Kangaroo Valley and Morton NP walks : May 21 2024

Late night in markets makes for a slow morning. Sun is out and I am committed to getting out. Packed a sandwich and drove over Cambewarra Mountain with a view to go to Fitzroy Falls.

Long time since I have been able to stop to take a photo of this sign - maybe 15 years ago cycling over this mountain. This time - traffic light stop for roadworks to fix landslips from 2 years ago

Took the turn off to Tallawah Dam past Morton NP - found a side road to park and walk. Not walked this side of the NP - have walked up above.

Some delicate flowers on the way - pea flower

NSW coral heath flower - epacris pulchella

Sundew flower

Autumn is about mushrooms - all sorts of colours

This is what happens to the one before - it starts to flatten out and fold up the show the underside

The road was recently remade - maybe two years ago. All the material they push aside lands up on the verge and suppresses growth. Walk a bit on the road and a bit on the verge. Saw this leaf on the verge - looks like a helmet orchid leaf - much smaller than the ones lower down the mountain

Bingo! A few feet away qas a flower - spurred helmet orchid - always excited to find an orchid on a new track

Side on photo shows the spurs - corysanthes aconitiflorus - English name is spurred helmet orchid

Did find a bonnet orchid leaf - back of the leaf is burgundy. Photo is a challenge as the leaf in front has the right shape but it is a vine leaf

The form of the mushrooms before they open up us fabulous - colours are too

Side by side - pretty too

Slender rice flower

Pine leafed geebung - the best photo of the day - includes a couple of ants

Top down view of banksia

Lambertia formosa

Mushroom miscellany

Side on view of mushrooms growing on a log

2nd orchid find of the day - budding acianthus orchid

Close up of the buds - hard to focus on something so small

More mushroom on log action

Mini mushrooms on a tree trunk - like a church organ pipes with bells

Cascaded around the trunk. Each mushroom is smaller than the tip of a baby finger

3rd orchid type found over the top of the hill as the road dropped into a bit more rainforest feel. Too bad the undergrowth looked like old farmland - never good for orchids

Maybe the best mid-size mushroom photo of the day - love the streaks of dark

Shows nicely how the mushrooms come out the ground bullet shaped and then start to flatten out

A few hibbertia flowering. Happy with this photo - the yellow likes to grab the light

View back down the track- shows well how the track work piles up the verges. Good side is I can drive a long way up the road to get to the rainforest

Not expecting to see a purple fan flower - starting to shrivel

Turned left to head a bit more toward the dam. Found this fire trail to walk down toward Kangaroo River

The walk was quite different - more rocky, different flowers and no orchids. Not seen this flower before - grows on a shrub and the red flowers start out claw shaped. Then the spike pops out

This one is a little more uniform in the way it opened up

View down the trail - more sandstone based - different vegetation - and only 2 kms from the other track

This little bird posed - quite a few metres away

Banksia - still a few around flowering

Top down view showing the petals dropping off

Lots of the wattle flowers - this cluster was tighter than normal making for easy photo work

Two good walks with quite different vegetation. Super quiet - lots of birds - no people and only occasional vehicle passing by close to the main road. Did have to drive with care as main road had lots of potholes - some big

Glad I made it out.

Dinner action: Pizza in honour of Giro d'Italia. Did not watch the start which was delayed 3 hours

Did a few trades late - am nearly fully invested. Only one new uranium trade - URG - first time buy

This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io

Daily Activity, House Chores, Photowalking