Saturday March 9th: From Wingham to Bellingen
We drove down to the Forest Reserve
where there is a boardwalk loop trail through the bush to where the
flying foxes roost during the day. We can see by debris in the
fences showing that the recent, last week, flood waters were quite
high. The road surface was broken up by the river and debris is on
the parking areas. We hope that we will be able to walk on the board
walk, but the forest workers say no. A huge tree has crashed through
the boardwalk near the entrance leaving a gap of about 6 feet. They
are removing the tree and will begin repairs. Meanwhile the trail is
closed. Too sad.
We head for highway one the Pacific
highway. The cutoff to Crowdy Head looks interesting, but we hear
that the unpaved road past Crowdy Head may not be too good. After a
look at the lighthouse on the head we look for the road. We decide
not after seeing that it looks like a one lane sandy track. Probably
not where we want to take a rental. Highway one isn't so bad. It is
more like a regional highway than a superhighway. Gets us to Port
Macquarie sooner so we can find the Koala Hospital.
We stay for the 3PM guided tour and
koala feeding. We really learn a lot about koalas. Koalas closest
relative is the wombat. They eat about 50 different kinds of
eucalyptus leaves including the melaleuca. They have special bacteria
in their intestines to digest the leaves and they are immune to the
toxins in the leaves. Contrary to urban myth they do not get “high”
on the leaves. They eat some dirt at times to aide their digestion.
Koalas sleep about 18 hours a day. Puts them right up there with
cats. The joeys are about the size of a jelly bean when they are
born, are blind and have undeveloped hind legs. They crawl up their
mothers fur to a nipple in the pouch. They are with their mother for
about one year. She has to inoculate them with the good digestive
bacteria so they are able to eat eucalyptus leaves. Makes it hard
for orphans. If they are orphaned too young, before they are
inoculated, they will die. The sick or injured koalas are fed a
supportive soy based formula as koalas are lactose intolerant. Some
koalas are too injured to return to the wild, so they stay here on
supportive care. The rest are returned to the wild, such as it is.
There is little wild Australia left on the coast. This was the
highlight of the day.
We arrive at our next stop, Bellingen,
about six. Ready for the rainforest waterfalls tomorrow.
Walking to dinner about 7:30, we watch
flying foxes fly over our heads to go out to feed. We are at the
Federal Hotel Bistro and have a laugh at one item on the menu. Indian
curry with beef. As if any person from India would ever make
curry with beef.
Sunday March 10th: We head
to the Dorrigo Rainforest Centre. The excellent movie in the visitor
center is a highlight. The rainforest has taken a bit of a beating in
the recent heavy rains. We do the sky walk, a short forest hike and
lunch at Dangar Falls.
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| on the sky walk |
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| High above the ground |
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| looking down |
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| back on the ground with an Australian bush turkey |
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| cleaning up after the storm |
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| these trees are shallow rooted, so they form buttresses |
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| Dangar falls |
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| Logging truck. The logs have tags, so they are from national forest or state forest lands. |
We then drive on a very winding road to
our next stop, Yamba.
We bought a traveling koala at the Koala Hospital. Barry's story is that he escaped from the Koala Hospital and has been spotted all over the world.
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| Barry is relaxing at Clubyamba in Yamba |
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