Heading West

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The Barrier Highway heading west flanked on either side by a flush of wild flowers.

(late September) The Barrier Highway heads across the Western Plains to Broken Hill and the deserts of South Australia. With the Warrumbunbles shrinking out of sight in the rear view mirror the landscape opened out with the road disappearing to a point on the horizon, the landscape becoming dryer and dryer the further westwards.

 Wild flowers along the road side.

The Dry grassland to the far west of New South Wales.

 

A tough little plant withstanding the head of the baked red earth.

One of few plants in flower, the flowers tough and waxy to the touch, presumably to guard against water loss. Sorry I don't have the resources to find out the names of the plants at present, but a bit of googleing should throw up some info if you really need to know.

The smart and tidy Post Office building in the tiny town of Wilcannia half way along the Barrier Highway. This is the only smart building in the otherwise dilapidated and dying ex-mining town now left by the way side.

 

A few of the empty dilapidated buildings along the high street. 

A curious looking lizard asking for trouble basking in the middle of the road.

The Warrumbungles

 

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Some of the spectacular granite bluffs known as 'The Warrumbungles' formed by volcanoes 13 to 17 million years ago, of which 90% have eroded away leaving only the toughest remnants standing sentinel over the predominantly flat landscape.

(mid September) After to many months working away in the orchards I have finally saved what I need to continue my travels and broke away at long last. In fact I finished working in mid September and went on a whistle stop around trip around a small portion of Australia, still covering over 10,000km. I'm now in Ushuaia at the southern tip of Argentina where I finally have a little spare time to catch up on some posts while I wait for my Antarctica cruise to depart, the reason for spending ten months in an orchard. I'm shore it will be worth every bit of toil.

From Stanthorpe in South East Queensland I headed south west through out back rural New South Wales to the deserts of South Australia. I then turned north on the Stuart Highway to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, taking a few detours to look at some rocks. Unfortunately I hadn't the funds to make it all the way up to Darwin (net time) so turned east back into Queensland to the tropical coast and the Great Barrier Reef. Finally heading south down the east coast to catch a flight out of Sydney to South America.

In the center of the north eastern quarter of New South Wales is the Warrumbungle National Park, a group of precipitous rocky bluffs, remnants of past volcanic activity that rise dramatically up out of the flat savanna grassland that predominated the surrounding countryside. The park is reputed to be incredibly diverse in flora and fauna owing to its varying elevations and its location between the dry grassland inland to the west and the wetter forest stretching off to the east coast.

Looking down on one of the most distinguished features of the park 'The Bread Knife'.

Views across the peeks of the park and looking out across the western plains, flat to the horizon and where I was headed. The perfect spot for lunch.

 

 

 Some of the plants growing on the bright, exposed, rocky parts of the park.

A few more tender herbs in flower in the dappled light of the forest floor in the valleys.

Clematis sp. and Acacia sp. in the forest under-story.

Black snake soaking up the rays in a dry creek bed.

Beautiful patterns created by the many Lichens.

The Second Biggest Rock in Oz.

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For the next few months my time will be spent in Stanthorpe, southern Queensland while I'm buissy picking apples to fund my travels. Finally the rain has stoped and at last I had a day off when the sun was shining, so I took a second trip to Bald Rock national park. This time I was able to see the rock in its entirety as it was previously shrouded in cloud.

The smoothe granite face of Bald Rock striped with lichens and moss.

The mass of Bald Rock is second only to Ularu in Australia. Precariously balanced on top of the rock and strewn throught the surrounding gum forest are many large, weathered rounded boulders, stacked up as if purposfully. Some seem as if one good push could role them away, I had to fight the inner devil in me.

The balancing rocks, the emblem of Stanthorpe.

The rock nesteles in tall white barked Eucalyptus trees. The view from the summit across the canopy is particularly green as the trees are covered with fresh green growth following the wet weather and have yet to age to their charastic glaucus blue. Strips of bark metres long dangel from the trunks, peeling away revealing the fresh white beneath.

Peeling Eucalyptus bark.

Crevices in the rock provide foot holds for wild flowers to take hold. Eventually trees take root and combined with rain and frosts eventually break down the rock into the smaller bolders arround its base. The spiny sead heas is from Lomandra longifolia.

 

Lomandra longifolia.

Cracks in the rockd provide warm homes for lizards with luxury views. 

Dipodium punctatum a paracitic orchid drawing its nurrishment from the roots of Eucalyptus trees.

Bald Rock National Park

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Kangaroo and Joe shelter from the sun

 A kangaroo and joe sheltering from the sun under a Grevellia tree on on of the few and far between sunny days of late.

When you think of Australia you would usually associate it with drought, though that is not the case at the moment. Since the hiking in the Blue Mountains Alex and Ale (friends I'm travelling with) and myself headed inland to Young the self proclaimed 'Cherry capital' of Australia and were greeted by dark rain clouds. This was in the first week of December and not much has changed since then. The ripening cherries, the best crop in years, were just about to split open and go to ruin due to the persistent rain. Grain farmers have also faced an equally bleek year. Fearing a shortage of work decided to drive two days north through the rain to Stanthorpe just across the boarder of Queensland. We are now buissy thinning apples when the rain allows.

