Battling leeches, hugging rocks, and more in the Royal National Park

[linewetter]

I recently met @Mike Sydney about a month or so ago and we've fished together a few times now primarily at night.  Throughout the hours of fishless nights, we got to know each other and found that we both really like the outdoors.  A plan was made to go hiking and fishing today, with fishing being the secondary objective.  The getting outdoors and enjoying nature was the primary objective.  

I was in charge of picking the location....onto Google Maps and Google Earth!  I ended up choosing Winifred Falls as our hiking & fishing location.  With the rains that just happened in Sydney on Friday & Saturday, the water was for sure going to be running strong.  That was one of my main concerns, that there wouldn't be enough water based off the satellite imagery.

Off we were at 9am at the start of the trail.  We were the only ones here and it was quiet and the air was still crisp from the morning.  

 

It was a well marked fire trail all the way to the falls, and it was feeling quite easy...too easy.  We were going on a pretty steep decline so gravity was on our side and helping us down.  But what goes up must come down...or rather the other way around as we'll find out later.

It wasn't too long before we reached the falls:

 

 

 

The pictures just don't do it justice.  The sound of the water crashing, the smell of the outdoors, the greenery all around us.  Quite some beautiful parts of Sydney so close to home.  

 

We setup our rods and had a few casts...Mike got onto a snag pretty quickly and it wasn't long until I cast a little too far and got stuck into a tree too..

 

 

Welp...we had other plans anyway.  A little further down was a pool of water called the South West Arm Pool, though it involved a little bit of bushwhacking as the fire trail ended.  Here was the start of our trailblazing...

 

 

Were we going the right way?  Who knows?...but hey as long as we can hear water, it's probably going to lead us to the pool.

 

 

 

As we made our way along, we had to do a little bit of amateur bouldering and hug rocks to keep from falling into the abyss as there wasn't a great passage through...the rains made what were once passable parts of the stream into fast moving water.

 

 

I'm tellin ya, we were squeezing into some tight spaces with big drops.  This was turning out to be a great adventure.

 

Here is a look at one of the crossings we were supposed to be able to do, but not after the heavy rains...It was too dangerous.  Did you know it takes just 6 inches (that's 15cm for you metric folks!) of water to sweep you off your feet?

 

The water was overrunning to the point where we did have to step in and do a bit of splish splashing still:

 

 

Not to fret though....after a lot of scratches and some splashing, the pool was coming into sight.  We made it mostly unscathed.  Here the pond is in sight in the sunlight:

 

 

The pool!

 

 

Rigging up to fish again...this time rigging weedless after having learnt my lesson (which was a good idea as I soon cast into another tree but was able to get it free very easily due to the buried hook)

 

Fishing the pool....had a few bites in the beginning which was surprising as there was a lot of freshwater coming out, so we didn't expect any of the saltwater fish to be coming up here...but no dice at the end of the day!

 

And begins the slow slog back up....this time gravity was not on our side..

 

 

Overall an amazing day out and a great adventure had with @Mike Sydney.  By the time we headed out there were more than a few groups of people coming in.  It was nice having the place to ourselves until the end, very serene.  Already looking forward to the next!  😁

Edited June 16 by linewetter

[XD351]

Great report and awesome pics ! 

[Yowie]

A fair sort of walk through the bush to reach the falls. The falls can be reached by boat on a high tide, and other areas along the river fished as well.

A few bream up there, and some big bully mullet at the right time of year.

Whenever I have motored up there, not as much water coming over the falls - the recent rain has boosted the water level.

[dirvin21]

Looks like an awesome trip, thanks for sharing mate

[Larkin]

How good is the national park!

no fish, but the adventure and scenery would have made the day!

[linewetter]

2 hours ago, Yowie said:

A fair sort of walk through the bush to reach the falls. The falls can be reached by boat on a high tide, and other areas along the river fished as well.

A few bream up there, and some big bully mullet at the right time of year.

Whenever I have motored up there, not as much water coming over the falls - the recent rain has boosted the water level.

Wow amazing that you can reach the falls by boat at all.  We saw debris high up on the sides, but figured it was due to the high levels of rain causing a large flood or something.  Didn't know high tide could get that high even that a boat could reach the falls.

[linewetter]

12 minutes ago, Larkin said:

How good is the national park!

no fish, but the adventure and scenery would have made the day!

It's such a nice part about living in Sydney.  So many national parks so close to the city - all within very reasonable driving distance.  Really excited to do a bit more exploring after having done this one

[big Neil]

An excellent report of your joint adventure in the NP. Good that fishing was relegated to 2nd choice and that you both came out unscathed from the trek. Great photos to compliment the dialogue.

Cheers, bn

[Yowie]

33 minutes ago, linewetter said:

Wow amazing that you can reach the falls by boat at all.  We saw debris high up on the sides, but figured it was due to the high levels of rain causing a large flood or something.  Didn't know high tide could get that high even that a boat could reach the falls.

Just a slow trip up due to sand banks in places, though that was some time ago and probably would not have changed too much over time. A short distance out from the falls, western side, was a deeper hole, could still be there.

[wazatherfisherman]

Great story and pictures, a fish really would have only been a bonus

[Little_Flatty]

Fantastic epic adventure @linewetter and @Mike Sydney and a well told story too. Looking forward to hearing the next one!

[Steve0]

Well told, but you missed the part about the leeches!

[linewetter]

6 minutes ago, Steve0 said:

Well told, but you missed the part about the leeches!

