Regnans Falls, Styx Valley

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Regnans Falls, Styx Valley

Postby Caedo12 » Thu 20 Jul, 2017 6:27 pm

This is a spot I'd been looking to try to find for a while, in fact I'd wanted to since getting the 35 Walks to Waterfalls Book years ago when I was eight years old. According to the book, Regnans Falls are the largest in the Styx Valley, and the start of the track is located just 250 metres past the Big Trees Walk. I found what I thought looked to be the spot where the track once was (I wasn't particularly hopeful of seeing anything resembling a track there now) on the map, although the creek wasn't named and the falls weren't marked. This excursion had the added bonus of that, if I was successful in finding the falls, it would be my 100th that I'd visited in Tasmania.

We headed out to into the Styx Valley, and found what I thought was the location for the start of the walk, at what I dubbed the Regnans Falls Creek. What became immediately clear as I surveyed the scrub and dense forest in front of me was that whatever track had once been here was now well and truly gone, so I decided just to bushwhack my way into the forest, and work my way upstream. Besides the scrub right at the start, most of the walk was surprisingly open and quite a bit shorter then I expected, and it only took me about 20 minutes to get to the falls, although I'm usually a reasonably quick hiker. As it turned out there were some pink ribbons tied to trees to mark out something of a route here or there although they were usually fairly sparse and it was easy to lose the route they were taking.

At first glance Regnans Falls didn't appear to be anything massive, however a little bit of further exploring led me towards the top of the falls where more cascades twisted and tumbled around, mostly out of sight from the base, leading me to guess that the falls' total height would be in the order of 20 metres or so. The area itself was well worth the stroll independent of the falls anyway, some of the rainforest was beautiful and a good photographer could have done plenty with the fungi and mossy forest here. Definitely a great spot to check out if in the Styx Region, and it would be great if PWS some day could put a bit of cash into redeveloping this track.

If anyone's interested in seeing a bit of the hike itself, I've uploaded a video to Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ua2sYXR4WM
Attachments
regnans.jpg
Regnans Falls from the base
top.jpg
Looking over the top of the falls, look closely to see my backpack on a log at the bottom where I took the above photo from
middle.jpg
The lower section of the upper tier of the falls
upper.jpg
The upper tier of Regnans Falls
Last edited by Caedo12 on Sat 22 Jul, 2017 1:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Regnans Falls, Styx Valley

Postby north-north-west » Thu 20 Jul, 2017 8:01 pm

I could be wrong, but that looks a lot like the falls accessed by one of the taped routes on the Tolkien track network.
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Re: Regnans Falls, Styx Valley

Postby Caedo12 » Thu 20 Jul, 2017 8:05 pm

Nah I know the falls you're talking about, and this definitely isn't it. The Tolkien track waterfall is a lot smaller, and flows on Waterfall Creek, whereas Regnans is on an unnamed creek
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Re: Regnans Falls, Styx Valley

Postby NickMonk » Fri 21 Jul, 2017 2:50 pm

Nice work Caedence. I too have been to the falls off the Tolkein Track. I knew this one existed but I hadn't seen any real description of directions, so thanks for that, looks like a worthwhile little exploration.
The Tolkein Track falls are a little disappointing from a size perspective, although the forest is of course magnificent.
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Re: Regnans Falls, Styx Valley

Postby north-north-west » Fri 21 Jul, 2017 8:04 pm

There is a second set of falls accessible from that track, and much bigger and better than the little trickle on the imaginatively named Waterfall Creek. And that second set is what I was thinking of . . . although I may be getting confused with something else down in the Styx. It was a few years ago after all . . .
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Re: Regnans Falls, Styx Valley

Postby Caedo12 » Sat 22 Jul, 2017 1:42 pm

The Tolkien Track only goes near one creek of any significance, that being Waterfall Creek, so I'd imagine you probably visited Regnans Falls and confused the tracks. It's only a few hundred metres as the crow flies between Regnans and the Tolkien Tracks so they're pretty close together.
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Re: Regnans Falls, Styx Valley

Postby Ciaran » Sat 22 Jul, 2017 4:41 pm

Very nice. Good job on the video. Keep it up.
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