September 15 - a walk hurdy gurdy wilderness

The Gurdies Nature Conservation Reserve. With a name like ‘The Gurdies’ how could you not pop in for a look?  

The paths were easy going until they weren’t. 


With our packed lunch tucked in Lindsay’s backpack, we headed off down one of the tracks meeting along the way a small group of locals who pointed out some special plants. The reserve is populated with a number of varieties of eucalypts, grasses, heath, orchids - callooh callay! and birds. We wandered for hours over 7 km or so. Quite delightful. 

One of my favourites - orchids. They’re hard to find which makes them all the more precious

The wild violets were so dainty.

Drosera the alien-looking plant on the left is carnivorous- so stunning and the flowers (a bit blurry) is some delicate.

The little white and pink is known some places as milkmaids. I’m not going to put in scientific names as it changes not the beauty of these lovelies.

The top two pix are of plants endemic to the reserve we were told. Not sure if that’s correct but they are certainly unusual. And of course there were numerous fragrant wattles.

Incidentally in the early 1800s the Strzelecki expedition on its mission to explore Gippsland’s interior passed close by here when it was pure wilderness. They emerged at what is now called Corinella starving and exhausted (they didn’t know about the Lerps and succulent grubs haha!!). They were saved from starvation by aborigine Charlie Tarra who feed them, sometimes in raw koala. Not an uncommon thing for aborigines to help those early white explorers - you’d think some of that knowledge would have been taken up but ...... 

We saw these handsome beast emerging not long after us but had seen lots of evidence of horses usages.

All traffic stopped on the way home as this little echidna wobbled its way across the road. It was slow progress but rather adorable

Sept 9 Glen Nayook - peace and tranquility

Totally silent we were dwarfed by the towering Mountain Ash most of which were quite young and were yet to reach the full height. Amazing plants.

The Tarago River gives up a lot - including  its delicious cheeses! We have traced along its length enjoying the lushness of its surround. Glen Nayook Reserve is one such place in this gorgeous (literally) area. It is a delight with a beautiful crystal stream, the Little Tarago River, gurgling and burbling its way though a tree-fern lined gully watched by towering remnants of a Mountain Ash and other cool temperate rainforest trees.

The path we took plunged down very steeply - and quite precariously, into the gully. Long woody vines hung from the trees, ferns brushed our legs and towered above us everywhere, trees and  bushes festooned with tiny flowers crowded around us. Most I couldn’t identify but that made little difference to me, nameless they were just as beautiful. 

Huge ancient granite bolders dot the descent. Dot is perhaps the wrong word to describe these monoliths.

The stream flowed quite rapidly between huge granite holders which had fallen into stream 1000s of years ago forcing the stream to run underground in places. 

The moss has grown over wood and shelf fungi creating intriguing shapes. I’m sure there were wood sprites behind some of the huge knobbly mossy trunks. Some of the boles reminded me of the magnificent trees of the WA Tingle forests.

Ferns of all sizes from the tall tree ferns down to the small epiphytes growing on tree ferns.

This fungus looked like it was reaching out webbed claws to grab at you. Weird

Sweet little pea flowers 



I love these wee scraps of perfection.

It’s a walk worth doing - providing you can manage the steep bits but I recommend you take a walking pole with you and take the steep bit first, coming back up is a gentler climb. The loop is only a couple of Km so quite manageable. Me? I managed with the help of my fall guy at some tight steep turns (there are few guide rails). 

September 2 Vast stretches of water - the Gippsland lakes district.

We decided against a long walk in favour of a drive to explore a little around the edge of some of the Gippsland lakes - Wellington, King  and Victoria. Places we knew nothing about. We drove through a few State Game reserves on some pretty shocking ‘roads’. Well we think they were roads, it was a bit of a guess at times. Bone shaking would describe some of the ride - we felt the effect good and proper the next day. During the appropriate season hunting is permitted in these game reserves - deer, hog, duck and of course fishing. It’s a whole other world to us. 

This is Hearts Morass State Game Reserve on Lake Wellington and wedged between 2 Ramsay sites - which is interesting to consider given the vain of the Ramsar Convention. 

Marlay Point also on Lake Wellington is a popular spot for fishing - people and birds alike. This time of year it was gloriously peaceful. 

Holland’s Landing is a village on the shores of Lake Victoria and adjoins the Morley Swamp and Lake  Wellington.  Very low lying watery ground in these parts around!

Further around we found a track through Blond Bay Game Reserve and wandered along one of the narrow little beaches of Lake Victoria. It was scattered with small shells and mussels so the waters must be rich in life. 

Blond Bay Game Reserve.

Quite lovely and endlessly quiet - when we were there!

August 30 A patch of native vegetation reclaimed!

Great  place for a Sunday morning wander, the Edward Hunter Heritage Reserve near Moe is a tranquil bush reserve and home to native wildlife and rich native forest, ferns, fungi and native orchids - but it wasn’t always like this. It started out as a water catchment area with a storage dam to supply water to the Moe Railway station  for passing steam trains. 

In the early 1950s when the rail line became electrified the reserve became a swimming pool complete with high diving board and kiosk. It is now protected and perfect spot for birds and water creatures - and watchers!

There were large patches of the stiff Coral ferns. I just love their curly tails poking up. 

I spent some time talking with this couple who just happened to be on the management committee; I learnt a lot. This tall tree for instance lost the bark off one side when lightning struck it many years ago.  

This is a wattle of some sort but I don’t know which. Quite intriguing with its two forms of leaves   

Some form of tea tree I think. 

An alien fungus blob

Glorious colour with the bright red of the sap and the acid green of fungus of some sort. 

On the stringy bark of that same tree the sap had dribbled out along a tendril of bark and solidified. 

The almost fluorescent reds and greens stood out like neon lights. 
It was a delightful place to stroll with a number of tracks to choose from some which criss-crossed a gentle stream and fern gully. 

On the way back ‘home’ we stopped for a bite of lunch and this van pulled up beside us. Like something from the past. The mind boggles! 

August 28 working around the coast

After our visit to Point Smythe we decided to try and work our way around the coast in Cape Liptrap Coastal Park. Not so easy! 

Many of the roads we attempted ended in private property. In the end we just drove on to Cape Liptrap. What a rugged piece of coastline that is! 

The sea was rough enough and the wind strong enough to send big dollops of foam high onto the cliff where we stood watching birds tossing themselves into the wind - just for fun!

This lighthouse stands on the site of the original one built in the early 1900s. It was and is an unmanned, automatic lighthouse built to improve the safety of shipping along this stretch of coast where many ships had come to grief on the reefs.  



Tea tree rather special 

But look at their nuts - like cut limes. Very eye catching. 

From the rough seas of that piece of coast we headed to the sheltered waters of Waratah Bay and Shallow Inlet Marine snd Coastal Park. 

The Gurnaikurnai people of Gippsland and the Boonerwrung people’s of Western Port border each other around here. It was a land brimming with food from sea and land alike. 

Waratah Bay stretches seemingly endlessly flat and quiet - although not in summer I imagine. This day the sea was quiet in this bay as we watched the waves trickle in.

Smooth stones dotted the wide expanse of beach, stones of many colours and patterns. And in large swathes of beach the crabs had been hard at work burrowing and leaving tiny beads of sand as evidence of their labours. 


We had tried to reach Shallow Inlet  from Wilson’s Prom some weeks earlier but with park closures our attempts were all for naught. So we came from the other side of the inlet! Talk about flat and shallow!

Deserted! Except for wading birds. This inlet and Corner Inlet see 1000s of migratory birds arrive for summer feasting. 
It was a very gentle peaceful place to sit and dream.