Liffey Falls At Last!

The vegetation is much denser here and there are lots of lovely tree ferns

At last, we came to the Liffey turnoff, then took the right turn towards the picnic ground.  Would we or wouldn’t we?  Surprisingly, there didn’t seem to have been a drop of rain on this side of the mountains and the the second road was completely dry. Gingerly, I took the van down. It’s narrow and caravans and long wheel -based vehicles aren't allowed down because of the tight bends. There's a carpark for them not far from where the road turns off the highway but it would have been much too far for either of us to walk down to the start of the track.

It didn't say anything about campervans. The van is tall but only the length of a normal delivery van, so on I went. About three quarters of the way down there was a wide 4WD coming up and we couldn’t pass each other. The driver motioned to me to back up but on my side there was a soft edge and a steep drop and I don't have great visibility on my rear left side either.  I didn’t dare reverse. Disgruntled, the other driver pulled into the gutter, but his front wheel was still sticking out and I couldn’t get past. “You shouldn’t have brought that thing down in the first place!” he grumbled.

My friend climbed out and soothed his ruffled feathers somewhat and asked him to straighten his wheel. Meanwhile three more cars -mostly vans, were waiting a little further down the road behind him. After a bit more of a standoff, the other driver straightened up and I could squeeze past.  Fortunately, the road wasn't as narrow further down, we passed the other cars easily and arrived at the Picnic Ground without further incident. A little patience goes a long way. 

Under the tree ferns

The Picnic Ground is a Day Use Only area. I can’t remember if there was an electric barbecue, but there was a shelter, some picnic tables and toilets but no water to wash your hands. Luckily I had remembered to bring hand sanitiser. If you think you may get to Liffey Falls, stop reading at the end of this section as I don't want to spoil it for you, though I have been there several times and it's always been different.

The good news is that you do not need a Parks Pass to visit Liffey Picnic Ground or the Campground at the bottom. The distance from the Poatina to the Highland Lakes Road is 10 km (from Bothwell it's 65 km). From there to the Liffey Turn - off its about 13 km and then it's another 11 km on Riverdale Road to the Campground, so 34 km all up. If coming from the North, it's around 26 km from Deloraine, but be aware that the Highland Lakes Road/Lakes Highway is full of tight bends up to this point and may be covered in snow or ice at any time of year. Check the weather and contact Parks before you leave civilisation to find out the state of the roads before you go as there aren't many places where you can get a signal. Liawenee on the Central Plateau regularly has Tasmania's coldest temperatures!

Another kangaroo fern according to may phone, though it looks different to those I photographed yesterday

 The Falls

Delighted that we had made it this far, we started on the walk which was gentle at first and mostly downhill. The ferns were thick and lush here with lots of magnificent tree ferns and soon the falls began to reveal themselves. There are several levels and while the falls at the bottom are the biggest, there are many pleasant lookouts, even if you can’t make it all the way down the steps. Although there wasn't a huge amount of water flowing at present - summer has just ended, we weren't disappointed and the surrounding scenery is always lovely.

A glimpse from the top of the first level

First Tier

You can just see a bit of the second tier though the trees

From there the water is squeezed into a narrow rock channel before falling over the next drop

Another Kangaroo Fern though it looks different to the previous one. My phone says it's Zealandia pustulata

Going down, down, down

From there it forks, then splits into two

You can get an idea of the height by looking at this lady washing her feet at the base

Although I had dreaded the walk back and the return trip up to the main road, all went smoothly, though we may have taken a bit longer than we should have and I had to borrow my friend's walking stick on the last uphill. The way back to Hobart over the Lakes Highway was a breeze. The sun had come out, there was no traffic and we even caught a bit of the view over Dry’s Bluff. There was another bonus too.

There’d always been very few places to pull over on the Lakes Highway. This time, Julie spotted a great picnic area just 300 metres along the road to Arthur’s Lake. There's shelter, toilets and a barbecue and also a service station and a café opposite. I’m not sure if this is new. It looks it, but then I had always ignored this turn -off because the 12 km of dirt road to Arthur’s Lake was not something that I wanted to subject the van to. There is also a shelter and picnic area but no toilets at the lookout at the southern end of Miena. This also looks rather new.