Blue Gum Forest 18-19 October 2014

It was a great weekend to be in the bush. The wildflowers were magnificent as was the weather. It was warm enough for a (quick) swim in the Grose River.

This was a walk to Blue Gum Forest. I went with John, Chuin Nee and their baby, Jasper. We walked in by the Pierces Pass Track. This was my first visit to this part of the Grose Valley since the bushfires, and it was nice to see a lot of green regrowth.

Some of the wood on the steps on the track have been singed and only a few burnt out. Also – the Pierces Pass Track and the Grose Valley Track from Victoria Falls have recently been cleared so walking was easy and fast.

We stopped at the Grose River where we crossed it to allow Jasper to have a splash. We also stopped a few times to take photos of the wildflowers. Lots of orchids were in flower – nice!

We arrived at Blue Gum Forest in the id afternoon and then proceeded to the campsite at Acacia Flat. There we met up with Meri and Albert, and one of Meri’s friends, Elwyn, visiting from Western Australia. They had walked in on the track from Evans Lookout at Blackheath.

Some of us then headed back into Blue Gum Forest for some photography.

I headed back into the forest at dawn the next day – when the light was nice. Its always a challenge I think to try and capture interesting images of this great forest.

It was appalling to see some lazy disgusting bushwalkers had left a lot of rubbish at Acacia Flat. There was a big heap lying around near one of the toilets. Also – Acacia Flat is a fuel stove only campsite, and I would estimate that of about six parties camped there on the Saturday night – we were the only party to not have a fire.

On Sunday, after breakfast, we farewelled Meri’s party. They were walking gout via Govetts Leap. We walked back out via Pierces Pass. It was a hotter day so we stopped several times for swims in the river.

More photos are on my website here.