Friday 26
Keen to escape the oppressive heat and humidity, J and I rolled out of the city at about 0800 and headed south. Before too long we were cruising up the familiar twists and turns of the Lamington National Park Road. We managed to avoid the hordes of tourists and an attack by sunflower-seed addicted parrots and washed off our boots at the Phytopthera station whilst listening to an ALLY… how appropriate. Heading out along the Border Track towards Bithongabel was a trip down (up?) memory lane for me… I’ve spent so much time in this forest that returning always feels like coming home. The last 900 m IBISCA site fell behind us and we were up at Boyle’s Gulch soon after that. I was pretty stoked I wasn’t carrying three lead acid batteries!
The cloud cap was down low and the usual glimpses of the other side of the valley were not to be had. Sadly, this also precluded me showing Jess the enigmatic skink Harrisoniascincus zia, a high elevation specialist which can often be found basking in sunny patches beside the track above 1000 m asl. We did manage to find an Egernia sp. which disappeared into xir burrow before we could figure xir out… I have seen tryoni near that spot but this one got through to the keeper. A brief stop for a snack and a leech check at the Albert River junction had me reminiscing about the last time I was up there with my IBISCA pals… 1100 B was only 200 m away… perhaps a recap on the blog is in order?
We started up the steps and J enjoyed her first views of the Antarctic Beech Orchid Dendrobium falcorostrum. Bithongabel was completely fogged out and cold, so we gobbled up the rest of our food and started back down the hill; it wasn’t too long before we were filling up our bottles at the spring. We then found a family who had turned left instead of right when coming up from Picnic Falls and were asking us if it was much further to the guest house. “Ah… which one?” I replied. This was met with blank stares but we eventually figured out that they also wanted to head downhill to O’Reilly’s. They were a cheerful bunch despite having walked 3 km uphill in the wrong direction (!). We left them behind and had a brief sniff around a Scrub-bird territory when we heard some peculiar squeaking emerging from the downhill side of the track. Sadly for J, Scrub-bird photons were absent on this occasion… the search continues. We were back home by about 1500 and were greeted by some very excited doggies.
Saturday 27
I was up early and in the car to Woodfordia to lead a morning bird walk for the Conservatree volunteers. Low down over the quarry at Bracalba there was a flock of about 60 WTNT criss-crossing the road, which delayed me for a few minutes. I met up with the Conservateurs and we spun a lap down the Butterfly Walk before heading up the hill. Thank heavens we don’t do this during the festival anymore! I was sweating like the proverbial at the top of the hill and it was stinking hot by the time we wrapped up at 0900. I had a bit of a chew and made a cuppa before Uncle Noel welcomed us all and we got stuck into Conservatree discussions. There are about 10 active Pods (volunteer groups) so far that are part of the project and we chucked ideas for new Pods back and forth. The idea of an Understorey Pod appeals strongly to me… maybe this topic (and Woodfordia in general) deserves its own blog post sometime soon.
In the lunch break I planted another three of my seedlings (Melia azedarach, Myrsine variabilis and Jasminum simplicifolium) out at our campground and checked on the plants I whacked in during the festival, which were all doing really well. Bill’s idea to have an arboretum of plants from the Rocky – Coffs region basically means that I have carte blanche for my seedlings to go in the ground at Woodfordia, which is fantastic since I am not going to be joining the landed gentry any time soon… This first Conservatree gathering of 2024 was an inspiring gathering of like-minded people! There are some awesome ideas in the pipeline. It was also nice to be back at the property so soon after the festival, and to see some pals again. I’m gonna make an effort to be around for the Conservatree weekends this year (on the last Saturday of every month) and I look forward to seeing how the Pods (and my plants) develop 🙂
That evening we attended the most elite Indian restaurant in Brisbane – Taj Mahal in New Farm – with Mr. and Mrs. Daly. Lots of laughs and spices should help keep the cognitive decline to a minimum… for now.
The remains
The next day J and I ended up on Bribie Island for an impromptu sleepover – she had never been to the island before. The Bribie Hotel made me a surprisingly nice pizza that night and J enjoyed watching the male tennis final while I dozed with the dogs. The buoys and I had a nice swim at the beach the next morning. I ended up with some gnarly ropeburn on my wrist thanks to an overexcited Hoopert but the Pacific cleaned it out nicely… and then, sadly, it was back home to the slave desk. A busy weekend! A nice way to say goodbye to the fam before my first field trip of the year.
