Washpen Gorge

8 December 2013

This is a really interesting and varied walk on private land, taking about 3-4 hours. The owner joins us at the start to give us leaflets and information. We begin walking through a pine forest and then come out onto a path beside a gorge.

The sides of the gorge rise above us as we make our way along the footpath

We continue climbing and eventually reach a lovely tussock upland area and follow the path down again into the gorge. The owner’s done a lot of work building steps and bridges to create this circular walk. He makes a $10 charge for the upkeep of the path.

 



Beautiful upland tussock grass

 





Coming down to the pool at the foot of the waterfall

 

At the lowest point there’s a waterfall plunging into a pool and we’re able to cross the stream and come out into a lovely valley bottom below overhanging cliffs. The vegetation is all native trees and plants.

 

Beautiful native greenery

We soon come to the lake which he’d mentioned as a good lunch spot. What he failed to mention is that the place is sandfly infested, so I have to eat my lunch walking round the lake rather than seated at a picnic table. They don’t bother Mike as he’s helped himself to the insect repellent spray on the table, which I can’t bring myself to use because it smells so dreadful. When we get back to the car we are attacked again and spend a lot of time slapping our legs to get rid of the little black monsters.

 

Picnic area beside the lake all set up for group visits, all we saw were sandflies