Little Rame Head gets visited

 On 1st of April, as the weather forecast looked reasonable we decided to try to find the track from Seal Creek to Little Rame Head.  Google Earth did a good job of showing where it headed off from the Old Coast Road (1 in map below) above the steep and unpleasant drop down to Seal Creek Beach (2 in map below).  It looked as though a brief bush-bash at 3 might be an alternative if needed.

Here is the first half of the walk (to Seal Creek) as tracked by eBird.

The crossing of Shipwreck Creek looked a little more tricky - more water flowing -than last time I crossed, so we went for the rocks at the side.  [Note from the future: coming back we were so wet from the rain we just charged through and it was quite OK.]

The Acacia terminalis was beginning to flower on this leg ...

... and close to Little Rame Head was well in flower.

I was surprised to see an A. suaveolens trying to flower now: I think of that as an early Spring blossom, but VicFlora says flowers from April to October..

Dillwynnia sericea: this one really has lost the plot.  Expected flowering period is September to December!

Getting out on to the heath we came across a nice bunch of birds.  My attention was grabbed by some Dusky Woodswallows.  Then I saw a dark phase White-bellied Woodswallow so took off my backpack and undid several zips, to extract my camera, giving the bird plenty of time to move on, which it did.  An immature Grey Shrikethrush was more obliging.

Then a Cuckooshrike appeared and posed.  Nice try, no cigar: it is clearly just a Black-faced.

Shortly after we arrived at point 1 in the map above.  I could (sort of) see where the mapped track went but the veg was pretty thick and there seemed to be fallen trees blocking the way a few metres in.  Pass.  On down the 'orribly steep and loose track to Seal Creek Beach.

The surf was up.

As expected a pair of Hooded Plovers were pottering around and this one proved to be one of a pair flagged here (I think in 2021).

According to the iNaturalist AI this is Meuschenia scabra, Velvet Leatherjacket.  It was not well.

Some interesting rocks above a small cave, where we sheltered from the wind.

Looking across the (blocked) estuary of Seal Creek I could see a notice from Parks.  I expected it to say something about "Track closed".  However ...

...  when I got there it was indicating a wilderness campsite and right next to it was a well slashed track heading towards Little Rame Head.  Here is a copy of the first map with further annotations.  The green 'xs' mark tracks that no longer exist while the red arrows indicate the way onwards from Seal Creek Beach

Here is the eBird track for the second leg, with a few annotations, explained in the text below

A "jump to the left" was performed about 200 up from the beach, but the accompanying squeak indicated that it was not time to do the Time Warp (and definitely not  "a jump to the right") but the presence of a reasonable sized Red-bellied Black Snake.  Reflecting the lack of therms, it was very motionless.

We were into quite open heath but I can't remember most of the species.  A little later we were into an area with many Banksia serrata (see below).  

I commented about how spectacular it would be when all the Banksias were flowering.  Frances said "I thought you were going to say 'When the fire came through." to which my response was "You'd see nothing as your head would be between your knees, kissing your arse goodbye."  To quote Martha and the Vandellas " Nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide."

we then went into eucalypt (or at least sclerophyll woodland as some of the trees seemed to be Angophoras) and found the sandy sol to have many conical holes.  Our guess was that this was the ecological engineering of Bandicoots.

As we descended off the wooded ridge we got our first look at the light.  The track up to it looked somewhat challenging.

Given the very limited rain of the past 3 weeks this bog was a bit of a surprise.  We were able to tussock hop on the RHS without dissolving our feet.

There are (or at least have been) snakes up here too!

I mentioned Banksia serrata earlier.  In this area there were some emerging flowers.

On arriving at the light we were 64m above sea level

Here is the sea.  Apart from the steepness of the slope it was rather well endowed with scrub.

Alas poor trig point.

The view West, with Point Hicks just visible through the impending murk.

The Howe range is rather more visible to the North East.  As best I can establish the closer prominence is the headland just beyond Shipwreck Creek campground.

A final snap of the light.  It can't be called a lighthouse as there are no living quarters.

What has been gone up must be gone down.  There had been a set of rungs up here held together by chains.  The chains were left, and some surveying material suggested someone was doing some rehab work in the area, about 3.3 years after the fire.  It was at least as steep as it looks.

A Melaleuca sp.

We paused for a rest once out of the face of the wind.  That happened briefly until we stated to feel raindrops, which soon turned into steady rain.  That lasted with us for the rest of the walk.  A further brief pause in a small cave at Seal Creek, with a look at the rocks and on home.

I have used Google Earth to create a profile of the walk.  Having the vertical small in metres and the horizontal in kilometres doe exaggerate the slopes but it gives the idea!