Organ Pipes National Park

Organ Pipes National Park showcases basalt formations that are the result of a volcanic eruption thousands of years ago. (The Friends of OPNP has a really nice website with a description of the key geological features.) The volcano is now extinct and the valley is a haven for small mammals and birds -- there are over 50 species of birds that have been spotted in this small park!
First we hiked down to the eponymous Organ Pipes. The pipes are huge, hexagonal, basalt pillars; they are very dramatic in person. Even the kids were awed by them:

After lunch...

We started walking towards the other formations when Ben saw this guy eating his lunch by the side of the trail...

And then another one up the hill...

And then this tiny one nearby...

They are so much cuter, funnier, and sweeter in person that I could have imagined. They look so soft and fluffy you want to run over and give them a hug. They ignored us and went about their business so we got to stand for a while and watch them forage.

We were all beside ourselves with excitement!

There are more than 50 members of the kangaroo family ( macropods) in Australia - which includes kangaroos, wallabies, wallaroos, pademelons, and many others. This particular one was a Swamp Wallaby (Wallabia bicolor).

After seeing the wallabies it was very hard to refocus on geology when we finally got to the tessellate stairs. The tessellate stairs are the same type of formation as the organ pipes, except you are walking across the tops instead of seeing the whole the length of the column.

Honestly, they look like somone paved the area with hexagonal pavers!

This was a great walk . The birding was amazing, there was lots of wildlife, and the area was rugged and beautiful. The climb down into the valley was nice... the hike back up, in the heat of the day, was a little rough. We all went out for ice creams afterwards to celebrate!

Bunyip State Part: Button-grass Nature Trail

After lunch we did another, slightly longer, hike: Button Grass Nature Trail (3k, easy). Although only a few kilometers away from the first hike, the landscape could not have been more different. This area looked, to my eye, like an African Savannah.

The grassy scrubland was absolutely beautiful and singing with birds.

I don't know if you can see.... but the trunks of many of the trees were still blackened from fires that had swept through the park a year ago. This area was really a birder's paradise. I caught glimpses of several beautiful birds including a Fantail but they all flit so quickly it is hard to get a fix on them so I am not sure if it was the Gray or the Rufous.

It was very hot and spirits were starting to flag when we looked down and noticed some odd footprints in the ground:

A closer look at the tracks revealed that they were VERY fresh -- the sand had barely started drying around the edges. We picked up the pace and moved quickly and quietly along the trail hoping to see the track's owner...
We followed the track to a pond where it had stopped for a drink...

But when the ground got harder as we got closer to the car we lost the trail... Whose track was it? A kangaroo... Ben had fun trying to see if he could hop from track to track (he couldn't even come close).

As we were driving back through verdant farmland I noticed a field with a horse and some ducks. One of the ducks flew up onto the fence and I made Ian pull over the car... the "ducks" pecking in the grass were Sulfur Crested Cockatoos!

Creepy Hiking on Halloween - Bunyip State Park

This morning we hustled out of the house and headed to Bunyip State Park to do a little hiking. We started with the Mortimer Nature Walk (1.2k, easy).

This nature walk is an introduction to several of the eco-systems of Bunyip Park and has signs along the trail that describe key features of each ecosystem. Normally we love to read those signs but I am afraid we didn't get much out of the ones on this walk as hiked at a rather brisk pace. Why? Just a few minutes into the walk we stopped to read the first sign. All of the sudden I heard Ian yell and I looked over to see Ian dancing up and down on one foot and waving his arms wildly. Apparently Ian had looked down while I was talking and noticed something crawling towards him: it crawled up his shoe and then sped up and dived INTO his shoe. Then we noticed there were more of them on my shoes and Ben's! They were LEECHES. Yes, here they have LEECHES THAT CRAWL ON THE GROUND! Yuck, yuck, yuck, YUCK. Every time we stopped to read a sign they would come racing out from among the leaves and latch themselves on to us. Perfect for a Halloween hike -- attack of the vampire leeches. Next time we are spraying our shoes with bug spray!!

Leeches aside, the hike was spectacular. Otherworldy. It is... well... Ewok-y.

That's the bark of one of the eucalypts (Messmate Stringybark) hanging over our heads and littering the ground. The eucalypts are so varied. Some are tall, some have leaves that smell like peppermint, some produce red sap that looks like blood, and some have round leaves like the kind they sell at craft shops.

The trail passes through 3 distinct ecosystems. One is dark and damp (Wet Sclerophyll Forest) , one intermediate (Damp Sclerophyll Forest), and one fairly dry and open (you guessed it -- Dry Sclerophyll Forest). As you are walking it feels like any moment you might see Yoda... or a dinosaur. We didn't see either of those but we did see some Rosella Parrots that are native to the area. They are wondrous -- crimson red with blue wings. We also saw and heard a number of kookaburras and got a glimpse of a Superb Fairywren in full plumage. Mostly we heard lots of birds and saw lots of trees and ferns of all sizes ranging from petite and fragile-looking to enormous and tree-like. Some had fronds as big as my hand:

I am really at a loss to describe the landscape. It feels heavy, almost oppressive... the greenery seems to close in on you...

One minute the forest is tropical and damp. Then, suddenly, you rise out of the ferny gully into an open, airy forest.

This is all in a 1km walk.

I am really at a loss for words. Just an hour from Melbourne we hiked through some of the most bizarre and other-wordly nature I have ever encountered.

After lunch we took a second hike through completely different scenery... but I am so tired I will have to blog about that tomorrow.