Pambula Walks

 This is a bit of a step from Mallacoota, but have included it in this blog as we did it from Mallacoota, and will probably do it again from there.  Also I want some of my early commentary to be seen by people from, or visiting, Mallacoota.

We had gone to Merimbula to get a few things that I needed and to put some additional value into the trip Frances found a couple of walks in a brochure put out by a consortium of Councils (East Gippsland; Bega Valley and Eurobodalla).  Where we went is marked by the two orange pins.

For the first of these we actually meant to go to Wolumla Peak, but the stupid brochure didn't say "go 14km along Wolumla Peak Rd" so we started walking at the river crossing.  I have complained to Bega Valley Shire about thus

There were lots of butterflies around as we walked up the road.  The iNaturalist AI rates this, one of the common species on the day, as a Wonder Brown.

The underlying rock appeared to be sandstone.

The slope running down to the Pambula River was both steep and thickly vegetated.

Beside the track again, were many ferns.  the AI rated this as a Shiny Fan Fern but a local expert has said S. lobatus (Spreading Fan Fern).

We returned to the car and headed off towards the Goodenia Rainforest walk.  Learning all the time, I put that into the GPS before setting off, finding that it was 8 km up the "road".  The road was pretty rough, and after about 4km pretty narrow.  However when we arrived at the parking area we found a Mazda 3 parked there!  The walk was mainly out and back so we met the owners of this as we went down (and caught them up on the drive out: they were sensibly going very slowly to protect the car.)  To complete comments on visitation we met yet another group going down as we came back up.

This unusual looking insect was crawling around on the steps.  I suspect it has only recently emerged from a pupal case.  I think it is genus Amata (Tiger Moths).  Nope, it turns out to be Oenosandra boisduvalii, Boisduval's Autumn Moth.

A collection of epiphytes.

The track was pretty steep.  Frances discovered that the area at the side of the step had a much lower vertical step as soil had washed down.  This made the walk back up much easier.

An occasional spiky vine across the track kept one alert!

A long flight of steps: quite new, so the soil-wash effect was not yet evident.

More epiphytes!

Vines are a major element of the biomass of rainforests.

A babbling brook in the bottom of the gully we were descending.

Ferns and moss.

This fruit looked familiar and so it was: Pittosporum revolutum.

At the bottom of the walk the track does a small loop though the forest.

Coming back up, one's attention was occasionally grabbed by the height of the trees.

A very nice walk and well worth the bumpy drive.

The picnic area at the car park was pretty well set out with tables etc and graced with loud calls by the Superb Lyrebirds which are starting to get in tune for breeding.  The recording was not great but the shaking tail feathers can be heard at the end.