After leaving the Capertee Valley we headed to Lithgow, to use as a base for exploring the iconic Blue Mountains. Having never visited the area before and thinking it was a bit of a tourist trap and probably over rated, we were blown away by the stunning vistas and sheer size of this virtually untouched wilderness on Sydney's doorstep.
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| Grose Valley |
The weather was perfect on our one and only day of exploring. The next three days it turned nasty with a wet, cold, windy change coming through, apparently not unusual in these parts. There was a plethora of walking tracks to choose from and with our limited time we settled for a couple of the shorter ones and even these were quite steep in parts. The bird life wasn't prolific but one of the more colourful ones caught my eye.
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| Crimson Rosella |
The wildflowers were actually more conspicuous than the birds and with the aid of this very helpful website: http://www.waratahsoftware.com.au/wp_flora_bluemountains.html I was able to identify some of the specimens I photographed.
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| Trigger Plant |
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| Mountain Devil |
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| ?????? |
The Blue Mountains is another one of those places that has to be seen to be believed and pictures do not do it justice. A good week here would probably just scratch the surface.
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| Three Sisters |
The weather finally improved on our way to Canberra and driving through the countryside one of the most common birds was the Nankeen Kestrel. I was able to pull up and get a quick shot of this male before he took off to do what they normally do, hover above the paddocks in search of prey.
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| Nankeen Kestrel |
While in Canberra we visited the Australian National Botanic Gardens, a must see for anyone even remotely interested in plants. I could have sworn I was back in Queensland when we walked through the huge rainforest gully section. I was waiting for a Pitta to bounce out across the pathway!
How they have created this habitat in a climate of extremes defies the imagination.
"Fir0002/Flagstaffotos".
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| Rainforest Walk - ANBG |
This juvenile Water Dragon was sunning itself on a rock along the walk.
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| Eastern Water Dragon |
And a Raven was eyeing off our picnic lunch.
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| Australian Raven |
One of the more common plants were these pretty flowers along another of the many walks through the gardens.
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| Christmas Bells |
There was also a single young Wollemi Pine, a critically endangered species with less than one hundred trees growing in the wild not far from the Capertee Valley, in Wollemi National Park. It's a wonder they didn't have an armed guard keeping an eye on this one!
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| Wollemi Pine |
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