Taronga Zoo Visit – 1 September 2016

Posted on September 3, 2016 by Dave Noble

It had been a while since my last visit to the zoo. It was time to go again. Another reason for going was to see the newly arrived baby Langur – a Francois Langur or Leaf Monkey. These are an endangered species  from Vietnam.

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So after a train trip to the Quay and ferry and gondola ride I entered the zoo. The first thing I noticed was that the alligator section seemed to be closed. I don’t know why. The alligators seem to have no physical barrier separating them from their pool and where you get off from the gondola ride.  Continue reading →

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The Rock 22 – 23 August 2016

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Dave Noble

I can remember seeing The Rock quite a few times as a young child – on car trips with my parents. It was hard to miss as you travel on the road from Wagga Wagga to Albury. It is quite dramatic in the way it rises up above the surrounding flat farming country.

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I knew that there was a walking track up it, and it sounded like it was worth climbing. I had suggested it to David Hufton as a good place for a stopover on our road trip. On our drive out, it had not been convenient to call in there, but it was on the way home. we had spotted it from the Sturt Highway as we left Wagga Wagga early in the trip – and it certainly looked good. Continue reading →

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Cocoparra National Park and Narrandera Wetlands and Forests 21 – 22 August 2016

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Dave Noble

After our visit to the Pink Lakes, David Hufton and myself left Victoria and drove to Balranald, where we stopped for lunch and took advantage of those showers at the Discovery Centre that we had seen earlier.

We then headed to Griffith, and after a look around the town, we continued on to Venda and then into Cocoparra National Park. We had seen online that parts of the park were closed due to rain, and this was confirmed at the Information Centre at Griffith, so that greatly restricted our plans. But it looked like we could visit Falcon Falls at the south end of the park and camp at the Spring Hills Picnic Area nearby.

Falcon Falls

Falcon Falls

This proved to be a good plan. The road in was OK and the short walk to Falcon Falls was attractive. The waterfall was a little disappointing – there was only a trickle of water flowing over, but its situation was attractive with lots of rock outcrops and small cliffs. The rock appears to be sandstone and conglomerate.  Continue reading →

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The Pink Lakes 18 – 21 August 2016

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Dave Noble

The next place we visited on the road trip with David Hufton was The Pink Lakes in NW Victoria. The lakes are situated in the large Murray Sunset National Park – but they are close to the edge of the park and can be reached on an all weather road.

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The lakes lived up to their name – they really were pink. They are four salt lakes – Lake Hardy, Lady Crosbie, Lake Kenyon and Lake Becking. They are all salt lakes, with salt concentrations around 80 times higher than sea water. This makes for a fascinating environment. Their pink colour is due to a salt tolerant algae that lives in the water. Surrounding the lakes is salt tolerant vegetation.  Continue reading →

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Visit to Lake Mungo National Park 15 – 18 August 2016

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Dave Noble

This was the main place David Hufton and myself wanted to visit on our road trip. We had continued on our way along the Sturt Highway via Hay to Balranald. There we called into the Discovery Centre – which is not only the local information centre, but also a great cafe with hot showers in the adjoining toilets (which we took advantage of later on the trip).

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At the Discovery centre, we could obtain the latest information on the road conditions and the status of the national park. We heard that the park was open, but one of the roads going into the park seemed to be closed. Outback roads are often closed when it rains, as the road would soon be wrecked by vehicles if they drove along it in wet conditions. The road that was closed seemed to be the main road into the park from Balranald. But it sounded like an alternative road was still open and OK for 2WD cars. The other alternative was to drive further to Mildura and drive to the park from there – but that was a lot further out of our way. Continue reading →

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River Red Gums on the Murrumbidgee 14 – 15 August 2016

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Dave Noble

David Hufton had invited me to join him on an outback road trip to Lake Mungo and some other national parks in South Western NSW and Western Victoria. His intention was to undertake a photographic trip, and this sounded good.

Murrumbidgee River

Murrumbidgee River

It turns out we had a great trip and were very fortunate with the weather and conditions we experienced.  Continue reading →

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Ferndale Park Fungi – 11 August 2016

Posted on August 12, 2016 by Dave Noble

This was a quick trip down to Ferndale Park at Chatswood to see how the fund was going. In particular the green coloured “pink waxcaps” I had seen earlier in the week.

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I was interested to see if they had changed to a pink colour during that period – they had not. Some perhaps had changed slightly. Continue reading →

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Burra Korain Head Walk – 10 August 2016

Posted on August 12, 2016 by Dave Noble

This was a very interesting walk. On many previous trips to the Asgard Plateau and on the cliffs on the north side of the Grose Valley I had plenty of chances to look at Burra Korain Head. I had never heard of bushwalkers climbing the head from the valley, but it looked possible. If so, it would be an interesting pass.

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Recently, I had discussed this with Bob, and he thought he could recall an early solo trip up the Head, sometime back in the late 1970’s he thought. He had checked his maps and seen that he had indeed marked a dotted line going up onto the head from the Grose River.  He could not remember any details of the pass up through the cliffs, but did remember that is was scrubby walking back along the ridge to Blackheath. So Bob and myself decided to have a go at getting up the Head. Rather than walk to Blackheath, we would only walk a short distance and then descend a pass back to near Victoria Falls. Continue reading →

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Wolli Creek – Mainly Fungi – 9 August 2016

Posted on August 12, 2016 by Dave Noble

With the fungi season drawing to a close, this was probably my last walk for a while along the Two Valleys Track looking for and photographing the fungi. This time, I was joined by Digi Dave. This trip we walked from Bexley North Station to just past Turrella Reserve.

Cantherellus li

Cantharellus lilacinus

We had a good start to the trip, spotting a rather large Blue Tongue Lizard lazing in the sun. The lizard stayed long enough for us to get a few photos. Nice. Continue reading →

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More Fungi in the Chatswood – Lane Cove Area – 8 August 2016

Posted on August 12, 2016 by Dave Noble

I wanted to head back up to Ferndale Park to see how the mystery pink waxcaps were going. I think this is a species who’s fruiting body starts off green and as it ages it changes to orange and then pink.

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At the park – I soon found a few of the waxcaps in their green form. There did not seem to be any out that were pink, although some were certainly changing from green. I spent a fair bit of time looking around at the locations where I had found the species on previous visits.  Continue reading →

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