High country escape

Recently I camped for a week at New Country Swamp in Mummel Gulf National Park, about 40 kilometres south of Walcha.

I was glad to be in an AWD for the 15 or so kilometres of muddy road in from the Oxley Highway.

While previously logged, it was a wet forest rapidly regrowing.

My first morning gave me a gorgeous sunrise, with the swamp glowing in many colours.

The two walks are short: one looked out between Snow Gums and over the swamp, the other over Mummel Gulf itself.

There were masses of these Banksias around the camp and through the bushland.

The tree fern regrowth was prolific, softening the forest.

My eyes kept being drawn to the mosses and lichens that thrived in this moist forest…and one rare epiphyte.

And of course there were lots of fungi, on rotting logs and on the ground. None really spectacular, but so plentifully hard at work doing their bit in the ecosystem.

I’d have to say that I most loved the alpine grass clumps, which seemed softly, shaggily cheeky!

I was there to write, so the walks were less important than the weather, although the wood being wet made my evening fires difficult.