Hahaha! Mike had a brush in with a leech…swiped it off quick! I only knew from hearing the terror from him 😆 But after that I was on the constant lookout for any hitchhikers. Takes only one instance of being leeched on to be terrorized forever 

[james Cutler]

Great adventure. Super photos. Well done Team.

[bessell1955]

What a great trek you both had, well done!

[Mike Sydney]

Was a great day. Pics don’t do it justice it was gorgeous terrain. I’ll be a cripple for a few days now from the hill climb back up.

[Steve0]

9 hours ago, linewetter said:

Hahaha! Mike had a brush in with a leech…swiped it off quick! I only knew from hearing the terror from him 😆 But after that I was on the constant lookout for any hitchhikers. Takes only one instance of being leeched on to be terrorized forever 

 

Carry a small salt container when you wander off track. They drop off fast when salted, but you bleed for a while. About 15 minutes with your finger pressing the site usually stops it. Next day it may start itching. That goes away fairly quickly if you don't scratch. Better yet, liberally spray around the top of your boots and down the lace line with DEET spray. You should be safe from leeches in dry undergrowth, but not in damp mulched leaves or undergrowth after rain. However, in any undergrowth you may get ticks, which ARE terrifying. DEET spray up to the knees for them.  

EDIT: Almost forgot. They'll stick their heads through your socks to latch on, so make sure you spray to top of your boot line, not the top of your sock line (also the reason to spraying the lace line). About 50mm should stop them passing onto your legs.  

There are plenty of leeches around here. I might get 3-4 latch on per year and also prevent a lot by picking them off before they latch on. You do a James Bond hitting a Tarantula impression to kill them but you have to hit them repeatedly between two rocks instead of using a shoe. Tough little suckers!  Sometimes leeches even wander inside our house looking for a feed. I'm thinking of getting a sign made up "WARNING: the guard leeches bite".  

  

 

Edited June 17 by Steve0

[Mike Sydney]

The video won’t play @Steve0 but where do you live, the underworld?? 🤣 leeches in the house is next level.

Thanks for the advice though I’d not even considered anything other than mosquitos and with the winter season didn’t bother spraying anything.

I tell you what though I was stoked with my new boots, I got some Merrels from the big snake and they really lived up to the hype, dry socks when I got home despite being right in the water. bought them when they were half price a while back and they really did the business on this trip.

[linewetter]

42 minutes ago, Steve0 said:

 

Carry a small salt container when you wander off track. They drop off fast when salted, but you bleed for a while. About 15 minutes with your finger pressing the site usually stops it. Next day it may start itching. That goes away fairly quickly if you don't scratch. Better yet, liberally spray around the top of your boots and down the lace line with DEET spray. You should be safe from leeches in dry undergrowth, but not in damp mulched leaves or undergrowth after rain. However, in any undergrowth you may get ticks, which ARE terrifying. DEET spray up to the knees for them.  

EDIT: Almost forgot. They'll stick their heads through your socks to latch on, so make sure you spray to top of your boot line, not the top of your sock line (also the reason to spraying the lace line). About 50mm should stop them passing onto your legs.  

There are plenty of leeches around here. I might get 3-4 latch on per year and also prevent a lot by picking them off before they latch on. You do a James Bond hitting a Tarantula impression to kill them but you have to hit them repeatedly between two rocks instead of using a shoe. Tough little suckers!  Sometimes leeches even wander inside our house looking for a feed. I'm thinking of getting a sign made up "WARNING: the guard leeches bite".  

  

 

 

 

That leech looks like it has a tick hitchhiker on it too 😬  I went most of my life never encountering ticks before until I moved to Australia, first time hiking in Sydney, I picked up a few of them...found out once I got home and noticed something on the floor moving from my pile of laundry.  I then spent a considerable amount of time worried I would get that red meat allergy from a tick bite and was asking Dr. Google for symptoms of it onsetting.  I didn't go hiking again for months....

I'll try that spray idea.  I've picked up using picaridin instead of DEET though - I hate the greasy feel of DEET then I read it can melt certain plastics/synthetic fabrics and didn't want to bother being too careful about where I sprayed.  I don't know about the effectiveness of one over the other since I hardly use bug spray....but I definitely do now when I go hiking in Australia 😅  I've been taping my ankles shut with tape to prevent them from crawling up, but I like the idea of just spraying up to the knees instead.  Much less trouble and seems like it should work all the same.

[Steve0]

We live on the edge of the bush. The outlook is incredible, but there's a price to pay for having the natural world on your doorstep. It sounds bad, but it's only in very wet weather we get the leeches roaming. If you look at your feet and legs occasionally, you can get by without risking too much DEET. There is one area down the back I learnt after a few visits to always use DEET. Once I had DEET on my legs but made the mistake of sitting for a while. You can guess the rest.  I suspect leeches and ticks hitch rides on Possums, Brush Turkeys and the cats people allow free roam (they use our yard as a dunny).

Picaridin is said to be an effective repellent for many things. I know DEET works on leeches because I sprayed an attached leech once. It let go fast. So far, I've read, "I use Picaridin and don't get ticks" but that's like saying, "I go rock fishing and haven't drowned yet". Maybe it works??? Another alternative that is said to work is Permethrin clothing treatment. See @riders post

 

 

[Steve0]

12 hours ago, Mike Sydney said:

The video won’t play

 

I have no idea what the problem may be. If reading on a phone, try a computer. If using a computer, try a different browser or a private session (essentially disables all extensions).