Warrumbungle National Park - Road trip with Danish visitors - Part 5

Warrumbungle National Park is one of those places that just feels really right from when you first enter the park. Great nature, some of the most spectacular views NSW has to offer, a good selection of wildlife and lovely campsites - all in all an excellent place for a long weekend. The only negative thing I can say about Warrumbungle National Park, is that as a bird habitat it is not different enough from areas much closer to Sydney to support more rare and "exotic" bird species. My Danish visitors were, however, not too concerned about the lack of ticking possibilities and frankly, I enjoyed being able to concentrate on doing some good bushwalking rather than having to stand and examine any scrub or bush that had managed to produce a chirp - lovely to know that there was no chance of the LBB (little brown bird) that had produced the sound would be new on my list. The creature that can get those fresh of the plane Danes fired up is the kangaroo! After nearly six years in Australia, I had forgotten how strangely different these jumping marsupials are compared with the fauna at home. Maybe as a consequence of the new found attention on their behavior, we managed to experience something I have only seen very briefly before, kangaroos fighting each other. Two younger males from a little group of kangaroos were on their back legs circling each other while punching with their front legs and once and a while trying to land a kick from those powerful hind legs.
At first it seemed much like a part of a game, but as it continued it was pretty clear that it was not just for fun and that "the game" would continue till a winner was found. White-winged Choughs greeted us when we returned to the campsite - indeed they greeted us wherever we walked - warning everyone about our arrival. The Leaf-curling Spider below is always a good photo opportunity. Its ingenious way of recycling leaf litter allows it to sit protected while keeping watch over its web. Many other spiders do not dare to be actively hunting during the day, since the roles can easily change and they would become the hunted. Notice how the leaf-curling spider sits with a few of its legs gently placed onto the web, ready to strike as soon as it registers vibrations caused by caught prey. The drive from Gundabooka to Warrumbungle had taken quite a bit of the day and we decided to have an early night, the following day we would do the Grand High Tops circuit, which is best done well rested. We had arrived late at the campsite and had had some difficulty in finding good flat areas for our tents - at least flat areas in safe distance from known snorers. I had, after quite some time, found a great spot away from other tents and had happily pitched my tent. Crawling into my tent that night, my head torch pointed straight down into the ground and I noticed a few circular holes with shiny reflections in them .. I had apparently camped in the middle of a spider colony! I was unlikely to find a better spot for my tent in the darkness and the action packed dirt just outside my tent gave a fantastic opportunity for playing around with my macro lens (the Sigma 150mm f/2.8) trying to get focus (and flash) on the spider sitting approximately 5 to 10 centimeters deep in its burrow .. It took quite a few attempts before I got the one above.

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? :-)

Barrington Tops National Park - Alpine Winter Camping in Australia

Barrington Tops National Park is in some ways quite similar to Lamington National Park, both sport high altitude rain forest with all the goodness that included .. such as Antarctic beach trees and Rufous Scrub-birds. Despite the calender revealing that Australia was just about hitting mid winter we decided to go high altitude winter camping for a bit of cold - but cozy - Queen's Birthday long weekend camping.

Lets be honest; the nights up in Barrington Tops were proper cold - we were solidly under 0°C during the nights - and the birding was pretty shabby, apart from a close encounter with 3 Wedge-tailed Eagles feeding on a dead kangaroo next to the road as we were driving in, we saw very few bird - and non of them were Rufous or Scrub.

Not having to focus our attention on the birds, we could concentrate on the landscapes, the walking and the task of trying to stay warm. It is not often that I have seen Australia this cold and quiet, it did indeed remind me of Christmas in Denmark.


But as always, when you get your lazy carcass of the sofa and get out there in the wild stuff happens - the big surprise of the weekend was an encounter with a herd of wild brumbies! I have seen wild horses up in Kakadu before, but that at a boringly safe distance of more than 100 meters across a broad river system. That encounter can in no way be compared to the joy of suddenly standing face to face with a small herd of properly wild ones :-) Fantastic to see how the leader of the pack - the large black stallion - took control as soon as they realized that they were not alone, it stood tall staring us down while allowing the rest of the herd to slowly wander off making sure that we did not follow. Great healthy strong animals - what a great sight!

