Tropical Lagoons

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Day 65

With our lunch box packed we headed off to the Gwydir Highway and the Washpool and Gibralter Range National Parks.

First stop was Boundary Creek, about 400metres walk down some steps there is a spectacular tropical looking lagoon with a waterfall. Something about it look perfect, even with the old deadwood that was lying in the lagoon as if it had been placed there deliberately. It may have been for all we know, however a common occurence here is that trees fall over and they are left on the landscape for its natural decomposition.

Walking back up to the truck, this was a very short walk but very steep, we met a couple from Grafton who were just having a day trip in the Parks, they were photographing a Ground Orchid, a solitary Orchid amongst huge greenery.

We stopped for a chat, which enabled us to catch our breath. Andy was chatting to the man, we do not know their names, he was explaining that he lived out in the bush and he had a couple of pythons that made their way into his loft and set up home. He said that he had no problems with them being there as they kept the mice away, when it was cold they were very inactive and every now and again in the summer they would come out and wrap themselves around the posts for the pergola. The only problem being that when they had their annual bowel movement the smell was quite unbelievable.

He also told Andy that one night after a few too many beers he went to the back screen door and saw a snake that he thought was a tree snake, he called his girlfriend to the door who brought a lamp with her and as he was holding the snake by the tail in his drunken state found that it was a Taipan, which is only one of the top 5 most venemous snakes on this planet!

It just goes to show how beer makes you fearless, my advice is don't drink beer and handle snakes at the same time.

We caught our breath back and got back to the top, where there was another walk to one side to the Lyrebird Falls. A Lyrebird is known for their ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds from their environment. Lyrebirds have extraordinary plumes of neutral coloured tailfeathers. They are rarely seen in their natural habitat. lyrebirds are also known because of the striking beauty of the male bird's huge tail when it is fanned out in display; and also because of their courtship display.

This walk was 2.2.km and they recommended to allow 1 1/2 hours time to walk it. Anyway, off we went down the track, through the trees, many of them had been burnt in the past and had recovered but you could see the trunks were blackened. Some trees look as if they had been completely taken out by lightning strikes as there was very little left of the tree just a charred trunk, this is very common in this country.

Very carefully, we checked a few of them for wildlife, i.e. a snake or echidnas. There were a lot of termite mounds which indicate that there will be echidnas in the area as they eat the termites. Echidnas, despite being spikey are very sweet little creatures.

We looked for Koalas but again there were none however we did see a number of Rainbow Lorikeets flying around.

In no time at all, we were at the end of the track and overlooking another set of falls and an amazing few across the valley. The landscape is so green. It does tend to rain quite a lot in this part of Australia. The days are hot, but the evenings are very cold and it washes into the interior of the country.

I wondered why I feel so tired here and we sleep so soundly at night. Even the walk takes its toll on you, however we are reminded that we are equivalent to the height of Snowdonia some 1085 metres above sea level so the air is thinner.

We walk back to the truck to get our lunch and rest before moving on. We get back and see the same couple that we spoke to on the way up from Boundary Creek, they were amazed to see us and said did you walk that already? We said yes, it seems it took us less than an hour.

After a relaxing lunch we drove up to the Raspberry Lookout a little further down the road. Stopping the car and making sure the handbrake was on!! We admired this other most amazing view that stretched out for miles and miles into the distance.

Again we met another couple, this time they were from England, here for 7 weeks visiting family for christmas, they borrowed a car and were on a short tour around the area before heading off to Japan next Monday.

We headed back to Glen Innes, we knew there was a storm coming and we did not want to be late back and get stuck in it.

We stopped at Woolworths on the way back to get some milk for a cup of tea and bumped into Michael from the computer shop, we have only been here a few days and already we are bumping into people we know. I guess thats the way it is with a small town of 10,000 people. It reminds me of shopping at Asda in Chandlers Ford, I don't remember a time when I did not bump into someone I knew whilst shopping.

Not long after arriving back at camp, the rain started so we closed the shutters in the tent and made ourselves comfortable inside. We were going to barbecue some steak, but because of the rain we cooked at the tent. We made ourselves some steak and fried onion wraps, they were delicious, washed down with a nice drop of locally made white wine (when I say local I mean Australia).

The rain was heavy and set in for the night, so we went to bed while the rain continued to pour.

Until tomorrow and fingers crossed that we see a Dell Engineer.

C&A
x

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Photos

Caroline Takes in the Lagoon
Caroline is lining up for a photograph of this beautiful lagoon.

Caroline
Stopping for a breather on the way down the long steps

Lyrebird Walk
This is the path we walked down to get the second set of falls.