Capertee Valley - Road Trip with Danish Visitors - Part 1

A visit by a couple of good lads from back home is always an excellent excuse for an excursion. These lads in particular being keen campers and having a a healthy interest in nature, there was no doubt that we needed to go bush. During their first week in Sydney, I kept working and they could potter around at the beach, loose the first layer of Danish winter skin and cover most of what city has to offer. At the beginning of the second week, we found ourselves in the roaring Magna with that long, shiny, masculine bonnet pointing in the direction of the outback. Capertee Valley was once again the perfect pit-stop for a straight-from-work Sydney departure. Apart from the months of darkest winter Capertee can easily be reached before night fall as long as you get out of Sydney in decent time - and it is advisable, since the drive into the valley is winding, narrow, dark and teeming with wildlife. We arrived in good time, despite of the obligatory bumper to bumper driving across the Blue Mountains - believe it or not, they have been fixing that road all of the years I have been living in Australia - 6 that is. Capertee Valley was firing on all cylinders though, as the sun sets in the west the shadows move longer and the cliff wall comes alive in orange, red and brown. An excellent spot for three hungry Danes to consume some camping tucker. Capertee Valley always delivers on the wildlife front, having used most of the afternoon getting sorted with the tents, dinner and wandering around town, we very left with the (smaller?) creatures of the night. There was a superior selection of insects about and with a fast macro lens, a fully charged flash and someone to help holding the spotlight, I at least had heaps of fun. Highlight of the night happened while we were gathered around the camping table. There we were telling each other the usual good(!) old stories and sorting out all the trouble of the world, when suddenly in the moon light (supported by the faint light from a couple of head torches) a shadow dropped from the roof above us - it was one of the largest huntsman spiders I have ever seen - I think it took first place for both of my friends :-) The huntsman seemed surprised about the attention it received. After having reached the ground it decided to sit still and we managed to get a few photos before we left it to go to bed. I am sure those tent zips where checked more than once that night.
The humidity and light at a campsite bathroom creates an absolute tip top hotspot for a bit of insect photography. The entire food chain is represented from the smallest tiniest flying fluff to larger fluff eating creations ... I am absolutely aware that this is a pretty poor naming efforts, my only defense is that no matter how much I love my insect book, I could not justify to include it in my only 23 kg of luggage when I left Australia - I am sure that it will make it next time around though. Great sleeping in the bush! .. and great waking up there as well, some porridge in the morning and a coffee while the sun rises, pure joy! We still needed quite a few hours of of driving before we would arrive at our furthest away destination - Gundabooka National Park. Early morning at the campsite bathroom we spotted another top predator insect - one of those eating the ones that eat the flying fluff - a praying mantis. What more can you hope for? :-)

Capertee Valley with TK

Capertee Valley never disappoints! Driving in we were greeted with a fantastic display of the sun slowly setting in the east lighting up the rocky mountains - great view! .. and a few parrots feeding on the gravel road always impress a couple of Danish boys :-)

Another Australian summer specialty is bush fires. As we approached the campsite in Glen Davis, we witnessed the efforts being undertaken to battle the fires. A helicopter fueling site had been set up on the fields just outside of Glen Davis and the river had been dug out to shorten the time needed to load water.

Setting up camp was quickly done and the good old well proven combo of gnocchi and red wine was (as always) very effective against tired legs and insomnia :-)

Early mornings in the bush are absolutely fantastic, so when you manage to get your carcass out of the tent, it is all firing left right and center. The vulture looking bird below is in fact a Noisy Friarbird.

Having Danish visitors along it was quite a relief to see a kangaroo alive, we had seen a sadly high number of dead ones lying along the roads east side of the Blue Mountains.

We also managed to acquaint our selves with some less feathery, but still flying Australian wildlife - flies! Considering that we still had quite a few hundred kilometers to proper outback I guess we were both impressed by the swarm we managed to attract ;-)

On the way home we made a couple of strategic stops at various creek crossings .. unfortunately there was no sign of the Regent Honeyeater, but we saw some impressive bridges :-)

Capertee Valley - The Rest

Before dinner we decided to drive a bit along the valley floor, first of all to satisfy my dads hunger for a bit of left-hand side driving in some seriously luxurious Australian-quality-build vehicle .. i.e. the Magna :-)

The little feathery guy above and a Grey-crowned Babbler were great spots before the light faded and the light hungry Bigma had to call it quits. A bit of gnocchi and a good sleep and we would be ready for the morning.

