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Another pre-brekkie stroll

Gulfalan67

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Hiya folks

Hope all are enjoying the run up to Christmas.

Yesterday we decided to make another pre brekkie stroll down the escarpment to check on the waters down there in the rainforest. We have received about 250-300mm since rains began back in October but the showers kinda fizzled out during November and December. The weather has been fiercely hot and humid. Luckily the showers are due back this week.

So we wandered down together through the infernal heat and flies and descended into what we call the northern gulley, not the closest to our house -but the easiest to climb down into.

The Boy led us, he knows this country well -but takes some different routes to us bipeds. He has his own secret pathways around the steeper climbing sections.

As we expected, we found water trickling from the escarpment and some shallow pools with small fish but not the thundering waterfalls and surging torrents that follow the onset of the rains..

We started climbing down through the series of descending cascades but as the sun rose it became hotter and swarming insects drove us to seek refuge in a pool. Sausages and eggs on toast and lashings of tea seemed like a really good idea so we decided to beat a retreat back up the escarpment. The Boy led us the shortest way home along one of his routes. I tossed him an extra sausage for that service.

Although a pleasant stroll we didn't find much water or see anything new -so we're not really exploring.

Over the breakfast table we decided to make our next foray out to the second gulley further north. Neither my wife or I have yet been there. It is quite possible that nobody ever has. At least not in the last few hundred years of European settlement. I have flown over it and it looks interesting.

We will go after we have serious rains during the Christmas period to see it wet, even if the traverse down becomes more difficult (canyoning?).

Some pics from the stroll yesterday: Don't do justice to the heat humidity and biting insects...

Looking down into the forest
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Trees on the cliff face
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Our guide does his thing
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Me following The Boy down
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We reach a dry waterfall and reduced pool
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A snap down the gulley from inside a pool
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Looking down the cascade to lower pools about 30-40m down This all becomes a continuous torrent in the wet season.
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thanks for taking the time to post the pictures :) your a very lucky man my friend living where you do :cool:
Having visited Australia four times for five weeks at a time, and apart from ACT, and have been to every state. It is indeed an amazing country, full of contrast and wonderful nature, we have enjoyed every visit.

But nowhere is perfect, every country has its minus points, and Britainā€™s biggest minus for me is the fact we are hugely overpopulated. If you could have a quarter of the population we have now, there is nowhere I would rather liveā€¦ā€¦OK South Africa, but it has huge problems as well.

I live in the Dartmoor National Park, only minutes from open moorland. My good friend has 300 plus acres that I have unlimited access, including ā€œmyā€ bit of woodland for Bushcrafty stuff. Some of the countries best beaches just 40 mins drive away. Fishing, wild camping, hunting, with more Deer than you can shake a shitty stick at, and amazing vistas. OK, I am Devonian born and bred, and passionate about my home county and hugely biasā€¦ā€¦..But, especially out of season, it does me fine. šŸ‘
 
Hi folks

I posted this story feeling a bit cheap because itā€™s virtually the same walk as I described on an earlier post to this site. But we needed to go down to check water levels and conditions, and that gulley section is the easiest access for us down the escarpment.

We have so much to do and so many projects underway that we rarely have time to go off exploring and enjoying the landscape. But hopefully in the next two weeks weā€™ll find time to do a longer trek, and check out that next gulley over to the north.

I will report on our progress.

Cheers

Alan
 
Fantastic pics and write up. Really good to see a different side of December without the cold drizzle.
 
Truthfully I couldnā€™t manage in Australia, the heat and humidity would knock the cr@p out of me. I totally understand why you do your early morning walks rather than being out in the heat of the dayā€¦Iā€™d probably be nocturnal.
 
Hey folks

Hope all are well and enjoying festivities. Down under at our place it seems like the storm has passed with fizzle rather than a bang.

Its still a bit blustery but we got our first glimpse of the sun in five days today. And what better way to start the morning than with a stroll down the hill to work up an appetite for our eggs avocado and mushrooms on toast?

Not to be confused with the previous stroll, this one was into the gorge directly beneath our house (the closest one), although this time we skirted the northern face and so passed through some spots we hadn't previously visited.

It was the usual team, The Boy, my wife and I. Being holidays and overcast we didn't leave until about 8.30am.

The recent rain had given the creeks a good flush but also moved stuff around -like washed away fallen trees and flattened reed and fern beds.

Clambering along the northern edge of the gorge we had two distinctive landmarks that we have visited a couple of times previously... 'Mushroom rock' and 'Castle rock'. The former requires no explanation. Each time we go down there we expect to find it toppled, but somehow it stands true. Pics below.

Castle rock is a bizarre outcrop just like a castle wall atop the gorge. You can stand on the 'battlements' ( it has crenellations) and look down 40m down the wall face into the 'moat' below.

Clambering further we were dismayed to find some rubbish. Two Elliot traps. About six or seven years ago we gave permission to researchers from the University of New South Wales (Sydney) to study an endangered species of rock hopper called the Narbalek on our property. A team came up here, littered our gorges with traps and environmental data loggers and buggered off. They visited intermittently over the next couple of years but they subsequently had some problems when their vehicles became bogged getting in here and a team member managed to get lost for a brief period.

So they pulled the plug on the expedition and the research project and never came back - leaving their crap scattered through the gorges...! Whenever I find more of their junk I get so angry...Its so disrespectful to leave rubbish in the wilderness and these idiots were meant to be environmentalists! šŸ¤¬

Each discovery means a difficult hike for me to go and haul it up out of the gorge....

After about an hour we finished at a spot we call Turtle Head pool. Arrived home at about 11.30am
all three of us ravenous for brekkie

Creek flowing nicely
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Heading into the gorge
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Creeping rainforest vines
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A gorgeous moth I found...
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The balancing mushroom rock
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Again...
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Looking down off castle rock with The Boy looking up from below
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Research junk!!!
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Hurry up hoomans!
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Turtle head pool šŸ˜
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Girl takes a dip...
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Man and Boy ready for their breakfasts
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Seasons greetings to all and their families

Alan
 
Those live capture traps should never have been left out there, I really hope they hadnā€™t abandoned them left set. In the UK the best practice guides say that they should be checked at least once a day, and more often in extreme environments. Iā€™m really glad that youā€™re collecting them up whenever you find them, even if it is a bit of a pain in the backside for you.
As always the pictures of your place are beautiful and amazing
 
Abs
Those live capture traps should never have been left out there, I really hope they hadnā€™t abandoned them left set. In the UK the best practice guides say that they should be checked at least once a day, and more often in extreme environments. Iā€™m really glad that youā€™re collecting them up whenever you find them, even if it is a bit of a pain in the backside for you.
As always the pictures of your place are beautiful and amazing

Absolutely Mike.

The rules are exactly the same over here as in UK - and internationally.

The researchers did leave the traps closed and just set them each day when they were working up here on their expeditions. Traps were checked daily but I think they just got fed up of all the climbing in and out of the gorges, as well as the safety issues I mentioned before. My gripe is that they left them here at all... the plastic covers that provide shade to the traps have degraded and get into the waterways...

Alan
 
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