When Things Fall Into Place

I experienced a bit of an odd moment on Saturday.
As you know I like to get out and about with my camera in tow.

Anyway I conceived an idea of taking some piccies of a waterfall. I didn’t have one in mind but falling water was what I wanted.

We often haunt the Yarra Valley on our weekend forays. So I naturally thought of Googling waterfalls near our usual haunt.
Only one came up and it was something like one and a half hours walk from the nearest road. Not really something that would daunt me too much, but I thought too far for a Saturday afternoon.

So I cast my web a bit further.

Another waterfall popped up.

Toorongo Falls out in the Gippsland district past Noojee.

Closer to car parking, only twenty five minutes walk each way. Good.

So I ask Google how to get there. Three hours drive each way.

Now don’t get me wrong I am an Aussie, more than that I am a Queenslander and we make our country big up that way.

So normally I wouldn’t worry about a couple of hours drive (each way) on a Saturday afternoon.

But three? And I wanted to get up reasonably on Sunday early to catch ANZAC day the next morning.

Another one for the back burner, I thought.

Five minutes later Deb wandered in to my study.

‘Shall we go somewhere today.’

‘I’d like to. Where do you think?’

‘I thought out past Yarra Junction, past Powelltown. You know the road that leads down towards Warragul?’

Deb had just outlined 80% of the trip to Noojee and the Falls.

So of course that was that, we were going.

It took us about two hours, not three. Google’s estimates are usually pretty good. But clearly we kept up a higher average on windy mountain roads than they expect. Plus, although it was a long-weekend, it was rainy. So the road was quiet.

When we got there it was wet, and it was getting late. Deb thought about it, but knitting in a warm car suddenly seemed far more attractive than traipsing along a muddy, leech infested track.

I checked the time, as I said it was late and cloudy. It gets very dark, very quickly in the bush. I’ve been caught in the bush in the dark before and it isn’t fun without a good light (there is probably another post there some time).

But I figured I had enough time: to get to the falls; take some piccies; and get back before I lost the light.

Five minutes into the walk the track crosses the Toorongo River. Thanks to the rain there was plenty of water, which is good when you want to take photos of a waterfall. With the Oz climate being what it is, I have arrived at many a “waterfall” to think, ‘Hmm, interesting cliff. Now where is that waterfall?’

I thought the swollen stream rushing around some lovely moss covered boulders was too attractive to not grab a couple of piccies. So here you are, I shot these quickly because I was by now worried that I simply wouldn’t have enough light to get the waterfall.From the crossing it was a good climb the whole way to the Falls. I caught the glimpse about halfway up that I teased you with last night. I shot that with a long telephoto lens.

Then finally I was at the falls. But it was by now almost dark.
So dark in fact that I would have had no chance to capture anything if I hadn’t brought a tripod.

So I got these with a really long exposure. What do you think?(The one above was Deb's favourite.)
I am happy with them, especially given they were shot under really bad conditions.I’ve included this one to give an indication of how long the exposure was. I “ruined” it by moving the camera before the shutter closed. It almost looks like mist rising off the falls.