0605 The waterfall that doesn't exist

WELL, I didn't have the tourism booklet in my hand while I was driving, and Chris had her driving glasses rather than her reading glasses on; so, when we came to a sign saying, "Wingham" I turned that way, thinking that the booklet had said something about turning left when we came to a fork in the road, though I wouldn't have called this intersection a fork, either.

"This is the way to Wingham," Chris said. She seemed quite convinced that we were not heading to Wingham, so I did a U-turn and went the other way.

We found the entrance to a National Park area, and drove up the drive as far as the parking area. But the falls at the end of the walking trail were not Ellensborough Falls. We were glad that a sign told us that, as it would otherwise have been a long walk.

We concluded that, if there were falls here, maybe there would be more further along, so off we went again.

We did find some beautiful views.

In the course of the day, our grand-daughter had asked for pictures of nanna and poppa, so we took some photos with my mobile phone in addition to those we took with our ordinary cameras. Then we set off again.

The beautiful views were now more visible on the right hand (northish) side of the road rather than the left hand side. So I decided to stop and take some more photographs. Only I no longer had a camera. There was only one explanation. I had forgotten to bring it back into the car after leaving it on the car's bonnet while taking the mobile phone photographs.

So we had to head back about 5 km or so. Fortunately, I had reversed onto the roadway before driving on, so the camera had merely slidden off and landed in the grass. Everything was OK.

This time I didn't stop to take more photographs.

We kept driving, hoping to find signs, or someone who could tell us how to find Ellensborough Falls.

There was a utility parked on the grassy footpath, doors open. The door of the shed near the roadway was also open. I stopped and went to ask whoever was doing the work for instructions.

There were tools on the footpath, a compressor probably worth a couple of hundred dollars, and all kinds of goodies in the shed. But it was a landed Marie Celeste -- not a soul in sight. So we drove on.

A little further along, we saw some real people! A man and a woman on horses, and some children and dogs.

"Lots of people ask us this question," they said. "Back along the Wingham Road -- the turn-off is about 4km along. They should signpost it better."

Before we could leave these kind people, two women in a black Lexus sedan arrived heading back towards the Wingham Road. They stopped and asked Chris and me where the falls were. They were the same two women who had come into the Comboyne café. They had passed us while we were taking photos back along the road and assumed that we knew where we were going. When they reached the end of the road, they knew they had to return.

So we followed them and headed back some 10 or 15km to the Wingham Road...