Raiders of the Lost Arch

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Raiders of the Lost Arch

Postby iandsmith » Tue 23 Aug, 2011 6:15 pm

I can’t even remember who the man was, can’t remember where I met him, only remembered that he knew where the arch was; the arch I’d read about in some obscure document in a research library. He’d told me how to get there, gave me some little known details and had related how it was hard to find even if you knew where you were going.
It was like an ache; it wouldn’t go away and kept coming back when my mind was on other things. And it wasn’t really anything at all, just an arch secreted away in the bush; one of only three apparently in the whole Hunter Valley.
Heck, I’d been in America just two months previously and had visited a national park with over 2,000 of them in an area not even as large as the valley. Still, it gnawed at me.
Ken was keen to go and have a look as well so we made a date and then postponed it but eventually we headed off for the Watagans, for that is where the arch was to be found.
At the Gap Creek carpark we checked our gear and rubbed Vaseline around our ankles to keep the leeches at bay that had pestered us last time before moving off.
The trail is easy to follow initially; in fact, we’d started out on it last time but rain came and we called it quits when we were shooting some Bridal Veil Stinkhorn fungi. We had no such problem today and stopped several times to shoot more fungi then pushed on until, as the man had warned me, we came to where a large tree had fallen over the trail and after that the track was difficult to follow.
We slid over the log and moved on, at times not sure where the trail actually was but making headway in the general direction anyway though at times the walking was tough as we negotiated steep slopes with few toeholds. In time we found ourselves beside a cliff face, partially laden with mosses and lichen and luckily with a narrow clear path alongside.
We made good progress but then the sandstone wall ended and, despite looking, we hadn’t sited the arch. The next obstacle was a crossing over Gap Creek but we decided to go on top of the rock face and have a look but, as Ken got to the top it looked like we’d drawn a blank so I said I’d head off across the creek and, if I couldn’t see it, we’d head back.
No sooner had I started out than Ken yelled he’d found it; so I joined him and there it was, in a clear spot on top of the rock face with views across a valley where we could see clouds building up for the predicted afternoon storms but we were too excited about our find and scrambled to get pictures of it before the occasional drop became a downpour.
We gingerly walked across it, the type of thing men seemingly have to have to do to prove who-knows-what, and took several pictures of each other doing it as proof of our manhood or stupidity before we were satisfied. That coincided with the rain starting to fall a little more earnestly so we moved back under the canopy though it soon eased so we went down to the streamlet again to photograph its erratic course through vines and moss laden boulders for the third time that day.
We had a nice session before the gloom returned and foretold that our day in the Watagans was rapidly coming to an end with the coming of heavy raindrops this time so we spurted back down the trail and reached the car without getting too drenched and rocked up to our favourite cafe (they have pies) in Cooranbong. The only difference here was that Ken didn’t leave blood on the floor and a squirming bloated leech to remind other patrons we’d been there like last time and thus we celebrated our finding of the “lost” arch.
Attachments
Copy of Watagans 060.jpg
Birds Nest fern beside Gap Creek
Copy of Watagans - Phellinus fungus.jpg
Phellinus fungus
Watagans - The Arch (7).jpg
Ken on top of the arch
Watagans - The Arch (7).jpg (96.53 KiB) Viewed 5181 times
Watagans 074.jpg
Gurgling Gap Creek
Watagans 074.jpg (85.87 KiB) Viewed 5181 times
Watagans 103.jpg
Small cascade on Gap Creek
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iandsmith
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Re: Raiders of the Lost Arch

Postby Greenie » Tue 23 Aug, 2011 7:38 pm

So are you going to find the other two arches?
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Re: Raiders of the Lost Arch

Postby Drifting » Tue 23 Aug, 2011 7:41 pm

cool spot!
All good things are wild, and free.
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Re: Raiders of the Lost Arch

Postby iandsmith » Thu 25 Aug, 2011 10:39 pm

Greenie wrote:So are you going to find the other two arches?

If you can tell me where they are I'll go have a look!
Cheers, Ian
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Re: Raiders of the Lost Arch

Postby Greenie » Fri 26 Aug, 2011 9:39 am

Thanks for the report. Sorry I have no idea. Happy to help you find them though!

I was in Cooranbong yesterday. I should have tried one of those pies.
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