ashlee wrote:Can you drive all the way to Hilders Bridge in a 4wd?
Yes but there is a damaged culvert on Keith River Road where it crosses Brandy Creek not far out of Meunna. Also, the section through the Cann Creek valley can be a tad sloshy. The best road access to Hilders Crossing is via Pruana Road and Bird Road. You then only have 500m of narrow rutted Keith River Road to drive down to the small car park at an intersection approx 200m from the river. The left branch crosses Bird Creek on a broken bridge and leads 300m to the site of the old bridge. The right branch leads down to the ford.
ashlee wrote:after you cross Hilders Bridge do you keep following Keith River Road, and where do you go from there?
You do not cross the bridge. As you have hopefully gathered by now, the bridge has been gone for several decades. You wade the river at the ford which is only possible at low river levels. This is not to be trifled with after rain! On the other side of the ford, you soon pickup the Keith River Road just above the old bridge site. After climbing out of the Arthur Valley, the Keith River Road turns off to the left and you are now on Folly Hill Road and soon heading downhill to another wade, this time over the Lyons River. Once you have climbed out of the Lyons River Valley, Folly Hill Road turns off to the left and is almost completely choked by bauera. The clear road which continues on goes to Wynsmith Hills and will be the route of the new tourist road if it goes ahead. If you reach the crest of the hill on the gravel road, you have gone too far and you need to go back and find the old Folly Hill Road where it heads south.
ashlee wrote:This Heaven or Galadriels Cascades, is this far into the forest or could I rech this spot doing a day walk?
I would say this is about 3 to 4 hours walk one way from Hilders Crossing. Only the last hour is in 'real forest' (see next comment). It would be a solid day walk to go there and back.
ashlee wrote:Where does the forest turn into real forest lol, meaning not regrowth or plantation..
Both Galladriels Cascades and Tarkine Falls are on Eastons Creek. On your map, you will see that Folly Hill Road sidles the Lyons River Valley before descending to cross Eastons Creek. The 'road' then climbs steeply and heads south along the ridge-top. The map then shows the road doubling back to the north. There is no sign of this double-back. This is the point where the selectively logged eucalypt forest ends and the relatively undisturbed myrtle forest starts. As long as the tapes have not been removed, the track is fairly easy to follow south along the ridge to where it eventually descends (after a few ups and downs) to Galladiels Cascades. The track crosses Eastons Creek just above Galladriels and climbs quite steeply before crossing Eastons Creek again further upstream. A sizeable tributary is crossed before a well signposted junction is reached indicating the side-track to Tarkine Falls.
The single drop of Tarkine Falls and the double drop of Galladriels are all visible as white flecks on maps.google.com north-east of some quaries on the Pipeline Road. In fact, Tarkine Falls are a mere 800m from one of these quarries.
MrCAMEL wrote:Does anyone know if there is tracked way in from the Pipeline road area? Obviously it is not as pretty that way, but it looks to be only a few km, on the map.
In one of my blog entries, I muse about this option. I do not believe there is a direct route and I know the mine people are VERY dubious about public access in the vicinity of their pipeline and I expect their agreement with the government gives them the ability to enforce an exclusion zone. That having been said, the government appears happy to take on the mining people and this is essentially the route of their proposed 45 minTarkine Falls nature walk.
Posted: Fri 17 Jul, 2009 11:13 am
I wasn't trying to win anything! And I have lowered the weight of the 'luxury' sleep system. I was impressed that you carried both tent and hammock.