Kangaroo Valley - Day 2
Oct. 6th, 2014 09:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranOur second day in Kangaroo Valley, and we are greeted by the sight of wombats in the mist...
There are wombats wandering through the camping site too. One also came by our tent during the night and left some wombat poo nearby. It smelt a lot like horse manure, by which I conclude that wombats eat a lot of grass...
Meanwhile, there's a glorious scene on the river to reward those who get up early.
Cooking up breakfast on the Trangias. No open fires allowed at the camp.
Off we go again on the second leg of our expedition. No kangaroos so far, but what is that rainbow doing in the water?
It turns out there's actually a very fine layer of oil on top of the water. You can just see the droplets at the bottom of the picture. All motor boats are banned on the river, but maybe it's come from the road or the pumping station.
The combination of the oil and the morning sun gives some interesting light effects.
Here we approach the pumping station, which pumps water up the hill to a huge storage tank. There are marker buoys warning us not to get too close, lest we get pumped up too...
Still no kangaroos, but up ahead we spot a white object in a tree over the river. A sulfur-crested cockatoo, perhaps. But it's very big. Maybe an egret or a great pied cormorant. As we get closer and closer, we still can't work it out. It's only when we've almost reached the tree that we can finally get a clear id.
It's an enormous white-bellied sea eagle, the biggest I've seen.
The camera angle doesn't really do it justice. It was a wonderful creature to watch. We stayed and watched it until it flow off upriver and we later spotted it again several more times as we followed it upstream.
Sunday turns out to be a lot hotter than Saturday and we're already looking for shade. Some of the other riverside inhabitants are happy to snooze in the sun...
It's looking like that might be it for wildlife spotting, but just as we're about to turn back, we hear a cracking sound in the bushes. What's that hopping out by the shoreline?
We've found a troop of maybe 6-10 kangaroos! It was difficult to gauge just how many because we only saw up to four at once. There were also two very big ones lying in the grass near where we stopped to take a break.
Mission completed! At least we won't need to rename the valley now. (Although Dragon Valley did have a nice ring to it...)
Heading back, there's one more surprise for us. Hugging the shoreline to get the most of the shade, we meet up with the white-bellied sea eagle again without realising it. It bursts out of the tree above us, flapping its huge wings. It's a stunning sight, but by the time I get my camera ready, it's already almost across the river.
By now, it's getting really hot, and all sensible creatures are looking for some shade.
Or the chance to cool off.
Back again and time for lunch, before we need to start packing up and heading home, with lots of stories to tell.
There are wombats wandering through the camping site too. One also came by our tent during the night and left some wombat poo nearby. It smelt a lot like horse manure, by which I conclude that wombats eat a lot of grass...
Meanwhile, there's a glorious scene on the river to reward those who get up early.
Cooking up breakfast on the Trangias. No open fires allowed at the camp.
Off we go again on the second leg of our expedition. No kangaroos so far, but what is that rainbow doing in the water?
It turns out there's actually a very fine layer of oil on top of the water. You can just see the droplets at the bottom of the picture. All motor boats are banned on the river, but maybe it's come from the road or the pumping station.
The combination of the oil and the morning sun gives some interesting light effects.
Here we approach the pumping station, which pumps water up the hill to a huge storage tank. There are marker buoys warning us not to get too close, lest we get pumped up too...
Still no kangaroos, but up ahead we spot a white object in a tree over the river. A sulfur-crested cockatoo, perhaps. But it's very big. Maybe an egret or a great pied cormorant. As we get closer and closer, we still can't work it out. It's only when we've almost reached the tree that we can finally get a clear id.
It's an enormous white-bellied sea eagle, the biggest I've seen.
The camera angle doesn't really do it justice. It was a wonderful creature to watch. We stayed and watched it until it flow off upriver and we later spotted it again several more times as we followed it upstream.
Sunday turns out to be a lot hotter than Saturday and we're already looking for shade. Some of the other riverside inhabitants are happy to snooze in the sun...
It's looking like that might be it for wildlife spotting, but just as we're about to turn back, we hear a cracking sound in the bushes. What's that hopping out by the shoreline?
We've found a troop of maybe 6-10 kangaroos! It was difficult to gauge just how many because we only saw up to four at once. There were also two very big ones lying in the grass near where we stopped to take a break.
Mission completed! At least we won't need to rename the valley now. (Although Dragon Valley did have a nice ring to it...)
Heading back, there's one more surprise for us. Hugging the shoreline to get the most of the shade, we meet up with the white-bellied sea eagle again without realising it. It bursts out of the tree above us, flapping its huge wings. It's a stunning sight, but by the time I get my camera ready, it's already almost across the river.
By now, it's getting really hot, and all sensible creatures are looking for some shade.
Or the chance to cool off.
Back again and time for lunch, before we need to start packing up and heading home, with lots of stories to tell.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-10-06 12:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-06 08:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-06 03:04 am (UTC)And I'm glad you finally found the kangaroos.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-06 08:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-06 05:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-06 07:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-07 10:56 pm (UTC)The kangaroos are magnificent too :-)
And since you're not allowed fire, how are you heating the food in that picture, or is none of it heated?
no subject
Date: 2014-10-08 07:39 am (UTC)We weren't allowed to have open fires, but gas stoves and bbqs were okay. The silver things at each of the bench are Trangia storm stoves. They run on methylated spirits and are excellent for hiking because they're light and they pack away into a small volume, plus they'll work even in wind and rain. I'm not actually sure whether they were allowed or not allowed, but the wardens didn't seem to mind and they did pull up other people who lit up coal bbqs.