It's a cloudy but mostly fine Saturday morning, the forecast is for wet weather later that afternoon. We've been cooped up in the house for the past few weekends, being winter here so we (My wife and two daughters) are keen to get out and about. I'd heard from a co-worker about a place called Quinninup Falls near Yallingup, about an hour and half drive away for us, near the southern coast of the South West of Australia. They had said you could drive up to it and park then about a 1k walk, a little tricky but doable. So we packed up some snacks and water into the 4x4 for the girls and headed off. It was an uneventful drive, except for stopping off for a drive-through-coffee and navigating a stretch of road works, we made good time close enough to 1.5hrs.
Using google maps to navigate the off road tracks we had found some of the existing tracks had been blocked off or subdivided by new properties by the wealthy and affluent as this area was in high demand for beach front holiday homes. One such track put us through our paces as rocks and boulders become exposed in the sand tracks and made for a seriously bumped ride and the 'holy heck handle bars' were put to good use. We eventually found the 'car park' which was basically the end of the line of a once again fenced of track, with several cars parked up we decided that this must be the access point to the walking trail.
I grabbed my trusty man bag (a brown cotton satchel with a neck strap) to carry the girls water and some basic first aid supplies and off we went, you could here the roar of the waterfall in the distance, the weather was holding up and really was good weather for a small trek. Along the path we went, chatting away and pointing out things for the girls to look at. The path changed from a solid dirt path to a sandy beach path and seemed to be heading not for the roaring sound of the waterfall but down to the beach, which was making this a longer journey than expected, the misses and I shared a look but decided to push on a little further.
The path deteriorated into a beach sand, scrub filled goat track on a downhill decent but we had come across another family making their way back that assured us once we got down to the beach we could walk along it to find the path to the waterfall. The girls were still in good spirits and we had come this far so we pushed on. We were rewarded with some amazing ocean views and it is plane to see what makes these beach front properties some of the best in the world and why they are so richly sort after.
We eventually came to a small river mouth that released the waterfalls discharge to the ocean. I jumped across first, then helped the girls, who made the crossing with more than a little trepidation.
The roar was getting stronger now and I knew we must be close to our destination and fed the girls some encouraging words because the journey had been far more taxing than I had originally planned for. We passed over a rocky outcropping and there, at the crests peak we finally saw the start of the falls. With renewed energy we picked up our pace and made our way to the falls. The roar was mighty here and the girls had to cup their ears as we stood back and admired the beauty and ferocity of this natural wonder.
- Platypus-Dundee
