A Walk in the Mallee

Lake Mournpall

I documented our arrival at Lake Mournpall at the end of the previous post. As you recall, the drive in was a bit sloppy due to recent precipitation in the area. And it rained off and on most of the night, or so it seemed. The next morning it was still raining but the forecast was for it to ease off towards midday. Not fancying a wet weather pack up we decided to explore the Lake Mournpall walk, which we thought would be a good way to become more intimate with the Mallee country and be a good start to avoid our usual syndrome of blacktop fever - i.e. driving all day and not savouring the attractions along the way.

Before we set off about nine, Di took this photo of a massive old River Red Gum stump, remnant of untold bush fires and droughts of yesteryear ...

... and another of these beautiful, healthy mature specimens that fringe the campsite ...

(The blurred spots on the photo are the result of raindrops. We were in for a bit of a wet walk!)

The sign marking the start of the walk made it sound very appealing, but with a warning about possible closures ...

We were a little non-plussed to discover this sign just a short way along the track ...

To be honest, we weren't entirely sure that the sign referred to the walking track that we were on, or the general route that seemed to also have been used by people on ATV's so we decided to continue, reasoning that we could always come back the same way if we came to a flooded section.

Before long we were noticing lots of mushrooms sprouting along the track due to the wet conditions ...

Always happy to go for a walk, Di was particularly cheerful, despite the wet weather ...

She might look like she has put on a lot of weight since the last photo you've seen of her on the blog. Don't worry: she's just protecting her camera from the intermittent showers.

The rain has also prompted a number of flowering plants to express themselves ...

One of the great things about this walk was the informative signs located at strategic places. Here is a great explanation of the Mallee environment ...

The next few photos illustrate the "umbrella-like crown of branches and leaves" which emerge from the underground trunk or mallee root ...

... and here's a photo of a burl that's completely ringed a limb, but the picture is really about the textures and colours of the Mallee ...

Between the shrubs and trees along this section of the track the sandy red ground was dotted with lots of these bright green flowering plants ...

There was another area where huge dead Callitiris Pines were still standing ...

... yet the landscape looked vibrant, with young ones sprouting up to replace them ...

A short botany lesson: Callitris Pines aren't actually "pines" at all but in fact belong to the cypress family. There are 15 species in the genus, 13 of which are native to Australia - the other two grow in New Caledonia.

The thing that really struck us about this walk was the diversity of vegetation regimes in a relatively small area. This sign describing the characteristics of Porcupine Grass and the important role it plays in providing shelter for reptiles and ants was really interesting ... 

Near the start of the walk where I took the photo of the mushroom, the sandy soil was fairly grey in colour but you would have noticed that it has become predominately red by now. Still, mushrooms liked this soil just as much as the grey variety ...

Di was a bit spooked by the strange shape of this fungi that seemed to have overreached itself ...

... and nearby we discovered this airy ball that was just a total mystery to us ...

The next delight for us was to enter a section of woodland quite different to the more scrubby area that we'd been through up to this point ...

We'd seen a few Grey Kangaroos bounding off through the scrub and a few emus had wandered past our camper. But now there was sign of emu everywhere ...

... and it seemed like every few minutes we would disturb a small group of 'roos which wanted to keep some distance between us and them. We did manage to shoot a fairly ordinary video for those of you in parts foreign to enjoy ...

As we entered this section of woodland we also came across a proliferation of these flowering plants ...

... where we tried to outdo each other with close-ups ...

Along the track there were lots of these grub casings ...

... and we discovered this beautiful patch of fungi growing on a slowly rotting tree ...

Eventually, we circled back around toward the lake and wetter ground. The strategic placing of this sign ...

... led us on to a patch of young Red River Gum seedlings along the margin between woodland and lake ...

... where we tentatively followed the track towards the muddy shore, hoping we wouldn't have to turn back. Beyond more saplings surging out of the mud were a number of large dead gums ...

... and then we were into an area healthy mature trees on the edge of the lake ...

... which was teeming with life. We saw a group of three Spotted Harriers that looked like they were hunting but were unable to get photos because they just weren't close enough.

Next we found ourselves wending our way around parts of the lake, following the red markers and kangaroo tracks through the mud ...

... on and on through stretches of mud that never quite got deep or soft enough to send us back the way we came ...

“We are in mud
Stepp'd in so far, that, should we wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go over.”

(Apologies to Uncle Will)

... yet still we follow the orange markers ...

When all's said and done though, this isn't any worse than a regular day of bushwalking in southwest Tasmania!

By the time I took the next photo we had pretty much finished with the mud and were moving on to more solid ground. We saw a couple of large groups of pelicans, but again couldn't get a decent photo because they were too wary and shuffled off into deeper water behind the juvenile gums out in the lake. If you look past the large gum that dominates the foreground, you can see all the juvenile gums behind ...

Just past the large gum above we came across this fallen giant ...

Just before getting back to where we started I paused for Di to take this photo of me in front of this huge gum to illustrate the circumference of the trunk ...

The final photo shows a depth marker for the lake ... 

... in fact there are two markers; if you look closely you can see another, further out in the water. I wondered what the numbers signified: height above sea level perhaps?

Also, in the background you can see the thickly growing Red River Gum saplings that seem to completely ring the lake which suggest the environment hereabouts is currently in pretty good shape. 

Despite the cool, wet conditions and stickiness underfoot in places we thoroughly enjoyed our walk in the Mallee and reckon it would be absolutely magnificent in slightly warmer and drier conditions. In fact, we'd love to go back with our grandchildren if we can pry them away from their parents some day. I've just been on Google Earth and found that the imagery they've got looks pretty good in terms of walking conditions. It's hard to be exact as to our route as there doesn't seem to be a map of the track on the internet. However, I've drawn in what we think is pretty much where we went ...

And that's it for now. We aren't sure when we are going to be able to post again as we expect be relying on solar power for the next little while. So long for now ...