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Published: November 6th 2010
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marbles?
start of Long Rock Walking Track, Kooyoora State Park Today I decided to visit two of the sites the Info Centre lady had recommended; Kooyoora State Park and Mt Korong. First I went to Kooyoora State Park to the Melville Caves Picnic Reserve. I arrived at 9.30am and decided on which walk to do for the morning. Making sure I had my 300m lens, binoculars, camera (with wide angle lens), muesli bar, mobile phone and map took about three tries but finally I set off. The walk I choose was the long one, 5.3km approx 2-3hrs, so I did not get back to the picnic area until 1pm! Where I sat and had my muesli bar before climbing up to Melville’s Cave Lookout.
The 5.3km walk is called the Long Rock Walking Track and it took me through some very interesting, diverse and colourful environments. Have included just a small number of the photos I took, there was just so much to look at and try to capture. I saw Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater and Eastern Spinebill here which where two new birds for the holiday. At the rock pool I had sit down (I think I was half way around by now and just come off the steep descent in
Strinybark Tangle
E. macrorhyncha maybe photo ‘oh my aching knees!’) and took some (too many) photos of the bonsai tree, tadpoles and dragonfly. I think the tree is a Long-leaf Box Eucalyptus gonicalyx because of it juvenile leaves but I could be wrong, it was very photogenic growing beside the pool though! The tadpoles where huge! And growing legs as you can see (hopefully) from the picture. I tried catching some but they were too quick for me.
The big stacks of rock that make up the escarpment and caves that the bush ranger Captain Melville used where up some very steep steeps from the picnic ground but well worth the climb. Again if was hard to capture the dramatic nature of the environment, everything was big; granite boulders, Stringybark trees and views out over the surrounding country side. I wondered around for a bit and yep got a little disoriented (Picnic at Hanging Rock like!) but I found the path pack to the top car park and camp ground where I had parked, eventually.
After moving the car into some shade, I’ve lost the ability to predict where the shade will be since being away I think some ones move the compass
A Westringia?
there were a lot of these as understory directions up here! I sat and had a cuppa tea and some ‘walk about mix’ while looking at my maps to find a town for lunch, it was 2pm now! I choose Inglewood, I could have gone to Arnold but it was a bit too far south and did not look like it was big enough to have any shops.
Inglewood was a good choice there was a nice cafe with homemade pies and big pots of tea. Also there was a very entertaining young lady who ate her lunch with me. Scarlet is the shop owner’s daughter as you can see from the photo she is about 4 or 5 and poises beautifully for photos. As I had driven into town I noticed a two story historic house for sale and after thanking Scarlet and her mum I walked around the corner to take some pictures. Does anyone want to go bankrupted with me? It a definite do-er-upper and money pit, as well as the cracks in the walls there is at least two bee hives in it too and a large garden that needs a lot of work.
To get to Mt Korong I drove out
of Inglewood on the Inglewood Powlett Rd through the Inglewood Nature Conservation Reserve. The mallee vegetation beside the road made me think I could be somewhere around Hattah NP. I had to stop and move a big Bearded Dragon off the road too or he ran when I got around the front of the car to look at him. He must of been well warmed up too because he took off like a rocket! Mt Korong is sorta between the two reserves of Wychitella and Kooyoora. It is another granite out crop but with yellow gum and red gum woodland around it and wattles and other sort shrubs between the boulders. The black wattle like trees had a lot of mistletoe in them and I got a good look at a Mistletoe Bird and also found to my delight a couple of Painted Honeyeaters! One of the species we thought we would have seen at Chiltern but missed. I even got a picture after having a really good look at the bird through my binoculars. From behind this bird in the picture reminded me of Goldfinches right down to the notched tail, I think it was an immature as the
second bird seemed to be a bit smarter looking.
When I got back to the cabin at 5pm I arranged my next pot of call, Lake Fyans. Then I went into Wedderburn for pizza at the local fish and chipper.
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division 1 tattslotto win would help