OK, so like other Planet Linux Australia denizens, I decided to have a day off.
This was a slightly ambitious gaol given my two littlies & a sick (physically wiped out) SWMBO, so I wound up being house-Dad as usual... sort of.
I fed both children brekkie, then decided to wander around the countryside to let SWMBO sleep (starting at about 07:30), so I grabbed a brace of young’un’s & drove gently up the Murchison valley to the South end of Lake Mackintosh.
I stopped to look at the Sophia Adit, an unmainmtained mining shaft used for inspecting the Sophia Tunnel (runs between Murchison Dam & Lake Mackintosh) which proved to be a tactical error since there were no less than two waterfalls flowing alongside it, along with spectacular plonking & dripping sounds from the Adit itself — & a distinct roar from the South (the river).
So, muttering to myself about having forgotten the camera, I backed off a few tens of metres, wandered down a Hydro road (as far as the steel gate), then walked der kinder down to the base of the Murchison Dam.
An amusement en route was a “FOUR WHEEL DRIVE VEHICLES ONLY” sign recessed about 20m into the forest, over terrain that only a decent 4WD could cross.
Aaanyway, the roar was the Murchison Spillway cutting loose, which the offspring greatly enjoyed, & this was followed by scrambling across some rock alongside the river, accompanying said offspring, then a walk back up the track to the car. #1 Son did credibly well in climbing some of the rocks.
Then we had a squiz at the Murchison Dam proper (which was of course full up to the spillway), & wandered over the hill to Mackintosh — where we found a chap who’d parked his 4WD & was doing some fly-fishing for trout. The kiddlies watched him cast a few times, then enjoyed the inevitable logs & rocks ashore of the lake. By now the ticker was pushing 10:00 so I elected to wander back down to home again.
SWMBO was mumbling her way through breakfast & hadn’t even realised that the car had been absent. After being assailed by enthusiastic descriptions of the spillway, river, fisherman, waterfalls et al, she was pressed into a visit of her own. Remembered the camera this time.
Well, the scenery was beautiful, natural, & in its way peaceful, so the extra few klicks of walking wasn’t so hard — except that it’s been over 8 months since I’ve been Origami’ed by a Chiropractor.
Afterwards, we sailed gently home again, & guess who prepared lunch? & later, tea? This on top of doing the clothes & dishes all week. (-:
Thankfully, the littlies kept themselves occupied, so I was able to get a miniscule amount of quiet reading & genuine sack-time in myself. This meant that at the end of this day off, I was merely knackered, & not a stretcher case. (-:
Nice touches? Well, cute little waterfalls everywhere, & someone had welded “HAVE FUN” into the lock frame at the joint of the Hydro gates near the Spillway. Also, some pretty early-spring leaf growth ’n’ stuff alongside the track.
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