If you like tree ferns as I do, there were so many on the drive into Cobcroft picnic area in Werrikimbe National Park that it was a treat.
At the car parking area, this yellow flowering small tree/shrub was new to me; I’d assumed it would be a yellow version of the white Ozothmanus that was plentiful in the area. But the boffins tell me it’s actually Cassinia telfordii.
The short Carabeen Walk takes me through a lush forest of eucalypts like Blue Gums, and tree ferns.
There are two sorts of tree ferns, the rough (Cyathea australis) and the soft (Dicksonia antarctica), both present in this forest. This spectacular old trunk is so decorated with mosses that I can only assume it is a rough trunked one underneath. I love the little rabbit’s foot pads on its trunk.
The walk is named for the Yellow Carabeen trees that dominate the wetter areas of its scope.
The sinuous buttresses of this species can extend from two to five metres up its trunks.
Vines and clinging ferns climbing up the trees are common.
The track has become narrow, and is not always easily distinguishable, with many fallen branches that I climb over or skirt around.
Hoary-footed old trees are a reminder that these slow-growing Carabeens have been making this forest for a very long time.
The young ones seem slender in comparison.
And it wouldn’t be a typical rainforest post for me without at least one sprinkling of fungi.
For the first time I also collected some leeches on this walk; as they were mainly on my hands, perhaps they got aboard when I hung on to fallen branches as I clambered over them. I react badly to them – physically – so the bites refreshed my memories of that walk for a week afterwards!
But the walk was worth it.
Beautiful!