Back at camp we got into survival mode - lots of cloths, hot food and hot beverages. As evident from the picture above, little G. was proud as a peacock after getting her new fuel stove firing, not even my poor choice of using kerosene - the most smelly sooty type of fuel possible (except maybe for diesel) - could remove the smile from her face :-)

The first night taught us that a bonfire was worth the effort, so out we went for firewood - needless to say that we did not exclusively go for the dry-dry selection - indeed I think the smoke from the start up of our little bonfire could be seen back home in Sydney :-D

Wilson's Promontory - Getting Out and Getting Home

I managed to bank an enormous sleep and still get up before sunrise - beautiful stuff! After a quick breakfast I packed my gear and started walking. The night before I had chatted to some fellow campers that had informed me that I had been lucky arriving at the Sealers Cove campsite at low tide and that my early start meant that I would have to negotiate much more water when crossing the river that isolate the campsite from the main part of the beach - they were right :-D

It had actually worried me a bit; not that I was afraid of crossing the water, but saltwater can have a nasty effect on how your skin deals with long walks .. I decided to take full advantage of my early start - no one else awake and I could safely pull a Full Monty securing that not a single piece of cloth would be wet .. Managed to get backpack and camera gear safely across in two goes with water reaching my waist - nice cold morning :-)


Even the seabirds were a still struggling to wake up so I managed to get closer than I had been at any point during the weekend. After using a bit of precious freshwater cleaning the most saltwater sensitive areas, I got back in my outfit and hit the track.


Best guess is that I had managed to start walking around 6am, which gave me plenty of time to enjoy the walk and still make it to Tidal River in good time. It was very pleasant walking indeed, away was the heat and humidity that had made it a struggle the day before and I truly enjoyed the climb and the views.

The shuttle bus running between Mount Oberon car park and Tidal River would begin its route 8am. I was not going to make the first trip, but I had calculated that I was likely to see the first lot of early morning bushwalkers on their way east towards Sealers Cove and beyond around Windy Saddle. Like clockwork I ran into three small groups of walkers, last set having a little break at WS adjusting an annoying socks and very keen to hear a bit about what they had actually begun .. after 2.5 hours of lonesome wander I was happy to tell about the rain forest, the river crossing and the tiger snake - do not know if that was actually what they wanted to hear :-D
I was happy to see them, since it meant the bus was running and I would be able to get back to Tidal River and the Ford Falcon easily meeting my deadlines.

Great guns! Finally leaving Wilson's Promontory I even had time to stop at some of the lookouts along the road. No doubt it would have been fantastic having a day or two more, I could easily have used more time walking and exploring other parts of the park - even tried to see a few of the rare birds that supposedly live in the park(?) But considering the situation I felt that I had taken full advantage of the opportunity given and made a normal weekend into something quite special. One day I will be down there again for a bit of bushwalking - probably not during high season ;-)

Wilson's Promontory - Sealers Cove Wildlife

It took a while to find the campsite - it was located just south of the beach on the other side of a little creek, that at low tide could easily be crossed with water levels not much above knee height. After my camping experience the previous night I was very keen on getting my tent up in a "private" area :-) I did not need to worry, the campsite was absolutely fantastic with small isolated areas where you could truly feel happily isolated.

Tent up and ready for a bit of adventure, I started walking south and had probably done less than 200m before I encountered the good sized and very photogenic Tiger Snake above. Snakes in general are very secretive and hard to spot, they know you are coming long before you have a chance to get a look at them and they nearly always choose to disappear without sound or trace. I would love to claim that my luck with the sweetheart above was due to my bush-ninja skills, which allows me to float through the bush without impacting the ground, however, reality was that I had been standing still like stone for quite a few minuets trying to get pictures of a bird, when the tiger snake crawled onto the path few meters in front of me - how lucky can you be? :-D I probably had more than 2 minuets in company with the TS before it disappeared into the scrub on the other side of the path and was gone .. needless to say that I now how quite a few Mb of TS pictures.

The bird above - behind the bush :-) - was not the one I was stalking before the snake incident, but probably the most exciting bird I saw during my Prom excursion. Judged on the pattern on the chest I guess there is a good chance of it being a Bassian Thrush. I managed to get better view when it flew, but no pictures.


Good walking! It was great not having to carry the backpack along and I managed to cover quite a bit of ground. The bird count being low was easily forgotten with a great selection of lizards around included a few that I do not recall having seen before.


The one above looks like an indigenous painting with stripes, dots and great colors. As the sun disappeared I returned to camp, once again planning an early night. I was supposed to return the car before 4pm Sunday, I wanted good time for the drive so I was aiming at leaving the prom before 12pm .. before I could leave I would have to make the walk back to the car park at Mount Oberon, catch a bus to the campsite and also I was expecting that a shower would be high on the "things I would like to have time for"-list :-D .. so I was planning to leave the campsite not later than 7am.

I had to find a better home for the little spider above before I could start cooking and while choosing my campsite I had been very happy with the presence of a good solid log, which looked like it would do the job of a comfy sofa .. as I started cooking the little fellow below popped its head out of my planned resting place and after some careful consideration I decided that the log was not to be used by me that evening .. I guess the combination of a tiger snake sighting and the fact that the potential sofa in question had many holes of various sizes made it an easy choice to stand up while eating. :-D