It was a wet Sunday, but Deb Hunter and I gave it a shot and the hike was actually pretty darn great in the slow drizzle making the colours of the rainforest in Meander Forest Reserve come alive, especially those deep vivid greens of the moss and other goodies.
Walking from the bridge over Meander River up to Meander Falls carpark and trailhead
We parked at the bridge, as the road to Meander Falls is still closed (although we did see some graders and heavy equipment down the road, which may indicate some roadwork is about to be done for the summer season?). The hike into the trailhead was about 3 km one way along the road.
Golden leaves signal new spring growth on myrtle beech tree
Suspension bridge
Meander River once again
Once there we took the suspension foot bridge across Meander River and followed the short but steep trail up to Shower Cave falls, before continuing on Split Rock Track up towards the plateau.
Entering the manferns
Manferns or decorated ladies?
Deb dwarfed by the manferns
Vivid green moss on stone
Vivid green forest lettuce (my name for it)
Leaving the manferns behind as the track continues up through myrtle
Interesting attachment
The first waterfall you get to, although I don’t know the name
The start of the mammoth boulders
The same boulder, different viewpoint
Prelude to the falls
Shower Cave falls
Believe it or not but a platypus was hiking this path
Top of Shower Cave falls
The bright green is new spring growth of sassafras
Up we go to Split Rock falls
Split Rock falls ahoy
Track marker
Split Rock falls
Continue up to the boulders
We probably reached an altitude of 900m, and traversed through three different ecosystems: giant manferns and rainforest, myrtle and sassafras forest and then subalpine heath and eucalypt, and of course rock boulders.
Boulders
Inside the overhang
Up and over the boulder overhangs
We found ourselves at the intersection where you could (one day) continue on to Meander Crag, cross over Meander Falls and reach the plateau. That would be a hike for good weather as there is a scree field to navigate and the river to cross - both best done on a dry day. Also possible camping up on the plateau before returning back down as well.
Again the forest changes as we move up into the cloud forest
The intersection
Yesterday we ignored that route, and turned right to finish the Split Rock loop. It took us a quick 30 minutes to reach the bottom and by this time the rain had stopped and the sun was coming out, brightening the rainforest and giving it a completely different hue and atmosphere.
Making our way down to Split Rock to finish the circuit
King Billy pine
A grove of King Billys
Split Rock
Split Rock’s natural handrail
Precipitous descent
Rain stops, sun comes out and the forest changes
Shower Cave Falls and Split Rock Track is short but very impressive, and we’re glad we did it in the rain. The surprise of the day was seeing a platypus hiking up the same path away from a waterfall, burning a trail in record speed. Never seen a platypus move overland. Just wondering if she was headed to her babies or to one of the lesser falls nearby. We didn’t catch up with her to ask, but apparently it is something that platypus in Tasmania are able to do. 🙂
Another surprise was to come across a large stand of King Billy pines, this time more than on the other hike we did along Dell Track last weekend. It took us five hours to do the loop with lunch break and plenty of photo stops, the gradient was 500m and total length almost 10 km.
A lovely day out in the forest to see the stunning transformation from winter to spring with its abundance of colour and texture. 🙂
See below for our route: