Royal National Park Waterfalls Walk/Drive

[Allchin09]

Hey,

A few months ago (30 Jun 13), after a heavy downpour of rain, I decided to go on a relaxed walk to visit some of the waterfalls in the RNP.

Driving into the RNP from the Waterfall entrance, we first stopped to visit the upper and lower National Falls. I'd never been to them before, and I was impressed by the size of the lower fall.


After a few photos, we jumped back in the car and drove to the Curra Moors Car Park. From here we walked along the walking track and firetrail to Curracurrong, passing Middle Rill (which had a small fall just downstream of the track) and Curra Brook on the way. We also had an encounter with a wallaby and a small Brown snake.


We then had lunch as we admired the beauty of the location. It was here that you could see Eagle Rock sitting prominently out of the cliff face and watch Curracurrong Creek and Curra Brook plummet directly into the ocean. As the wind was blowing directly onto the cliffs, much spray was present as the freshwater falls are blown back up the cliff!




After lunch, we returned the same way back to the cars and visited the nearby Governor Game Lookout. From the top you could see up and down the coastline, and into the communities of Era and Garie which were situated below.


We then drove to Kellys Falls, which flows into the Hacking River, located at Stanwell Tops. To my surprise, we were greated by a party on horseback! Whilst it isn't located in the RNP, the falls are located in a detached section of Garrawarra SRA, and I don't believe that horses are permitted in that area. The falls themselves were an impressive drop, but it was difficult to get an unobstructed view of the falling water.


We then returned home after a easy going day of waterfall watching. Curracurrong was probably the highlight of the trip, but National and Kellys Falls are also worth a visit after a downpour, and they can easily be access by those who prefer to stay close to their car.

More photos from the walk can be found (hopefully) on my Facebook page through the below link:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... b4cb9c3910

[Pteropus]

Nice pics. National Falls can be quite spectacular after heavy rain. There is a track to the base of the second tier. Many many years ago I tried to get down there in heavy rain, and in my mind's eye there was a small landslip that prevented me from getting to the base. I never tried to get to the base again until earlier this year when it was much drier, and I walked up the creek from the bottom. When I got to the base of the falls, I found that there is no evidence of a landslip on the track to the base of the second tier at all and so perhaps I was turned around by the amount of water coming over the falls. There was hardly any water coming over the falls earlier this year though. You can see the track in your first photo, in the middle, going behind the falls. There is an interesting geological disconformity in the rock face behind the falls, between the Narrabeen Shale and Hawkesbury Sandstone rock strata. And of course the falls look nowhere near as high from the base as they do from up top!

Base of National Falls

289 National Falls.JPG (281.87 KiB) Viewed 8516 times

Disconformity

291 National Falls.JPG (304.18 KiB) Viewed 8516 times

[jeffyffej]

Hi Guys,

Great spots. Me and my mate got bitten by the waterfall bug and spent some time checking out Kelly's Falls and National Falls.

We bumped into a marine biologist at Kellys Falls who was there gathering info for a study he was doing on the Port Hacking River, which was pretty interesting. We talked to him about the falls near eagle rock and he said they are known as the reverse waterfalls because apparently from a boat they look like they are going back up the cliff.

National falls is a nice area to explore too. Ended up walking along the creek to the bottom a few weeks back and spent a fair amount of time looking around and taking photos. Good fun rock hopping up the rainforesty creek.

Pteropus, Did you notice that odd hole behind the falls? Probably a few metres deep .. Just big enough for someone to crawl into..

It definately looks bigger from the top. Although i did take a couple photos with the wide angle lens which has distorted the image and made it look much higher! lol

Would like to try get to the bottom of Kellys falls at some point if possible to do some more exploring.

Ill try post some of the photos at some point.

Regards
Jeff

[Pteropus]

Pteropus, Did you notice that odd hole behind the falls? Probably a few metres deep .. Just big enough for someone to crawl into..

Yeah I remember something like that. The geology there is pretty interesting.

[puredingo]

jeffy, getting to the bottom of Kellys falls is easy simply take one more step from where that pic is taken from. You can actually jump that place safely...if your brave enough!