Tanjung Puting: Hiking Around

In between orangutan viewings and rolling on the river, we took a hike through the jungle in Tanjung Puting park:

The forest was quite thick and quite wet, even though it was not yet full on rainy season.  Our understanding is that most of the area where we hiked is inundated with at least a meter of water during the height of rainy season:

Lots of tree roots:

Lots of plank walkways laid down by the park staff to traverse the really swampy areas.  I learned the hard way that these moss-covered planks were quite slippery- I slipped off, and then while I was trying to right myself, I slipped again.  Sigh.

Eileen found this weird pod thing:

We saw some massive trees... just massive.  This one our guide told us was ironwood.  It was hard to capture on camera, but it was so, so tall, and had these giant root buttresses:

Treehugger:

Eileen was commonly seen this way, trying to find the best camera angle for snapping a bug or mushroom:

The bark on this tree was so cool... like camouflage.  Anybody know what it is?  I am struggling to find it on the internet:

Our guide, JuJu, found us this natural jungle swing, so the ladies had a go:

Chrissy looked a bit nervous about the vines load-bearing qualities, but ultimately enjoyed herself:

A good hike:

My only complaint, which Eileen might share, was the leeches.  The wet leaf litter on the forest floor was rife with tiny little leeches that would grab onto your ankles when you walked by.  Some of the guides walked barefoot through the forest because, as they said, it was easier to see the leeches on bare feet and ankles.  Maybe so, but you wouldn't catch me walking through that forest with no shoes.

Anyway, leeches are gross, but now we know you can get them off by either burning them or spraying them with Deet.  We also know that leech wounds bleed incessantly... their mouths must have some sort of anticoagulant in them, because the wounds never stopped bleeding... see Eileen's leg below.  I also had a bite on my foot that bled through a sock and 3 bandaids before slowing down.  Gross:

 

Kangaroo Valley: Three Views Hike

After getting our fill of kangaroos and wombats (well, I don't know if I got my "fill," but I checked them off my list of Australian stuff to see), we went on a "walkabout" (or maybe just a hike) in Kangaroo Valley.  We did the Three Views Trail to the Shoalhaven River view, which was quite lovely, passing through open woodland and sandstone heath vegetation.  Lots of sun, sand, eucalyptus and scruffy vegetation.  Not so much fauna- a couple of birds and one small snake, but a ton of cool wildflowers.

 Many of the wildflowers we saw seem to be endemic to Australia, which is pretty cool...  this pink one below I think may be a variety of boronia:

I think the yellow and brown guys below are brown pea flowers, which I thought looked like teeny tiny orchids: 

This periwinkle dude is called a "sun orchid," I believe:

 

Glad we wore hats, as much of the hike was unshaded on these scruffy plains, as you can see from the photos below.  As Adam told us, the rule for Australian kids is "no hat, no play" because the sun is so strong and the UV rays so potent due to the hole in the ozone layer covering southern Australia.  You definitely feel crispy after even a brief time out in the Aussie sun.

Not sure what these cones and little buds are below... anyone better at plant identification than me?  Anyone?  Anyone? Bueller?

I think these red guys are maybe Grevillea?:

The two photos below are, I think, scribbly gum eucalyptus.  Apparently the scribbles on the bark are caused by the larvae of the scribbly gum moth:

This light pink, 5-petaled flower is Eriostemon, I believe:

The view from the top was quite pretty.  You can see the Tallowa Dam and Lake Yarrunga as well as the Shoalhaven River:

On the other side, the view is of the Shoalhaven River gorge and Ettrema Wilderness Area:

Here, in these photos below, you can see Tim and I try and fail to take successful self-portraits using a number of different methods... I blame it on the blustery wind and treacherous rocks... it was so windy I was worried that the camera would blow off the clifftop:

It's hard to tell how windy it was, but you can see that all of the clifftop plants are windblown to the right:

These weird pine-coney looking this are the "fruit" of the Banksia tree, I believe, that have gone old and brown:

I think the pink flower below on the left may be the Mountain Devil, just blooming, and the pea pod looking things on the right I haven't figured out yet.

I think the bottle-brush shaped flower at the bottom is also a type of Banksia, and the white curly flowers layered between spikes are the hakea sericea/silky hakea/needle bush: