<< Admiralty Arch and Remarkable Rocks

09/25/14 - Rocky River to Maupertuis Bay

We took a long walk down the Rocky River from near the Snake Lagoon to Maupertuis Bay. The walk started inland with high shrubs and bushes. Then it opened out with our first view of the Rocky River. We crossed on a wooden bridge and followed the canyon walls across folded rocks.

It was spring, so the flowers were in bloom, but few were familiar. We saw lizards, the blue sky and the blue river as it flowed in broad channels and through rapids. There was some climbing up and down rocks, but it was easy going.

Then we saw our first glimpse of the sea. The river flowed over rocks in channels with little rushing waterfalls and emptied out onto a sandy beach. It was a smuggler's paradise, a lovely beach in the middle of nowhere, perfect to bringing in a small boat loaded with contraband koala skins. Above us in the canyon were the smuggler hideouts, shelters naturally carved from the rock walls.

Maybe we let our imagination get ahead of us, but the mouth of the Rocky River was a wonderful, evocative place to be.


The trailed started closed, a cut through the high native vegetation.

It was spring.

Our first look at the river

More of the river

A lizard

So, why is it called the Rocky River?

Another lizard

Our first glimpse of the sea

More rock formations

The mouth of the river

A smuggler hideout, we're sure.

Keywords: australia, waterfall