Of forests and 'water features'

Spotted gums guard the entrance to the walk

Saturday 15th June

It rained all night in Ulladulla and I had a late start; partly because I slept late and partly because there was little incentive to rush my departure. I left about 10:30 and the skies were still as grey as they could be, so I was hoping that as I travel south the rain might ease. 

Cabbage Palm leaf

I drove straight into heavy rain but then got a glimpse of lighter skies in the south, so with crossed fingers I proceeded.

Depot Beach

After about 3/4 hour, I thought it was time I turned off, but maps hadn't told me to, so I pulled over to double check and realised that it does help if you put your preferred destinations in the correct order! Maps was taking me all the way to Bermagui and then back to the little walks I wanted to do in the northern section of the Eurobodalla region. What a pain! One u-turn later, and by following road signs until I got internet connection, and I was on my way.

Lake Durras Discovery Trail

I stopped to pay my park fee for the day, (after figuring out that I needed to for some of the walks I wanted to do). I also noted a sign for National Park cabins, I must investigate that option further.

Water feature on the track

My first destination was the Depot Beach rainforest walk, a small area of endangered, remnant littoral rainforest.  With its magnificent spotted gums and fabulous cabbage palms and cycads, it was most delightful.  And it was dry underfoot - this is worth noting in relation to the walks that followed.

Cycad palm

I noticed a number of trees with black bark and speculated as to whether that is due to bushfires or not, Some of the blackened trees are very close to trees which are obviously not burned, so for the time the answer to thus question remains a mystery.

A different sort of hazard to navigate

Overall, the Depot Beach Rainforest walk was most enjoyable. I was glad I had realised my navigation error and turned around in good time.

Another water feature 
cabbage palm stems are not good to steady yourself

My next stop was the Durras Lake Discovery Trail; 

en-route I saw a kangaroo although it did look a little bedraggled.

More bridges would have been good

One of the first things I discovered was the access road had some big puddles - one extending all the way acros the road and the second thing I discovered was so did the trail:  water features abounded!  At the first extensive water feature I retraced my steps to the beginning of the walk and decided I'd try the other end of the circuit to see how far I could get and keep my feet dry.

Wet conditions produce fungi

I did rather want to do the walk since it was another one in remnant rainforest, which was quite lovely if not as lovely as my first walk, but maybe that was because I was concentrating on the water features!

quite a serious water feature

\It's not that I'm normally a wuss about getting wet feet. but while I'm traveling and my walking boots are the only real option for daytime, given the current weather, I would like to keep them reasonably dry and comfortable.

These would be lovely after dark!

I checked the black bark on at least one tree to discover that it was, in fact, charcoal.

Another navigation challenge was a tree or two down over the track.

On the way out to the headland

I continued and encountered some more significant water features, but since I was almost at the point where I had turned around, I persevered!

From part way along the headland

On my drive back, I made a quick stop to remove a couple of leech hitchhikers from my legs and my boots.  Hoping they will not result in serious itching in a day or two.

Then it was out the the "Ancient Headlands" walk.  

Flat Rock

It started off beautifully through some coastal forest - more spotted gums (I think) but these much more stunted with huge canopy spread that those of earlier walks.

From the headland

After a while, I decided I'd lost the track so it was an about turn to retrace my steps.  Map My Walk decided to tell me where I'd been and show me where I should have gone, so I headed out again, following the Flat Rock Track and went a little further: far enough on the headland to see what I think is Flat Rock. The sea conditions showed me why Brian at Scuda canceled the weekend diving!

I returned the way I had came, double checking Map My Walks to make sure, as the trail between tussocks was rather indistinct in places.  

The beach at the caravan park

I got back to the car a little before 4pm and decided that Bermagui was out of the question as my destination for the night, so looked for campsites closer.  There was a National Parks campsite at 
North Head but that was about 25 minutes away on an uncertain road and potentially quite exposed to southerly winds; that was sufficiently off-putting, so I headed to the nearest caravan park, NRMA Murramarang  just a few minutes away.  

set up for the night -
I've been in nicer locations but the facilities are good

They were able to provide me with an unpowered site that should suffice for the night.  I set up hoping that I would not need to take my awning down after dark and settled down to relax with a glass of the wine I purchased yesterday.  A rather nice 2021 chardonnay that has a definite butterscotch hint to it.