We awoke to a morning that had mixed weather potential. The mountains opposite us were partially covered in cloud but as we were expecting, they should be burning off with the sun coming through. Patches of blue sky looked promising as we ate our breakfast which was delivered on a tray to our room. We had opened the door to the decking and been looking down the valley, which was attracting a little more cloud.
Some options for a walk were presented by the host, Vladka and made our decisions once we filled water bottles and packed our back packs.
we headed off to Invincible Mine as opposed to Paradise which was signposted to the left. We soon encountered a stone track which was more suited for 4x4 and crossed 1 ford with caution. We came to a second, having passed the Invincible Heli-pad, which looked a little deeper and the stream running through it was fast running. We made one attempt and felt like it was beyond the car's ability to cross it!
I reversed, not wanting to ground the car on its last day with us. Just as I cleared and considered parking up, a small 4 WD minivan came passed and went straight through and looked back at us and gave reassuring noises that it was OK. We decided not to, but they offered to give us a lift in the van if we waded across to join them.
This seemed a far better offer, so we took off our socks and shoes and joined them on the other side. We jumped in, Caroline in the front and I bundled into the back with 2 bikes!, and went round the next corner. Within 100m Caroline shouted, thats where we're heading... the invincible mines were signposted at the side of the road!
We jumped out and thanked the good samaritans and started our trek up the hill.
After around 40mins of vertical climbing we soaked in more views in all directions and headed back to the car.
We had to wade back across the ford and drove back along the 9km track and decided that lunch was a well considered option before deciding what to do this afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment