South Coast Wilderness Walks 2022 Volume 1

January 27, 2022

FICIFOLIA ROAD / NUT LOOKOUT REPRISE

It took a while to get hiking during the 2021/22 summer, because of bereavement, heat, farmstay hosting and various projects. When we finally did, we went straight back to a walk from spring last year – because we wanted to see the red-flowering gums in flower, and a guest who had recently walked the section told us now was the right time!

Compare photos if you will, and read all about the walk in that link too. Here’s the same place in high summer with the red flowers out.

Eucalyptus ficifolia flowering red in the two photos below (I’m a lumper and still use the old genus name).

Red-flowering gum above, Beaufortia below. Red flowers usually aim at birds for pollination; bees aren’t sensitive to reds, as their sight is shifted up towards the UV spectrum, with which they can see all sorts of patterns on flowers that we cannot. Bird-pollinated flowers usually offer good sturdy footholds to their target pollinator species as well.

Close-up of Eucalyptus ficifolia inflorescence below.

The higher we climbed, the cleared the coast views. It’s very pleasant countryside to walk in, going from Ficifolia Road to Nut Lookout and back.

…and that’s where we stopped at Nut Lookout!

INCIDENTALS: DENMARK WARM-UP DAY

January 20, 2022

Our first walk to the west of the Hay River this year was Monkey Rock car park to Lights Beach and back, on the Bibbulmun. We do this quite often and I thought I’d documented this in the Wilderness Walks series but can’t locate it – so it may have to be added retrospectively – watch this space! Meanwhile, just a few festive snaps from the arrival at Lights Beach:

The double shot at the end is to show off those mirror neurons that make us unconsciously adopt similar postures to others in a social group – two-legged or four!

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