I was due to do a bushwalk or canyon with Bob. Since the forecast for the Mountains was for a maximum of only 17°C and some showers, we decided that a walk may be more appropriate. I suggested visiting Ikara Head on the Asgard Plateau at Mt Victoria. Neither of us had visited this part of the Blue Mountains and it would allows us to see some more pink Flannel Flowers.
So, we set out on the walk, and though we had both seen great displays of the pink Flannel Flowers recently, we were both amazed by what we saw on Ikara Ridge. Their proliferation was incredible.
There is a rough track out along the ridge, used by rock climbers and others. It leaves the Victoria Falls Road about 200 m before the fire trail turn off marked, which was where Bob parked his car. It was easy waking along an open ridge, and in about 20 minutes we reached the first paths of the pink flowers.
The densest flowering was about another ten minutes walk.
As well as the pink Fallen Flowers, there are also some fine rock formations.
We then continued on. We intended to also visit Girraween Cave, which is reached by a short side track from near this monolith –
But instead of turning off to the cave, we continued along the ridge to Ikara Head.
The showers held off and we were lucky to obtain fine views from the end.
On the way back, we saw this nice fungus – Lichenomphalia chromacea – which is the fungal fruiting body of a lichen.
We then descended down to Girraween Cave. Just up from the cave is this large hanging swamp. It should provide reliable water.
The cave itself is a typical sandstone overhang.
It was still early. So we climbed back up to the ridge and went back to the Flannel Flowers. We had lunch here.
Rather than return the way we had come, we decided to return back down to the Girraween Cave, and then cross the swampy creek and climb the ridge on the eastern side. We did this and it was easy walking. We soon reached the fire road and walked along it back to Bob’s car.
Here is some more Lichenomphalia chromacea –
This was a short and easy walk – but it was outstanding for the botanic wonders and also the scenery.
Great pics and blog David, I am very excited to take my camera out there in the the next few days. My forsythii wanders have been out at Mt Hay, where they are also looking great. This looks amazing though, hopefully I can capture the proliferation similar to your shots. Cheers. Tim
Hi David, always enjoy your posts and particularly the recent stories about the pink flannels. Like many others headed out yesterday to see them. We were most interested to see if we could get across to the other ridge and you have confirmed it is possible. I am curious – how exactly did you negotiate the swamp? Is there an obvious path above or below or did you need to go through it? hence wet feet?
We found a rough track at Girraween Cave that we used to cross the swamp (without getting wet feet) – the track petered out on the far side – but it was easy to walk up to the old fire road on the top of the ridge.
How long do you think these flowers will remain out for? Looks worth for a weekend trip to head out and have a look