The next morning we drove 2 hours east from Sydney to Blue Mountains National Park. We are camped in a municipal rv park in Blackheath. They are rehabilitating the wetlands so there are pacific black ducks and chestnut teals with ducklings wandering about (new lifers for us). As soon as we set up our tent a Kookaburra(lifer!) flew into the gum tree next to us.
At the park info centre the ranger told us where to find a Lyrebird so we walked a meandering trail to the lookout it hangs around. The trail leads you by several specimens of this fabulous, large red flower.
Waratah Flower, floral emblem of New South Wales, the size of a large orange.
Another beautiful flowering bush
We walked a ways down into the gorge to Horseshoe falls. On this trail we saw several new birds,
Total new species seen today: 11. Bird of the day: Superb fairy wren
Not our photo
The next day we drove to another part of the park. We started by hiking down into Glenbrook Gorge.
We barely started on the trail when this fellow ran across the path
an echidna!
We eventually reached the river and we followed along, climbing over boulders. It reminded us of Sooke potholes, without the water. The dry season is just ending this month.
In Glenbrook Gorge.
In the afternoon we drove further to the Euroka Clearing picnic site and hiked down to the Nepean River and back. Here we saw more cool birds including
Kookaburra
and
Crimson Rosella
Lastly we drove back to Govets Leap to look for the lyrebird, and just as we reached the parking lot, it walked across the road. We weren't able to get a picture so this statue they placed at the lookout will have to do.
Bird of the Day!
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