WENTWORTH FALLS !

Remember the three explorers I mentioned? Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth?



Well, Wentworth Falls are just one of the discoveries that they made and named after themselves. William Wentworth was a colourful character - he was born on board ship bound for Australia, as his parents were convicts ( not the most auspicious of beginnings). He eventually got sent to school in England and returned as an explorer, with his two friends he discovered Wentworth Falls and was given land as a reward from the Crown.
He published books and poems, studied to be a lawyer, and became one of the wealthiest men in the Colony (but alas, not respectable or accepted because of his convict mother).
He had seven daughters and three sons - busy!
He died in England but his body was returned to Australia for burial. What a life he must have led!




Following in his footsteps, we stayed at the historic 'Grand View Hotel' (which had a view of the new main road they were building)..



and had tea at the Carrington Hotel - which was lovely oldy-worldy inside.
Apparently, Charles Darwin stayed here and went for a walk along the cliff - they named it imaginatively Darwin's Walk (maybe he didn't walk much).

Anyway, having unpacked and visited the gloomy sitting room with its giant screen TV and Victorian overstuffed sofas, we went for our first descent to Wentworth Falls. As we climbed down the uneven steps, jollied along by signs stating 'Good View of the Falls' we descended into a light mist (actually it was cloud ) and saw the Falls for about 60 seconds before being enveloped in a dense white world.



That one glimpse was breathtaking - a huge waterfall, divided into lower and upper falls, dense gum trees surrounding it and flocks of white cockatoos. It was like an animated scene of The Lion King, come to life.



It seems mean but as we sat waiting for the cloud to disappear, several groups of tourists stumbled down the last steps, peered into the mist, which was dense white by then and stumbled back up again.
We smiled.
No wonder no-one discovered the Falls for a quarter of a century.