Our Time At Crystal Creek

Kookaburra and I  set out early this morning to go swimming at Crystal Creek, where we hoped to slide down the naturally formed rock slides my friend Rainbow Lorikeet had texted me about

Once the GPS was all ready to go we headed out

Along the way I pointed out a sign as I drove passed saying Big Crystal Creek, I thought it was cool that there was a Big Crystal Creek and a Little Crystal Creek

After winding our way up the narrow and harrowing one way road at some points we reached our destination

Only to find out after setting up our solar panel and plugging everything that we wanted charged in the heat of the day, that we were at the wrong Crystal Creek and it was in fact the Big Crystal Creek that we wanted 

Rather then pack everything back up and continue on to our actual destination, we decided that it wouldn't hurt to look around rather then risk missing a glimpse of natures beauty

 We quickly found the bridge and waterfall. It was a nice peaceful spot, with the sound of the water and nature calling out to each other

We sat there reading our books for a good few minutes, then decided to head back 

Climbing over the boulders back the way we'd come I noticed a path sneaking off to the left

It wasn't exactly in the right direction but I figured it could quite possibly be an other way back to the bridge

Kookaburra wasn't so sure so, with a quick you go that way and I'll go this way, I headed off on the unknown path, the backpack with all our phones, books, water and food in it with me

About half way up the incredibly steep mountain, when I knew I was higher then the bridge I knew I'd chosen the wrong path

I had about 10 meters where I strongly debated continuing on or calling it quits and heading back down

In the end curiosity won out and I continued on not sure where this path was taking me 

I finally made it to what I assume was the top or could have just been a flat part, I walked along for about 20 meters then it started going down

Once again I debated going back, after all I knew full well that I'd have to climb back up this steep path

But once again curiosity won out, this time not for what I'd find at the end, for I could slightly hear the sound of water, it was more what kind of waterfall would I find

After making a very cautious decent I found another waterfall not unlike the first one

After taking a moment to soak it in, I started looking for a way back, preferably not the way I'd come, knowing full well just how treacherous it was 

I made it along the creek until I came to another waterfall, I can't be certain but I'm pretty sure this was the one Kookaburra and I were watching

I looked for the best possible way down but came up with only one way, but it wasn't exactly one I wanted to take with a backpack full of electronics

It wasn't deep enough that the water would brake my fall and I had no way of knowing how slippery the rocks were

After strategizing and debating wither or not to do it I remembered Kookaburra and reasoned that enough time had passed that she might have started on the path that I took, in hopes of finding me

Not wanting to climb down this way in case I missed her, I turned around and set back on the original path

Climbing back up wasn't actually as hard as I thought it would be, there was lots of trees to grab hold of and lots of roots for my feet

I made it to the top without problem, then continued on down the other side, I meet Kookaburra 2/3 the way up, going down. I was a little confused as to way she was on her way down but figured that she must have heard me coming and started down

But no, I was wrong, she'd just decided that I must be ok and was just taking so long because it was such a long hard climb

Going down this side was definitely harder than the other, there weren't as many trees and the dirt was more slippery 

Upon making it to the car we headed off for Big Crystal Creek. Back along the harrowing road, I think I nearly give Kookaburra a heart attack when I moved to the very edge of the cliff to let a car through at one point

Upon reaching Big Crystal Creek we quickly made our way along the track, in the middle of the day we were ready for a cold swim

 There seemed to big a reasonably large family around the rock slide and the track kept going on, so I suggested we keep walking to see where it led

We found another rock slide just a little farther along and this one had less people

By the time I had gotten into my swimmers they had left so we had the place to ourselves

The water was wonderfully cool and crystal clear, we even saw some fish 

Sliding down the rocks was so much fun, it felt just like a water slide but more fun because of the danger of slamming into the hard rock sides

After sliding down multiple times on that one, we saw that the big family was heading our way so we decided to try out the first one we saw. We were a bit skeptical of this one because there seemed to be a rock right below the big drop, I asked one of the people down there if it was deep and he said yes so I slid on down

I knew that I'd have to try and push off from the rock to avoid the one down the bottom 

Fortunately I wasn't heavy enough so I actually came to a complete stop just before the drop off, with a happy yell I cannonballed in 

Kookaburra came next, for some reason unfortunately she didn't stop, she did however slow down enough to be in major danger of landing right on the rock

With a giant splash amidst gasps of horror she came down

I quickly asked if she was ok, for it looked like she had to have hit it, she explained that while yes, she had hit the rock, it was under the water and was like a continuation of the slide, she slid down it so it didn't actually hurt

I only went down a few more times because it's quite the experience to get back up, I had to nimbly walk along the edge of the drop to get back to the slide. I was never sure if I'd slide on the rocks so it made for quite a slow climb

Once we decided we'd had enough we made the short walk back to the car

All in all it was a great day and I found out I really enjoy rock slides. Thank you Rainbow Lorikeet for suggesting the place