Working through the alphabet

It is common practice to have a Plan B.  Advanced project managers also have a Plan c.  In the Census program our fall back was always Plan D: when Plan C falls over, immediately construct Plans E and F.

  For 2 August I think we certainly visited Plan D and implemented Plan F (or possibly G - I lost count.

By way of background our electricity supplier advised (some weeks ago - this is GOOD) that they were having an outage for about 6 hours on 2 August to fix up some major issues.  So we thought this wood be a chance to go an explore a few areas.  

The first thought (ie Plan A) was the Errinundra National Park.  Then in conversation with a friend it appeared the roads in that area were rather ordinary at best and after the fires and a lot of rain like to be very ugly.  They suggested an area North of Orbost as a better option (plan B).  

Consulting Google Maps suggested 

1. that was close to 4 hours driving each way, by the shortest route; and
2. said route went through NSW.

Point 1 knocked that plan down and point 2 administered the coup de gras.  Plan C focused on Bemm River which seemed reasonable until we consulted some touring maps which gave a lot of attention to the Point Hicks - Tamboon area.  So Plan D was to go to Point Hicks and if that was a fizzer, Plan E was to call in at Wingan Inlet on the way home, having filled up with diesel at Cann River.

The first issue was that as we passed through Cann River the Shell servo appeared to be closed (the low price United servo has been demolished for some reason).  I was confident we had enough fuel for Plan D so carried on.

A subset of Plan D emerged when we found that the road to Point Hicks was closed (locked gate as well as a stupid notice by Parks Victoria, where the red line meets the blue).  However the road to Tamboon was open so we veered in that direaction.

The Inlet at Tamboon was quite attractive and seemed to be popular with camping fisherpersons.  I could actually say fishermen as I didn't actually see an obviously female person there.  Further, they all looked characters from a well known film about a canoe trip: I suspect the sound of banjos would have been very evident in the evening

A few birds were evident including this very tight raft of coots.

This large map was evident extolling the delights of various tracks, including one to the sand dunes - which are the main attraction (other than fishing).  

However the map didn't show any tracks; there was a sign saying "No access to water" past the camp; and the edge of the Inlet was soft, slippery mud.  I asked one of the aquatic persons how to get to the sand hills and they said either go along the edge or take a boat!  End of Plan D.

Plan E was to head back towards home checking the Genoa Falls and Gipsy Point Cemetery as we went.  A side trip to Wingan was ruled out as we were unsure about fuel with a further 60+kms added on,  As we left I pulled over and eventually took a photo of the road.

Why do I say eventually?  The answer lies in the vehicle seen on the road.  It was Plod - and I must say very Pleasant Plod who were patrolling the area and just wanted to check we were "All good?".  They couldn't tell us of any walking tracks in the area but did say that there was a 24 hour, card-only BP servo on the Monaro Highway in Cann  River that was always open.  Very good guys!

We took the snap and rumbled off .  We paused briefly to photograph this Epacris growing beside the road.  Checking the Flora of Victoria suggested that only E. impressa had flowers other than white.  However this was far larger than any other of that species.  A mystery.

We checked the Shell servo and they had a sign saying "Closed due to fuel outage".  Frances had wondered about but had dismissed the thought as all servos had generators.  Obviously at least one did not have a gennie.

Plan E.1 included a stop at the Drummer rainforest walk to eat our lunch.  A nice colony of Earthstar (Geastar sp.) fungi were evident.

Getting into the rainforest we found a colony of these little furry bracket fungi growing up a tree trunk.

The track crossed Drummer Creek several times.

That image is interesting as the bridge was untouched by fire while the first bridge - on the transition from eucalypt forest to rainforest - was a little compromised.  Judging by the footprints many people were walking the track.  

There were many magnificent trees.

Being rainforest there were many epiphytes.

The second stage of Plan E was to call in at Genoa Falls on Genoa Creek to check the flow. The official gauge at the Gorge on the River (a few kms from this point on a different watercourse) was down to exactly 1 m (from a high of 2.4 m) so the flow was less spectacular than it would have been during the week.

Towards the end of the rocks a pool was attracting the foam (a nicer word than scum) in an interesting pattern.  It looks fractal, but I'd like to see someone give a simple formula (like z_n+1 = z_n² + c) that generates that!

We swung into Genoa to look for Emus but none were visible.  There were none.  But there were a few Shelduck and a good flock (36 birds) of Little Ravens.  On the Flats on Mallacoota Rd we found 22 Straw-necked Ibis (which never seem to make it to Mallacoota..  Overall I recorded 22 species here https://ebird.org/australia/checklist/S72030965.

Talking of fractals and the Mandelbrot set, leads to chaos theory: some elements of the day approached that but iverall it was quite enjoyable.  The worry is the amount of work to be done by Parks to open up the National Parks.  It is now more than 7 months since the fires and nothing seems to have really happened other than a few teams of contractors knocked over a few trees.