February 2011 - Top bushwalk at the top of the Valley
Our last bushwalk for 2010 was a wonderful ramble through the rainforest on Budderoo, private property in the Upper River area.
It was only three kms long, but this meant that we could stop at the interesting natural sites and listen to Les Mitchell explain the history of the area (as late as the 1950s this was a cleared farm, now there is more than 50 years of rainforest regrowth with Turpentine forests and Red Cedar trees) and discuss the things we were seeing: such as the white-topped box tree that is probably about 500 years old; the Port Jackson fig that has turned one of the enormous rocks into an Australian Angkor Wat.
He has called the walk “Track to Paradise” and it certainly is.
The turnaround point is the amphitheatre, a grassy spot where the escarpment looms above, but we did venture further a little way to see the floor of the rainforest from a higher vantage point.
There were flowering native orchids, sugar gliders hiding in burnt out trees and, to keep us on the move, lots of leeches.
27 of us thoroughly enjoyed the shorter walk and the variety of having another walk leader who was so knowledgeable, friendly and willing to answer all our questions.
Luckily Janet Bundy had also come along because we often streamed out in talking groups and we needed a patient someone to show us the way when we fell too far behind.
After the walk we ate our Christmas picnic lunch under the shade of trees – no cheese and pickle sandwiches in sight!
What a feast of gourmet dishes.
Thank you Les and Janet for this chance to see another part of our beautiful valley.
Lee Sharam