Phillips Falls and Lake Rosebery. Mar, 2018.
Phillips Falls as seen from above. Isn’t that beautiful?
My visit to Phillips Falls occurred the day after my Montezuma, Rawlinson and Frazer Falls extravaganza, and was not on my schedule at all. I had stopped for the night at the beautiful Lake Rosebery, as I planned to climb a mountain this day, but it had clouded in during the night, and, more importantly, I was starving. I had left my foodbox at home, and the West Coast did not do it for me for comestibles at all. There was nowhere I could think of nearby that would give me anything other than prefabricated cereal and even worse bread. The coffee I had had the night before (milk scalded, coffee weak) did not excite me about my prospects there. Queenstown has a decent cafe, but that was a long way away, and in the wrong direction. And what would I buy for lunch? That had my stomach in cramps and depression. Not for the first time, I fled the West Coast out of necessity for my kind of food. I am a fussy eater.
My tent spot at Lake Rosebery
So I ate fruit with coconut yoghurt, staring out at my beautiful redoubt for the previous night, happily remembering my 12.30 a.m. exit from the tent to a clear sky full of stars above Mt Murchison, packed up coffeeless, drove through a still-sleeping Tullah, and headed north, appeasing my hunger somewhat at Moina with a microwaved scone, cheap jam and pretend cream (how are they allowed to call that stuff ‘cream’?) and another weak coffee with scalded milk. Sigh. At least I now had some caffein in me, so that as I approached Mt Claude, I decided I might as well pop in and suss out Phillips Falls while I was in the area. I turned right up the C138 and drove over the saddle, taking the first turn to the right after dropping down (Cockatoo Rd – unsigned as such).
Evening settles. I watch it from my tent, pretty exhausted.
As I wasn’t expecting to be here, I hadn’t done any research, so parked the car and made my own way to the top, as with Frazer Falls, noting the huge drop to the bottom. The water wasn’t flowing, but I thought the pools with their reflections, and the hint of what would be if I came back after rain, were well worth the visit. I don’t think you’d normally get that lovely mirror effect were the water not so still. When I returned to the car, I saw that I had reception, so could then read that I should approach the falls from the Eastern side, and not hug the water as I had been doing. Then I would reach the bottom. However, as the water was not flowing at all, I was pleased with my recce, as I now know exactly where I want to go, so ended my visit and drove home.
Another LE shot of approaching night
As I drove past the Raspberry Farm, I popped in (ah, real food at last), and now had a couple of kilos of berries, which have been filling my pancakes and accompanying my croissants since. The aim of my game is to eat with enough speed and big enough helpings to beat the growth of mould. So far so good. Pity I was greedy and bought 4.5 kgs. I have a lot of homework to do. Perhaps my blog should be called ‘diary of a famished photographer’.
