Walking With Lyrebirds
Recently the calendar rolled up another anniversary for the writer, marking yet another step toward antiquity. It seemed a good opportunity to head out on a modest walk to prove that nothing had changed and that wandering around in the bush was still a good way to go.
We set off from home around sun up on the Winter Solstice and headed out through Warburton up to the Ten Mile car park on the upper flanks of Donna Buang. Despite the clear day the car cheerfully reported outside temperatures of between 2·5 and 4 degrees along the way with, curiously enough, the higher temperature being at our destination, some 800 metres above Warburton where we had noted the lower number. A feature of the drive above the Rainforest Walk area (junction for Acheron Way) was the number of Lyrebirds which were scratching around on the roadside — no less than six were in evidence in a few kilometres and all but one were quite indifferent to our passage.
The walking track from Ten Mile heads steeply up to a junction toward either Donna Buang (left) or Mt Victoria (right, and our destination), gaining around 150 metres in elevation while doing so. The area is noted for its dense Mountain Ash regrowth along with a continuous understory of tree ferns.
We set off from the car park at around 09·45, although the sun was still behind the ridge at that time.
The forest was fairly dark and damp at this early hour.
The forest was rather dark and damp, with just a few of the taller trees tipped with sunlight. At the first corner after leaving the road we rather unexpectedly came across a lyrebird scratching around on the track. While it was a bit cautious it showed no inclination to dash off into cover.
Lyrebird leading the way.
In fact, it kept several metres ahead of us, showing no signs of concern at our presence. It just ambled up the track, stopping to shred a bit more of the path in its search for edibles from time to time. This went on for around maybe 300 metres when the bird decided it had had enough and flew up into a nearby tree to wait until we had gone past.
The Lyrebird eventually perched in a tree, having had enough of us.
Our lyrebird friend had escorted us maybe half way up to the junction. Not long after we parted company the sun appeared weakly through the trees further up the ridge, shedding some light, but very little warmth, as we toiled upwards.
Nature at work — mountain ash regrowth up the side of Donna Buang.
At least there was hardly a breath of wind which made for very pleasant walking conditions despite the low temperatures.
At last we met the sun, shining weakly through the trees.
Up at the junction we had a coffee stop then headed out along the ridge toward Mt Victoria.
Toiling up toward our first coffee stop.
Unlike the dark forest we had shared with our avian friend earlier, up here the trees were more spaced out and the understory was a lot less intense. In places there were even glimpses of distant mountain ranges framed by the ever present regiments of Mountain Ash.
The track meandered along with a gentle decline toward our objective, despite it being a mountain. Small enclaves of beech clustered in the odd low spots while a bunch of paperbarks looked quite out of place at this elevation.
Small enclaves of Beech were not necessarily of small trees.
At one point we came across a small grassy patch that was heavily frosted, even though it was partly in sun. This same spot was still mostly frozen when we returned past the spot some hours later.
This frost patch was still frozen when we returned some hours later.
Not much further on we met a rather wiry soul who had walked up the unrelentingly steep walking track from Warburton — some 900 metres below where we then were. A second such person passed us some time later while we were having lunch. Once we reached the earlier mentioned junction the birds just disappeared — occasional lyrebird calls, a few other distant bits of birdsong and occasional subdued cheeps of wrens in the bush next to the track were all that was then heard.
The ridge widened out as we progressed, making it more like a small plateau rather than a mountain. Walking here was delightful, with bearded mosses being the only sign that we were at elevations that are periodically snowbound in the depths of winter.
Bearded mosses decorating a fallen tree in snow country.
However, there was nothing to suggest we were on top of a mountain, at least until we came across a sign that announced ‘Mt Victoria 1100 metres’.
The summit of Mt Victoria was on a near level part of the track, identified by this sign post.
In fact, the track started to dip downward 100 metres or so further on and lost maybe 50 metres en route to TV and communication towers which were surrounded by heavy frost in the cleared areas around their enclosure. This set up had its own generator which could be heard grumbling away to itself for some distance.
One of the few locations with a long range view was at the TV towers.
Not fancying having lunch in the frost we returned up to the Mt Victoria sign and had lunch there instead. The sun by now had reached its highest point for the day which must have been all of 30 degrees above the horizon — it was the shortest day of the year so that was to be expected.
The sun at its highest for the day — but on the shortest day of the year.
The relatively low sun made for some excellent lighting effects in the forests that we traversed. At one point a moss of some sort, clinging to a tree, was heavily backlit which gave it a luminescence that from a distance was quite startling.
Backlighting made this mossy growth almost luminescent, especially from a distance.
Unlike the morning, when we only met the two adventurous souls who had walked up from Warburton, the afternoon produced several groups of much less challenged people out for a bit of a stroll. We even met one group twice — they were doing the round trip heading back from the TV towers to the car park via the road — a less than interesting alternative in our view.
The relatively gentle uphill grade heading back to the junction seemed more apparent than it had been as a descent earlier in the day — or maybe energy was flagging a bit by that stage.
A gentle ascent back towards the junction.
Either way we stopped for a final coffee at the junction before making the descent back to the car.
Mountain Ash and Treeferns with interesting lighting from the low sun.
Overall, this walk amounted to around 6·4 km and included ascending around 240 metres in total. Not a lot by any normal standards but a most enjoyable short day out.