Standing stone on Bald Rock and minature landscape creater in one of the many shallow gullies.

Stanthorpe is 900m up on a range of hills called the Granite Belt. These range of hills are the remnants of massive underground magma chambers that cooled to form coarse grained granite boulders that have been exposed over millions of years by errosion. The largest of these is so big it is second only to Ularu. Mysterious balancing rocks and precarious gum trees clinging to cracks in the rocks appeared through the mist. As my few days off are dictated to when ever it rains for now I just have to put on the rain gear and get out there. All though I couldnt see Bald Rock in its intirety as it was shrouded in cloud, the rain creats an eery atmosphere. Cracks and gullies in the rock allow plants to get a purchase and formed wini landscapes, and the colours of the granite cristals shon in the wet and were animated by cascading water across its face.

An orderly row of ferns and Dendrobium speciosum Growing ontop of rounded granite boulders.

In the dripping Gum forest that surround Bald Rock are strewn many rounded balders toped with tough waxy orchids Dendrobium speciosum which unfotunately i missed the flowering of by a few weeks. Cracks between the rocks bring order out of cayos, such as this row of ferns.

Tiny mushrooms at the summit

As the spectacular sceenery was enveloped in a wall of grey, my attention was turned to the smaller details. This tiny group of mushrooms were only bigenough to tupport one raindrop each growing out of a root no thicker than a piece of spaghetti. The boulders in the fore ground are rabbit droppings.

Acacia sp.

Solanun sp.

Bedraggled Acacia flowers were one of the few trees in flower and among the stands of Eucalyptus grew a spiny Solanum species, quite incongurus with the other sclerophyll (tough leaved) plants.

Hail storm

Found my car parked in a raging torrent after more heavy rain.

A few days we have been sen home from work early due to storm warnings for fear of the risk of lightening and being pelted by hail stones. Many of the orchards are covered by nets byt this only limits the damage. The region is on the tropic of capricorn but 900m above sealevle so the air is relativly cool resulting in spectacular weather, un less of course you are an apple, peach, strawberry or a farmer that grows them. I gought cought out in one on the highway, the sound on the car was deafenning. Luckilly it skirted the orchard and caused minimal damage to the fruit.

Distant storm clouds and naturalised Verbena bonariensis

The storms do make fore some spectacular sunsets. In the foreground is Verbena bonariensis, an escaped garden plant naturalised along the road side.

The road home, oh deer!

I have also fornd out there is a reason why they advise you not to travel during heavy rain as i found myself the rong side of a flooded gridge after another rainy hike. Some locals in the same predicament as me watching trees float by told me the road round to the north was also cut and to the south was a 300km round trip the may also be cut. So a night in the car it was to be. The water had subsided enough to drive through by five o'clock the next morning after a while spent clearing piled up branches and trees.

I'll take another hike up the rock one sunny evening to get some pics of it in it's entirety.

Ruined Castel Rocks

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On an early morning hike out to the Ruined Castel Rocks, before the coach loads of day tourists spoil the silence. In the cool forest on the floor of the canyon I came across a male Liar bird, the master of mimicry. They are like a small brown pheasant with an airy peacock tail all in sepia tone. Not being the most birds they woo the mates with elaborate and quick-fire impressions of all the other bird sounds in the forest. They even mimic man made sounds though this one has no camera shutters and chainsaws in his repertoire it was non the les impressive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y

Video of Liar Bird

The Snake Orchid, Cymbidium suave, was growing in a Eucalyptus tree in the hollow left by a fallen bow.

Snake Orchid, Cymbidium Suave ORCHIDACEAE

The Ruined Castel Rocks reach up just above the tree line conveniently arranged like a giant spiral staircase. Sitting atop of a rise in the middle of the canyon floor they offer a 360^o view of the surrounding cliff faces that are other wise reduced to fleeting glimpses through the canopy.

Around the rocks and up on top of the cliffs where the conditiond are hotter and dried grows the Scribbly Gum Eucalyptus sclerophylla. It is called the Scribbly gum due to markings left on the bark by browsing moth larvae.

Scribbly Gum, Eucalyptis sclerophylla MYRTACEAE

In amongst the greener the large, bright yellow, buttercup shape flowers of a shrubby twining, Hibbertia dentate shone out advertising their wares and a bright clearing left by a fallen tree was full of Senecio linearifolius, making though most of the available light.

DILLENIACEAE and Senecio linearifolius ASTERACEAE

Hibbertia dentate

Two lizards spotted on the walk were the Leura Water Skink Eulamprus Leureansisand the as yet un-identified by me little bearded dragon like lizard. The Leura lizard was amongst the foliage in the cool damp forest and the little bearded dragon was sunning himself up on the hot castle rocks.

Leura Water Skink Eulamprus leuraensis and the as yet un-identified lizard.

View of the forest under-story.