Downstream from Tallowa Dam
Danny Yee, Camilla Ip, Vic Gosbell, Andrew Molnar, Roger Lyle
(thumbnails link to larger images)
Saturday
Due to a mistake with the alarm clock, Camilla and I got away from Sydney at 6.30 instead of 6am, and didn't get to Tallowa dam till 8.40.
lantana on Apple Tree Flat
The lantana at Appletree Flat was very bad. I have spoken to the local NPWS staff about it. I will be joining a working bee to attack it later in the year.
If you stay close to the river and weave in and around the lantana there is a spot where you only have to push through about 2 metres of lantana onto the main rocky flat part of Appletree Flat, close to the old 4WD track. I built a small cairn of rocks to mark the spot. We tried the track at the back of the flat without success.
Bulls Flat is now very overgrown. Indeed, as I had 5 ab initio bushwalkers with me, I had a hard time finding a decent spot to camp due to the chest high undergrowth everywhere.
Crossing again, Camilla and I then stuck to the right (western) bank all the way to Bulls Flat. The rest of us had sandshoes and were just wading across the river, which was cold but below knee deep, but Camilla was wearing boots and changing on each side, so she wanted to avoid two crossings. Unfortunately it started drizzling at this point, and she didn't enjoy the rock scrambling involved.
When we got to Bulls Flat the others had their tent flies up already, and we ended up camping there, even though it was only 1pm! We went for a walk further down Bulls Flat and it was much nicer there -- open and very flat, with nice trees and bushes. (One large she-oak, surrounded by wild berries, is even mentioned in the book Fitzroy Falls and Beyond.)
Wombat poo was everywhere along the river, and there were lots of wombat holes. But we weren't up to going looking for wombats in the rain during the night.
