My last excuse for disappearing of 2020; or how I’ve spent my holidays thus far… (Part IV)

So, we’ve arrived at Cave House, and I’ve gone back out to explore a little before it gets dark.  The grounds of the park really are amazing, and though the bushfires destroyed parts of the reserve, (the cabins they normally rent out were damaged, and the caves themselves had to be inspected for heat stress damage) which only reopened the week before our arrival, the main grounds of the park were blessedly spared.  Our wetter-than-normal spring and summer this year has also meant an abundance of birds and wildlife.

Musk Lorikeet in a Wild Cherry Plum tree.

The real exploration started the next morning – early, but not bright, as it was raining again.  But I was determined.  I was not the only one, as I was greeted by a small but very drenched mob of kangaroos just outside our gate:

Moving along towards the back of the park, I heard a Superb Lyrebird singing off to my left.  Lyrebirds are extraordinary for three things:  their tails, which are extravagant; their shyness, which is legendary; and their songs, which are long, complex and up to 80% mimicry of other songbirds’ calls.  A lyrebird will riff off other bird calls for minutes at a time, stringing them together one after the other, interspersed with their own sounds.

Before, I’ve only ever seen Lyrebirds’ tails, as they hare off into the underbrush – they can’t fly well but they’re roadrunner fast.  On this trip, I’d already seen two in all their feathers, rambling around the underbrush (where it was dark enough to guarantee bad pictures).  This rainy morning, I thought I’d just find a dry spot under a tree and listen to the morning aria, and ended up close enough to see him on a tree branch, seemingly singing for his own enjoyment.  When he was finished, he hopped off and scurried away, and I continued on up the hiking path.  That Lyrebird was not only fast, but seemed to have the same idea I did, because I came around the bend and there he was:

Our gentle morning shower was quickly deteriorating into a proper rain and I moved on at a fast clip, and met MT at the end of the path (he’d started out after I did), where we spotted another Lyrebird out in the open, scratching away for breakfast on the forest floor.  We headed back to Caves House to dry off and head off for more exploring.

Our morning was a bust, a place called Lakes Entrance.  Lovely if you’re wanting the beach on a hot day, I’m guessing, but very touristy and soulless otherwise.  We had a great breakfast and a nice half hour in the local bookshop, where we each walked out with a few books.

We cut our losses and headed back, our destination Little Creek Falls in the Alpine National Park.  Siri got us there, but overshot us past the falls, taking us around the mountain on a dirt road with no guardrails, but once we turned back around, we stopped first at Little Falls Gorge, the deepest gorge in Australia, (the picture at the top of these posts is the gorge) and then eventually found the falls, which weren’t falls so much as cascades. And very much worth the effort.

We saw a few birds, but more exciting was the rock wallabies and the Australian Water Dragons – there were 4 or 5 of them sunning themselves on the rocks, each about 3ft/1m long.  They scattered when they heard us, save this one, who was not going to give up his sunny spot for mere humans.

Our return was via another route, as we were aiming for another waterfall just outside Buchan, and while our drive was gorgeous and often hilarious – the road took us through several cow pastures, where the calves found us fascinating, running up to the car to get a good look at us – the falls were a complete bust.  We’re assuming post-bushfire signage was incorrectly placed because there were no falls at the end of the trail.  A prime example of the journey being better than the destination.

Once back, I walked around our reserve again, and caught several more birds on camera, all completely new to me, and some more kangaroo antics:

Two more things worth mentioning happened – one that evening and one the next morning, but this post is long and it’s crashed once, so I’ll put them in one final – I promise! – post.

 

 

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.