Time to start the road trip home. Plan is to do a 5 hour leg with a side trip to explore a known orchid stop near Bairnsdale. Route starts off following where the rail trail went East
Hotel in Alberton sets a theme - old pubs
Stopped in Yarram - first pub photo shows the problem with the cracked lens cover on the phone. Keeping the photo as the dome is a bit unique
A few grand old buildings
Pub at the bottom of the road
Old National Australia Bank building
Woodside Beach Hotel next village along - not with the same style buy maybe as old
Oldest swing bridge in Australia not far from Sale which was an inland port. The bridge rotates on its centre to allow high masted vessels to pass
A few angles
The history sign
Along the deck - now closed to cars
Filled up in Bairnsdale - price for 98 has gone from under $2 to $2.14 to $2.44 with this one at $2.67. Next step is to find orchids
Took the Bengworden Road to access a nature reserve - hall photo. This is a bit longer route but there is little traffic and it avoids the km after km of centre crash barriers on the Sale - Bairnsdale road. There is a reserve behind this section - walked one bit. No joy
All I had was the name of the reserve rhat my friend had found orchids. Google Maps got me here. Had to walk into the reserve - track was narrow and sandy. My friend tells me he got stuck there once
As it happens it was not far to get to Moormurng reserve - maybe 400m. The reserve is a little enclave of bush surrounded by open farmland
Australian bluebell - often a good indicator for orchids
Mushroom action on a sawn off log
More mushroom action
Found orchids a little beyond this point where the track worked above the watercourse
First time find for this orchid - corunasrylis capparina. The only info I had is they were seen last week in this reserve. This spot may well be different to the one my friend found
A few angles on the first plant - front on
Side on focus is quite good
Then found another - 2nd one shows up the variation in colour - one greenish and one purple
Two photos again with front on and side on bits in focus but not in one shot
With the rains in the past few days mushrooms are coming up everywhere in quite a few colours and shapes
Quite different. Had I not stopped for the photo, I might well have missed this plant
It is a large mosquito orchid flowering
Acianthus exsertus - surprised to see one flowering this early. The guide book says April on. My friend says they often overlap with parson's bands orchids which he found here the week before. I did not find those
Hard to know what is holding this tree up. Must be the ant mound as there is no timber cladding at the bottom of the tree
Jewelled spider - saw a few after commenting there had been no spider webs
One last mushroom for this leg. The bush seems to be doing well.
Contrast the state of the field in the scene shot - grazed to the ground. This is why the reserves are key. Without them the whole landscape would look flat like this
Back to the road. Long drive left to get from Bairnsdale to Orbost to Cann River to Bombala. Copped a heavt rain shoeer coming out of Cann River - at one point could not see the road in front at all. The drive to the reserve did go over some track sections with a mound in the middle of the track. I did not notice any noise from under the car especially at the snack atop in Cann River
Made it to Bombala with enough daylight to go for a ride on the bike. Bombala Hotel carries on the theme for photos
The other hotel still going
Rode up the lookout road to see if there were any orchids in the reserve up there. Walked under the powerlines - neat little daisy
Paper daisy - my wife's favourite
The view of Bombala from the top on a stunning afternoon
A few buildings with some history - once a Masonic lodge
Bombala Literary Institute - maybe cut from the same cloth
Did ride a bit more than this shows as forgot the turn the computer on for the leg down the main street
Walked to Club Bombala for dinner
One last Victorian building for the series of Victoriana for the day.
Dinner was an Aussie favourite - burger with egg, bacon, pineapple, beetroot, two slices of cheese and a patty. Served with a GF bun. I ate it as two courses - breakfast course and then main course
Was a long day driving but did get the big reward of an orchid I had not seen.
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Height183 cm |  | Weight90 kg |  | Body Fat% |  |
Waistcm |  | Thighscm |  | Chestcm |  |
