Digi Dave and myself headed down to Royal National Park for a day of photography.
We started off at Audley and went a short way up the Hacking River to kook for birds. Well, some magpies and ducks were not that interesting, so we instead concentrated on photographing some of the many dragonflies that were flying over the river. The ones here did settle on reeds but it was very hard to capture photos of them in flight. They moved far too fast. Continue reading
I had seen the Jungle Circuit marked on old maps. It is a track that starts from the Govetts Leap to Bridal Veil Falls track near the bottom and traverses around to the base of Horseshoe Falls, and then around a loop (The Jungle Circuit) and back. This was my first visit.
The base of Horseshoe Falls
Horseshoe Falls and the nearby Bridal Veil Falls are, I think, the highest single waterfalls in the Blue Mountains – as they both fall down both the upper and lower cliff lines without a break. Continue reading
As I write, bush fires are continuing to burn in some of the beautiful alpine areas of Tasmania. So far there have been two fires that have burnt alpine areas near Lake Bill and near Lake Mackenzie. Both of these areas are on the Central Plateau and within the World Heritage Area.
The incredibly beautiful Central Plateau of Tasmania – alpine tarns surrounded by Pencil Pines
My first walk across the central Plateau was in 1980, and on that walk, I can remember walking into a zone of destruction between the Long Tarns and Lake Tyre (near the Walls of Jerusalem). It was as though an atomic bomb had been detonated in the area a few years before – all that remained were the skeletons of trees, a few scattered bushes and mainly bare earth and boulders. We guessed the destruction was due to a bushfire. Continue reading
My latest visit to Sassafras Gully to check out the fungi was after a period of dry weather, so there was not too much new fungi out and a lot of the old fungi was looking very dried out. But there was still a few interesting things to see.
On this visit, I started from Faulconbridge Station, and walked down the Victory Track. As I descended I did spot some fungi, and also quite a few slime moulds. Continue reading
My friends Doug and Lizzie were keen to do a canyon, and wanted one they could take their daughters along on. Their two girls are young (7 and 9) but are good bushwalkers. I was pleased to be able to come along and be able to assist in some tricky spots where needed.
It was a hot day, and I don’t think I have ever seen Rocky Creek Canyon so crowded. When we set off for the canyon, there were 18 cars or mini buses in the carpark. We bypassed Twister Canyon and headed straight down the gully to Rocky Creek. Continue reading
I was heading up the mountains with Bob for canyon. I had suggested visiting Claustral Canyon as I had not been down it this canyon season. Bob was happy to visit it too, but we had a forecast for afternoon thunderstorms, so I would not have too much time for photography.
Bob parked on the Bell Road and we followed the track to the canyon. An hour later we were at the first abseil, and not long later at the bottom of the abseils and in the Black Hole of Calcutta. Now it was time to unpack my camera from the dry bag and get my camera out. Continue reading
After seeing good fungi at Sassafras Gully at Springwood on recent trips I thought it worthwhile to head higher up the mountains and see what was out. So I headed up to Leura by train and walked the short distance down to the Leura Cascades picnic area.
Hericium coralloides
I then headed down the track to Leura Cascades. These waterfalls are always nice to photograph, but on the day it was too sunny. Also – one the last waterfall, someone had recently built a series of “stone men” around it. It would take a long time to knock them all down. Continue reading
This was a pleasant morning walk organised by Brian Everingham for the National Parks Association of NSW. On the walk was Brian, Esther and myself.
We started walking around the Forest Island Loop. This is a pleasant easy graded walk that takes you eventually to Bola Creek. Continue reading
Atli, a nature photographer, on visit from Iceland, was keen to see the fungi in Sassafras Gully and had invited Gemma and myself to join him. We started from the track at the end of Sassafras Gully Road.
We soon found a lot of fungi and slime moulds out, so we had a busy day with our photography. As well and fungi and slime moulds we also found other interesting things such as a mass of sawfly larvae (these later metamorphose into the sawflies that are responsible for fertilising Flying Duck Orchids). Continue reading
I was heading to a meeting at Bardwell Park, so I combined this with a walk down Wolli Creek along the Two Valleys Track – from Bexley North to Turrella.
I was mainly looking for fungi – but there was not much interesting stuff out. Continue reading