After our usual early morning walk followed by some of Gemma's most delicious breakfast, we were ready to leave the valley. The early morning drive out through the grassy valley was once again fantastic. With dad at the wheel I could concentrate on capturing as much of the action along the road as possible.

Heaps of stuff going on and once again I managed to get another tick - the third of the trip, not at all something I had expected. The culprit being the heavy beaked little fellow in the first of the pictures below.



With all that luck floating around we decided to give good old Crown Station Rd another go to see if the Regent Honeyeaters were home .. Unfortunately there was no sign of the endangered HE, but we had a great walk and managed to see yet another species of babbler.

Dad did his last bit of Australian driving and as we hit the tarmac again, I pointed the shining bonnet of the Magna towards Coogee. It was a great little trip to good old Capertee Valley with a surprisingly high number of new birds. On the way home we stopped for a cup of coffee in Blackheath and managed to witness a bit of wood chop action!

Deep inside Capertee Valley - Wildlife

Having three pairs of eyes is a great advantage when hiking in the Australian bush. 3 years ago I showed my dad his first Red-bellied Black snake and since then he has been surprisingly good at spotting snakes - not being overly(!) interested in the birds he can solidly focus his eyes on the ground in front of us and secure the path, while the rest of us are more random in where we look.

I have been in Capertee Valley many times and did not expect to see much new, indeed the main purpose for going to the valley was simply that it is a great place ... and since we had already seen most of the wildlife there we could have a relaxed time with dad without running around with binoculars or the camera glued to our faces.

However as always when you change habitat - like this time when we walked into the valley following the river instead of going high and dry - you see new stuff. Birdwise it was particular rewarding for Gemma, managing to see Olive-backed Oriole, Noisy Friarbird and Pilotbird. The latter was also new to yours truly - not bad at all :-)

The little marsupial below was a very rare sight. Despite have walked around in the Australian nature for a few years by now it is not very often that I have managed to spot or get pictures of this nocturnal creatures. At the moment I am without my wildlife books, but I will try to update this blog post when I can tell a little more about the little guy.

Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters and Welcome Swallows were in a frantic race to feed their youngsters. While we were eating our lunch we had great views of parents flying to and fro and the battle every protein rich piece of insect caused.


As a final treat, we stumbled upon a Wombat feeding during the still bright afternoon hours. This fellow looks a bit shabby and not in great shape, we managed to get within 5 meters of it and it did not notice us at all, being busy feeding.

Capertee Valley - Glen Davis - Camping

The plan had been to visit Lamington National Park, in the south east corner of Queensland. Firstly because it is a fantastic spot and secondly because my dad has never been to Queensland. Unfortunately bad weather was forecast to hit the coast and instead we decided to take our party inland to good old Capertee Valley that once again delivered an excellent combo of camping and nature galore - so apart from missing his Queensland tick, dad was not cheated in any way.

We had left Sydney Friday afternoon, which made it possible to reach the campground in Glen Davis before sunset, indeed we were able to pitch both tents and cook a bit of gnocchi goodness before it got dark. After a big sleep and a solid serve of Gemma's signature breakfast dish we were ready for a big Saturday in the shoes.

We had opted for a walk deep into the valley, trying to push as far in as we could possibly do in a single day allowing time to get back out again. It proved to be an excellent idea! :-)

We managed to spend 8 hours walking that Saturday - 5 hours in and 3 hours getting back out of the valley again. The path is excellent - some would even argue that it is boringly good, guess it doubles as a maintenance track for the national park rangers supposedly being able to take a (good!) 4 wheel drive through. Nevertheless after a few hours of walking you feel the valley starting to narrow in on you and you get that fantastic feeling of being properly "into the wild" :-)

The secret to a good bit of bushwalking is to be well prepared! Always bring enough water and the usual survival gear. Knowing the mob I was traveling with this particular Saturday I also knew that as long as weather was good and there was plenty of food spirits would be high - As is quite evident from the picture above, both criteria were met! :-D

Great day in the shoes and as you can imagine there was heaps more to see than just the landscape stuff I have attached to this post, will put together a wildlife post shortly.