly led us from a to b) and to Heather, Trish, Michelle and Julie who joined Louise and me, hope you all had a good time!
A good adventure
Thanks Eric, it was a great adventure.
What a crazy group – good on you girls.
Living life to the max! Unusual to have an all-woman trip, and everyone got right into the spirit of the adventure.
One of those trips that leave you with a real buzz! Glorious day on Sunday, such a beautiful place – thank you Louise for taking us there, and thanks to everyone for a great time.
Yes, was magic.
Wow ! What a bunch of adventurous gals !
Sure are!
Ditto lol
Yes, Ditto
What a hoot – so much fun M
Yes, Shirl was a hoot, don’t know which I liked the most floating around on the pool ring or drinking the margaritas!
Great pics. Thanks for sharing. You have given me another place to put on the bucket list!! What camera did you use?
Always like to hear that I’ve motivated someone! I use an Olympus TG4, but would like to upgrade to the newest model which allows for adjustment of exposure, saturation. My photos are crap compared with a lot of photos out there (lol), and I photograph on the fly, so of the 200 or so that I take, only 25% of them are any good (others out of focus or water drops on them lol).
Great Stuff Marilyn…love the exotic flotation devices!
And so appropriate for such exotic women!
I might have to move to Australia!!! Looks like so much fun! The peacock was a nice touch!!! It is a mild day here——26 F and snow. I do love a white Christmas!
It is the 3 months of snow and sub-zero afterwards that get to me!!
Looking forward to reading about your next adventure!
I’d like to say that all my trips are so easy and so much fun – the fun’s always there but sometimes it’s just plain hard work. Don’t envy you the 3 months of snow, but miss the white Christmases!
It looks like the hard work was worth it. Beautiful scenery and lots of water to cool off in.
Yes Anne, was definitely worth it!
Hi Marilyn
Regarding the teatree I got some seeds(don’t tell NPWS) years ago on a Wog Wog to Newhaven Gap years ago. On planting them in a sandy mix I got a very good strike, potted them up & gave some plants to the other walkers. after planting them they struggled about 2 years & finally all died. Those given away didn’t survive either.
I guess they were out of their comfort zone and more specific to Morton NP.
Hi Doug, I too remember getting some tea tree seeds from the Ettrema area, didn’t have as much success as you though. The tea tree in the Morton area have such lovely big flowers.