Captains Creek

I had been planning to try to drive to Dowell Creek today but I got unenthusiastic about driving to and from Genoa for the fourth time in 7 days!  Frances had recently  suggested that we do the walk from Bucklands to Captains Creek Jetty so we decided that was a go for today.

This report will be thematically organised again beginning with general stuff about the outing, followed by fungi, flowers and ferns, birds and animals.  This grab from eBird shows the route.

I had previously done the first 2km and advised Frances it was rocky, but flat.  That lasts for about another 1km until we got to Captain Creek.  Then the track became less rocky but headed uphill.  From looking at my topo map the several uphills and downhills were about 4 contour lines each.  So it was a reasonable workout.  By the time we got back to the car I was more like Captain Creak!

The Parks people had cleared a couple of large fallen trees off the track but this one had come down since.  We fitted underneath!  The habitat here - in the Narrows was pretty dry and not that interesting

This is from the mouth of Captains Creek looking across at the jetty, which was our destination.

As we walked along we crossed three Creeks, Mosquito, Kingfish and finally Captains.I think this bridge was at Kingfish,  There was another structure at Captains but not at Mosquito.

I think this is looking inland at Captains Creek.

The jetty, looking out into Double Creek Arm.

The view from the end of the jetty.  Note the little pimple on the horizon: its about 16 km away.

Zooming in on the pimple and it is just possible to pick out the lookout on top of Genoa Peak.  I have ascended this and here is a link to the view from the Peak back towards the Inlet.

I was initially a bit grumpy about this gas BBQ.  How can Parks afford this when they can't afford to staff an office in Mallacoota?  Then I realised that it was probably a reasonable deal to prevent fires, as the boating classes were probably going to have a BBQ anyway so make it a safe(r) one.

This is a view from the bridge (sans trolls) out into the major part of Captains Creek.

The habitat on the higher bit of the track.

Let us now move into Fungi.  There were many fruiting bodies of many varieties.  Here are photos of some of them.  I will try to add names later.  No idea on the first one.

Possibly Postia lactea but fungimap not sure

I thought this would be easy to ID, and it was relatively so.  Fungimap concluded it is Ramaria sp..

I can get no closer than a Bolete!

Possibly Lepista nuda?

Possibly Callistrosporium sp?  No: fungimap advise it is a Cortiinarius sp, as it has ochre gills

On to flowers and ferns.  An old favourite, Correa reflexa.

The commonest flower was of course Epacris impressa.  Many forms on the red-pink end of the colour range but I didn't notice any white ones.

I  think this is an Oxalis sp.

Astroloma humifusum.

Cyathea  australis at Mosquito Creek

Moving on to birds, we again saw very few.  The exception were Superb Lyrebirds of which Frances (leader) saw several bolt across the track and others were heard up the gullies.  A full list is here.

Going in to other animals I will start by saying we didn't see (or hear or feel) mosquitoes at Mosquito Creek.  That is because they were all at the Jetty picnic ground!  They encouraged us to keep moving.

These life forms were at the jetty (and once we were alert to them all along Double Creek Arm.  They looked like a cross between Cunjevoi and Sea Tulips.  I have sought advice on their ID!

Here are some briefly removed from the water.

Swathes of bivalve shells were very common.  It wasn't clear to us whether these were just where shells had washed up or if they were middens,  I suspect the former.

Towards the end of the walk Frances heard a noise in the trees and on looking up found a portly person looking down at us

Back at the car there was the greatest number of roos I have seen in the Mallacoota area, grazing on Bucklands.  This is part of the mob.