Rain Forests, Waterfalls, and Birds

Superb Lyre Bird

Gibraltar and Washpool National Parks

Since our last post, Russ and I traveled from Glen Innes to Gibraltar and Washpool National Parks in the Great Dividing Range and Table Lands of New South Wales.  The National Parks are rustic with pit toilets and fire pits.  We enjoyed building a warming fire to heat water and to grill our meals.

During the day we took several long walks in the Fern Tree Forests and valleys filled with beautiful ferns.  The park information told us there were over 20 different species of ferns.  The flora was happy to be wet and shady.

We had been warned that there were leeches on the trails, and if we weren't properly covered they could attach themselves to our skin.  Shiver me timbers....the memories of Jungle Queen still gives me the creeps.   That was almost enough to make me not want to hike.

This Grass Tree Must Be 300 Years Old...they grow 2 cm every 10 years

Nevertheless, we donned our heavy socks, long pants with bands around the ankles, long sleeves and brimmed hats (just in case they dropped from tall ferns onto our heads) and ventured into the woods.

The scenery was beautiful and we were certainly glad not to have missed it.  Plus, we didn't see one leech!  Thankfully it was too dry.  We spent one night in Bell Bird campground in Washpool where we saw two lyre birds, but unfortunately, they ran past us so fast I couldn't get the camera organized fast enough.

Here are some photos of our trek through the fern and rain forests.

Into the Forest

Life unfolding

Fresh Water Eel

Happy Bubbling Brooks

Nymboida and Dorrigo

Our next venture was to Dorrigo Rainforest, but first we spent a night in the town of Grafton.  We dropped down a long steep grade from the mountains to a fairly large city.

 The Clarence River which is quite large runs to the sea through Grafton.  In order to accommodate, people, cars, trains, and tall masted sail boats, the bridge is a lifting bridge on a center column.  It is a double decker with trains and pedestrian walk on the bottom and cars on the top.  We re-provisioned in Grafton, spent the night in a local campground with hot showers and country-western music piped into the bathrooms.  The following morning, we headed off again to more of New South Wales National parks via Nymboida.

A bottle of beer in one hand and... in the other

Nymboida is an old coaching station, now and inn, pub,  and home of Russell Crowe's family.  The Museum of Interesting Things houses Crowe's treasures, including the armor and chariot he wore and rode in the Gladiator and props and costumes from Master and Commander.  We spent an hour here enjoying the museum and visiting with some fellow Californians from San Diego.  Unfortunately, Russell wasn't around.  No doubt...shooting another movie.

This large coach took 20 horses to pull and proved unwieldy

Dorrigo is a quaint pastoral town on the edge of the national rainforest.  It is working hard to become an arts center for the area.  As such there are some wonderful tiled/ceramic murals throughout the town and at the National Park headquarters.

Lyre Bird

An elevated skywalk allows visitors to walk above the canopy of trees of the rainforest for magnificent views of the valley and the the tops of the trees.  We knew there were birds because their songs filled the air with tweets, whips, tatters, pipes, hoots, and screeches.  Actually seeing the birds, even with the aid of the board walks closer to the tops of their habitat was a challenge.

Here are some photos of our walk through the rainforest.

Vista from the Top of the Rainforest

Australia has a species of trees called the stinging trees.  The leaves if touched pack a stinging punch.  Some insect however seems to be immune to the sting and eats its way through the leaves making a lacy network.  The trees grow quite tall.

Awed by the beauty

Looking out from Behind the Falls

Water Fall Way - Lyre Birds

When we left Dorrigo, we took a section of road call the  Water Fall Way.  Even though New South Wales has not yet received a lot of the wet stuff as yet, the falls we saw were lovely.  We spent the night in a campground, Green Gully - in the Oxley Wild River National Park.  Arriving at the campgroud, we selected a spot that overlooked a valley.  There was a car in the next campsite with a crusty looking man sitting in a camp chair.  He told us politely he didn't want any neighbors.  Even though he seemed anti-social and was a bit scary with his Dundee black suede hat and vest over bare, tanned skinned with lots of tatoos, he was quite talkative although his monologue was somewhat difficult to follow.   Eventually after a half hour of non-stop chatter, we extracted ourselves and moved to a different campsite, closer to a water spigot and away from "Frank".

We met a nice couple from Dover, England (Sue and David) in a little camper van similar to ours.  They come to Australia every year during England's winter to where the climate is a little warmer.  As we shared a glass of wine, close to dusk, we spotted a lyre bird strutting and singing in the campground.  The lyre bird has the ability to mimic the calls of other birds, so they are very difficult to recognize from their own song.  When we saw and heard them at Bell Bird campground, the male chasing the female was making a sound resembling something like a quack or quock of duck or frog.  I guess if you start hearing lots of different bird songs in a row coming from ground level, it might be a lyre bird.  The superb lyrebird looks a bit like a pheasant, but has the most amazingly beautiful tail feathers.

We did't get to see the bird display his feathers out like a lyre, but were able to appreciate his beauty anyway.  Such a treat to actually see one of these magnificent birds.

Convergence of Two Rivers - Chandler and Wollomombi

Don't Hate Me Because I am So Beautiful

After a pleasant evening, we left the following morning and continued on our way toward the town of Armidale, down the water fall way.  Here are some of the photos from our trip down from the mountains, and a short 4 kilometer walk we took.

Last night we spent the night in Armidale.  Today is Monday, December 10, 2012.  We had a great day in Armidale, but I will save that for the next blog.

All is Well with the 2 Land Travel R's in Waltzing Matilda.