Captains Creek and the Narrows

As the weather was pleasant on 5 October we decided to do a car shuffle so that we could walk from the start of the Captains Creek Fire Trail past the jetty to the start of the Narrows at Bucklands.  We did it that way so that is was a net downhill walk.  Perhaps I should have put the net in bold: there were about 6 noticeable hills, adding up to about 100m of gross verticality!

The numbers in red (apart from #4) are bridges.  Number 4 comes up towards the end.

There were many flowers along the way.  I didn't photograph everything but have decided to try to build up some decent plant lists (using data from the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) as a starting point) that can be given out to tourists who want to do walks.  I have named the species I can ID in the following images.  My starting point for identification is Joy Grieg's excellent book "Wildflowers of the Wilderness Coast".  Where something goes beyond the ~300 taxa she has included I have referred to the Flora of Victoria website 

Hibbertia accularis

Billardiera scandens

This was a new colony of Pyrorchis nigricans, located about 2 km into the walk.  As shown by the top flower it is getting close to its use-by date.

There were 100s of Caleana major (Large Flying Duck orchids) along the track, often in colonies to ~20 plants.  We did wonder if this was a 'coming' Caleana minor (Small Flying Duck) but alas, its another big-job gone over!

Caladenia carnea

There were lotsa them!

This is clearly a Patersonia (Purple Flag) and as it is well taller than the foliage I have called it P. occidentalis.  There were also a lot of P. glabrata with flowers equal to the foliage.

We now come to the 'daisies' - or what should e call Asters, as the Family is now Asteraceae rather than Compositae.  This first is Coronidium scorpioides.

Craspedia variabilis

Leptorhynchos nitidulus

Xerochrysum brackteatum

This is definitely a Lomandra, and I have decided that it is L. longifolia.

Dampiera stricta.

Indigofera australis

Helichrysum leucopsideum

I thought the rather "Orthodox onion-dome" bud was worth including as well as the open flower.

Now we move into the realms of the unknown: beans!  I shall have a small project of tabulating the possibles to make searching easier.  If anyone cares to put a name to these I'd welcome it.

This fern was quite common in places where it seemed to outcompete the Pteridium esculentum Bracken.   Again ID welcome.

This is the spore pattern.

Cyathea australis is easy.

Schizophyllum communale.  I had never seen this fungus until this year and now it is everywhere  In addition to this growth in appearance it is also interesting that while it sort-pf looks like a bracket fungus it has gills and thus its common name of Splitgill Fungus.  

It was pleasing to see some insects around (other than mosquitoes, which like the poor seem to be always with us).  The patterned wings on this fly suggest to me that it is a Fruit Fly (Family Tephritidae)

Definitely an ant and I suspect from the genus Myrmecia (Bull Ants) carrying home some food - which looks very like a wood-louse.  A contributor to iNaturalist has ID'd the ant as Australian Red Bull Ant (Myrmecia simillima).

A Yellow Admiral (Vanessa itea).

A Tiger Snake, Notechis scutatus, encoutered at point 4, doing what snakes usually do and getting out of our way.  From reading in "Reptiles of Victoria " its size approaching 1 metre is on the large size for the species in current experience.  Judging by the bulges in the body, it has not been a good day for the local frogs!

A fine Jacky Lizard (Amphibolurus muricatus).  As it kept its mouth closed and I didn't have it in my hand I couldn't totally follow the key in the book, but the pattern on the back was clearly this species.

The Gahnia sp. is not recovering quickly!

The colour of the water in Captains Creek ...

... reminded me of Kipling's description, in the Story of the Elephant's Child, of the "... great, grey-green, greasy Limpopo".  I have yet to see either a young pachyderm or a saltie in the water however.

The bridges along the route took some damage in the fire.  The one at point 1 has been informally replaces by a couple of fallen trees.  Frances took the higher route and a rather low position.  

I took the low 'road'. which was sort of OK until the stick I was using got bogged.  It had shown the water to be at least 1 metre deep and the mud underneath to be of a similar consistency.  We both made it in a more or less dry condition.

At point 2 there was still some infrastructure available for half the distance (and a full-service tree trunk).  However as the water level was quite low the easiest path was between the two.

Point 3 was easy - after stepping across the melted section.

This is old faithful at point 5.  Much easier now the informal logs aren't floating!