Someone said recently that they’d like to go Walkabout with me, this particular day would probably NOT have been one you’d have chosen! 7-8 kms through amazing bush but it was very challenging in parts - the uppy-downy bits mainly, man oh man! We were walking the old growth forest trail in the Errinundra National Park.
This NP protects Victoria’s largest remaining stand of cool temperate rainforest and ancient tall eucalypt forests; some Shining Gums are believed to be over 600 years old.
Hard water-fern
This vagrant frond was turning its underside to the light. The brown spots are spores - lots of new tree ferns there.
It was quite magical walking along what was once a network of ancient Aboriginal ridgeline travel routes, routes that countless previous generations of the Moreno people traversed to visit or attend special places or events or to access seasonal foods, for example, to and from the high country for Bogong moth feasts. Many aboriginal quartz artefacts have been found in the area some of which are believed to have been made as much as 5000 years ago: it is a registered site of aboriginal significance and the artefacts are protected. I didn’t look for these but found lots of strange coloured earth.
Tree and bracken fern shoots at edible and make a nourishing salad I believe. When we were in Far East Russia the locals told us that they collected the ferns in summer and froze what they couldn’t eat.
Geebung or Persoonia levis Bren fruits are edible once they are ripe; they ripen after they have fallen.
Mountain Correa
I saw lots of fascinating trees and bushes - Gippsland Waratah, Mountain Correa, Forest gebung, Mountain pepper and ferns including Hard Water ferns which I rather like. But we saw little wildlife apart from birds and a few lizards; evidently there are resident owls, gliders and tiger quolls.
Patient Lindsay waiting for me to catch up - I make so many stops to take pix and inspect the plants.
When I say track well it’s over this tree root! Lindsay is standing on the track.
This too is the track! Fallen branches everywhere. My knight sat in the branch so I could climb over.
It was slow going not only because often it was a bit eeny-meeny-miny deciding where the track actually went, but I was checking out ALL the plants and fruits I found - no I didn’t try any, this time! And we were always on the look out for Joe Blakes, it was that kind of day.
Sometimes it was good to sit down for a spell .....
.... and sometimes it would have been nice to sit down!
‘They’ said the walk was 2.5km in to the giant trees and elevated boardwalk in the valley but at 2.5km we were still walking with no boardwalk in sight and we were still plunging down into the valley where those giant trees and elevated boardwalk were said to be lurking. I couldn’t see where the trail might possibly end and given ‘what goes down’ etc I wimped out at 3km and propped on an old seat (thankfully it was there) while champ Lindsay kept plunging on down. It was so peaceful sitting there with the sounds of the forest and the birds all around. About 30 mins later poor Lins came struggling and panting back up the track - that killer effort was at least 1 Km. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so wiped out, poor darling - it was a veeery steep climb.
We got back to the car almost 4 hours later rather bushed. Then we took the long way home over the Errinundra Saddle and followed the Combienbar River road south through Club Terrace, an old mining settlement, to emerge onto Highway 1 someway east of Bemm River.
Bright everlasting daisies dotted the side of the road
I call these wild hyacinth but they are actually Stackhousia monogyna. Not a pretty name.
We skirted around many fallen trees but this one on a track out to a lookout was impassable.
It was a marvellous drive through fascinating isolated country where once gold was mined. We saw lots of forest regeneration but the clean up looks like slow going with some fallen trees still across tracks. Lots of flowers snatched at my eyes as we passed - bright everlasting daisies and pretty stalks of what looked like hyacinths. I even saw a female lyrebird career across the road. The sun was slipping behind the mountains however so we didn’t dilly dally to look at all the lovelies but we will definitely be back to explore another day.
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