Gone Walkabout - Day 6 Tulampanga, Chudleigh and the Last Waterfall (for now)

Early morning at Tulampanga (Alum Cliffs)

At sunrise I continued on to Tulampanga which means Possum Rocks, or Alum Cliffs as it’s been known. There’s a lookout here which overlooks  a spectacular gorge with the Mersey River far below. Together with Quamby Bluff in the South and Mt. Roland in the East, it forms part of a triangle of significant peaks. 

Although the Pallitoree People were the custodians of this area, three different Aboriginal Nations came together here, making it an important ceremonial site. It was also part of a network of trails used by many others to access other parts of the island and to obtain a rare ochre which could only be collected by women. The ochre was then ground up and used to decorate the body, for ceremonies, including funeral rites and as an article of trade.

A well -formed track leads you to an impressive lookout. It officially takes about 50 minutes

I know all this because of the excellent interpretive signage along the trail. There are notes about bush tucka and cultural practices, about the raptors which also love this place and about the geology – how successive ice ages have carved out this valley. It was altogether a lovely place to sit and contemplate for a while. I made myself some breakfast in the parking area and then went on to Chudleigh -The Village of Roses, to search for a waterfall shown on Google Maps. 

At the Honey House in Chudleigh you can see the bees at work as well as taste around forty types of honey

Chudleigh

Despite driving around the village for a while,  there was no waterfall to be seen. Nor had there ever been one according to long -time residents whom I asked, though they did mention a pool.

I consoled myself with a bit of honey tasting at The House of Honey and came away with at least some of my Christmas shopping done. You can watch bees in their hive here, learn all about bees and buy anything to do with bees or honey including beauty products, beeswax crayons, candles, china and socks, through to children’s books and confectionery. 

Chocolate Honey anyone? The nougat was delicious too

I was planning to come back to the lovely campground here, but was starting to feel as if I was coming down with something which me think fondly of home comforts such as hot baths, electric blankets and freshly washed clothes. There was just time for one more adventure before I headed home.

Friendly Campground in Chudleigh

Montana Falls

Montana Falls are now easily accessed via a not too difficult bush track. To get there, turn left off the Mole Creek road (B12)  West of Deloraine, where it says Montana. Turn left again just after the Bridge and the 41 South Salmon and Ginseng Farm. This takes you to Longridge Road. The Falls start from a little Reserve about 800 m along on the left hand side. The falls aren't all that high but broad and powerful. You can hear the roar as soon as you crest the hill. Follow the little path along the river and you'll see more cascades and another set of falls. 

 The track doesn't look too promising at first -watch out for snakes as the weather warms up

It gets better as you near the river

Start of the Upper Falls - Not high, but very powerful with many cascades and ripples right along the track

Part of the Lower Falls - It's certainly been a good season for Waterfalls  and this was a great finale

I  made it home without a hitch, but ended up stuck with the worst cold I’d had since  Primary School. Home was indeed a better place to be and much better than sharing it around.

[Bear with me my 10K international readers  - I can see that my small scale Tasmanian adventures haven't been of  great interest, but you'll be pleased to know that my normally very low Aussie readership has gone up 500%. Promise I'll be back to full strength soon to talk about what I’ve learned from this trip about making tourism more sustainable in future. You'll be pleased to know that I am also working on sorting this blog into categories so you don't have to sift through 800+ posts to find something you are interested in.

I'm curious to know if comments work now, so let me know if you like the new layout. Pages won't work yet, but if you mouse over Labels, it should start bringing up related posts].