October 10
Tamar spent the morning preparing wreathes from small wild flowers she collected around the campsite. Lilach and I made ourselves less colorful (but much more visible) ones from long strands of some flowering climber. Adorned with our garlands, we took a group picture at the top of Moonbi Lookout before continuing to Warrumbungle. About 15 minutes into the drive, when we were still among farmhouses close to the town of Moonbi, Lilach said that an unidentified lizard crossed the road. I stopped and ran back, but found nothing on the road or near it and had to conclude that it must have escaped to the nearby bush. Several hours later, on a road surrounded by dry eucalypt forests, I saw a dark shape on the asphalt. I pulled aside, telling Lilach I thought I had seen a Shingleback, then ran back the 60 meters or so to where I thought I saw it. Sure enough, ambling its way towards the side of the road was a Shingleback (Tiliqua rugosa) – a large and very strangely shaped skink. When I picked it up it gaped at me and stuck out its dark wide tongue, but otherwise it was friendly and docile. Once she saw it up close, Lilach recognized it as the same lizard she had seen crossing the road earlier in the morning. Two of this skink’s many common names are “headtail” and “two-headed skink”, owing to the bulbous tail which looks much like the wide head – possibly an adaptation meant to confuse potential predators and attract them to the wrong end. Among its other unique features is monogamy, with pair bonds lasting many years. Reproduction is by live birth, and the offspring stay with the parents for several months – also quite unusual in reptiles. While we were watching and filming the shingleback, a Jacky Lizard (Amphibolurus muricatus) ran in the brush near us and was also captured, examined and released.
https://youtu.be/3oGokus_-8Q&rel=0
We stopped at the town of Gunnedah to replace the hose connector ring which cracked (it seemed the hose was falling apart piece by piece). Fortunately we found a branch of “The Reject Shop” – a discount variety chain whose name amused us every time we saw it. This time, for a change, I actually walked in (while Lilach and the kids went into the supermarket next door to get some fresh bread) and immediately got the part I needed for about $1.5. Signs in Gunnedah declared that it was “Koala Capital of the World”, which we accepted as fact, as the nearby Warrumbangle was said to have a thriving koala population. After leaving Gunnedah we stopped at some point along the road to collect some firewood, since the firewood we purchased back in Platypus Bush Camp, besides not being quite dry and therefore producing large amounts of smoke, was also running out. The ease with which we gathered a large heap of dry branches and bark, varying in size from twigs to small logs, made it clear that this forest was made to burn often.
On the way to the park we saw another group of Emus grazing in a field by the road, as well as a several run-over reptiles, including a couple of snakes and a poor turtle. After passing a town with the astonishing name Coonabarabran, we were hoping to visit the Siding Spring Observatory, but when we got to the turn leading there a sign indicated that (a) it was closed, and (b) the road was blocked to motorhomes. Approaching the park, we discovered huge areas of scorched earth, with green regrowth among blackened tree stumps. These signs of bushfire extended into the park itself and inspired mixed feelings of dread and wonder. We drove to the Camp Blackman camping area, which turned out to have three separate zones, with both powered and unpowered sites. After surveying all available sites, we chose one which didn’t have power, but was rather private and turned to a green hillside which we immediately dubbed “Watership Down”, inspired by Tamar’s book. As soon as we took out the picnic table and chairs, it started raining, lightly at first, but quickly turning into real rain which forced us to pack the chairs and ear inside. In the late afternoon, after completing our self-registration procedures (the visitor center was already closed when we arrived), we went to the short “Nature Trail”, where we were hoping to spot koalas. But the trail turned out to be partly closed, so we ended up looking for koalas around the picnic area near the trail head, finding instead kangaroos and kookaburras.
October 11
In the morning, Lilach went to chat with the rangers about where we should look for Koalas, and came back with sad news. The 2013 bushfire whose signs we saw outside the park and within it destroyed about 80% of its area (as well as several homes and farmlands around it). It also destroyed the park’s museum and the visitor center, which was moved to temporary facilities when the park reopened. Since then, even the rangers in the park find it hard to locate koalas, although the males can be heard sometimes during the breeding season making their growling courtship calls. The ranger told Lilach that if we wanted to see koalas, we may stop at the tourist information center in Gunnedah, where they could point us to local parks within the town where there have been recent sitings…
The ranger also recommended a couple of hiking trails, and we chose Gould’s Circuit, with the addition of a detour to Spirey View, which she indicated was “challenging”, though her little kids liked it. The trail was indeed very nice, climbing along a creek and up the hills, and affording good views of the renovating landscape and the interesting geological formations surrounding the park. The kids showed great climbing skills, and it was clearer than ever that their ability to tackle strenuous treks was no longer the limiting factor in our hiking. We found several interesting lizards along the trek, and Daniel showed naturalistic zeal in photographing them from every possible angle (“Dad, hold it so that I can take a picture of its belly!”). Butterflies were abundant, and among the flora we noticed yellow flowers with dry, hard, shiny petals that seemed totally desiccated, though the stem was supple and very much alive. On the way back, we had a close encounter with a large male Grey Kangaroo that was grazing on the track, and the kids enjoyed jumping a short distance after it.
https://youtu.be/TuHNoxazLDc&rel=0
October 12
Early in the morning, encouraged by the abundance of reptiles the day before, I went looking for reptiles in the vicinity of the camp. In addition to great many Eastern Striped Skinks (Ctenotus robustus), three or four of which I placed in my fleece pockets to show the kids, I also found a burrowing skink (Anomalopus leuckartii), similar to a specimen found the day before, and also a young and very very cold and sluggish Curl Snake (Suta suta). The latter I did not immediately recognize, but it was clearly an elapid (hence venomous), so after verifying that its fangs are in the right place I asked Lilach to take some photos for future identification and let it be without showing it to Tamar and Daniel. The skinks, on the other hand, I did bring back with me, and they provided a good opportunity to test the kids’ newly acquired lizard capturing skills. I put the skinks on the grass one by one, and they caught them quickly but gently before releasing them for good. Shortly afterwards Lilach called us all to see a single emu crossing the camp very close to where we were parked. We watched it stroll in the camp kitchen area, then all of a sudden it seemed startled by something and ran out of the camp, to the grassland in the periphery. We kept watching it walking and grazing until it disappeared beyond the curve of the hill.
https://youtu.be/H-vMx_2wLR4&rel=0
We consulted with Tamar and Daniel regarding the hike we would go to this time, and given their enthusiasm to try a “tough walk” it was decided that we should go to the Belougery Split Rock Circuit, a walk which – though relatively short, at less than 5km – was graded as one of the park’s most strenuous (“seep to very steep and rough in sections”). Again, the kids proved they they imposed no limitations on our hiking destinations, and confidently negotiated the steep terrain. On our way up we reached a rock shelf which was covered with wallaby pellets, indicating the nearby presence of the endangered Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies. Lizards were abundant along the walk, including a Nobbi Dragon (Amphibolurus nobbi) and several unidentified skinks. The last few hundred meters to the summit were indeed very steep and windy, so I was sent alone to take some pictures from the top while the others stayed in slightly more sheltered spot lower down.
On our way back from the car park to the campsite we were greeted with the most amazing site of the day – two large male kangaroos fighting for territory in earnest! Surprisingly, the one that seemed shorter and lighter had the upper hand, and chased the other male away eventually. After our return, when we uploaded the video of this fight to Youtube, a news agency contacted us to license the rights to it, and an edited version of it now appears on the National Geographic Site. Daniel’s voice can still be heard over the soundtrack… The unedited version can be seen below.
Family Trips 