Day 8: Raymond Creek Falls

Kilometres: 96km

Diesel: 0

Food: $38

Ice: 0

The past few days I've experienced a couple of little dizzy spells. Losing balance as I stood up, stumbling out of the van. I've had a bit of lightheadedness and felt a little faint but, as someone who has low blood pressure and low iron, this really isn't anything new. What is new is how I woke up this morning. As I sat up in our little van, everything around me started wobbling. Not quite spinning but definitely making me feel a little seasick.

Chris forced some breakfast and water into me (food and water fix everything right?) before we headed off to find a bathroom. If food and water hadn't fixed me, maybe a toilet stop would? Unfortunately not. In waves, the world continued to wobble.

I convinced Chris that instead of seeing a doctor, our morning should be spent exploring. The weather was still drizzly so we decided some waterfall chasing would be the perfect outing. The beginning of our drive saw a couple of kangaroos bounding on the road in front of us. I had immediate flashbacks to Wilson's Prom so we took it easy and as we slowly cruised down the road we were rewarded by one happy kanga deciding to hop along beside us for a few hundred metres. 35km on a gravel road later we were starting to question how much our van was enjoying the bumps and lumps, despite the enjoyable wildlife viewing.

Our GPS showed that we had gone beyond the road on the map and were now driving on 'green' instead of a white line. Eventually though we pulled into Raymond Creek Falls Camping Ground and it was beautiful. Firstly, there was nobody else in sight and secondly, the peace and quiet of being this deep in The Snowy River National Park was humbling.

We took the short 1km walk down to the base of the falls to be greeted by a tiny trickle of water cascading over the rocks. Still, surrounded by an amphitheatre of rocks, it was a pretty magical place to have all to ourselves. At the top of the falls were a series of deep rock pools and when I found one with a mini waterfall dribbling into it, I couldn't resist stripping off and sliding in. I questioned Chris on whether the bottom of the pool would likely be rock or mud but I needn't have worried. It was so deep I had no chance of getting anywhere near the bottom.

After a quick dip the dizziness set in and I decided a deep pool in the middle of nowhere with nobody around and without telephone reception was probably not a good place to be battling vertigo. I climbed out and without a towel, I got dressed and we slowly made our way back down the long gravel road.

Once back in Orbost, and disappointed by so many food establishments and their lack of vegetarian food, we landed at Wishing Tree Cafe and Chris was pleased to have me shovelling some substantial food into my mouth because surely, the second time around, food would cure me? Nope. We located a medical clinic thanks to a few helpful waitresses but found that it wouldn't be open until Monday. Oh well, I guess it was back to Dr Google instead.

Back at our favourite campsite on The Snowy River I napped, distracted myself with guitar and drank cup of tea after cup of tea before the rains set in and again we settled in for an evening in front of the tennis. The vertigo has faded slightly and, fingers crossed, after a good night's sleep, I'll be feeling right as rain and ready for any more spontaneous waterfall swims that come up.