With the advance welcoming party concerned about the likely numbers on a mizzly Saturday morning, it was wonderful to see car after car spill out their eager occupants. The whole Crowcroft family from children through to granny was there to swell the numbers to seventeen as we set out to the Cora Lynn Cascades. Cora Lynn is Gaelic meaning kettle pool.
Entering through the portals of the Otway rainforest, the grandeur of the massively buttressed Eucalyptus regnans (Mountain Ash) drew our eyes skywards to their rather spindly canopy. Below the canopy tree ferns guarded the gently trickling streams with the greenest of mossy banks, and Mountain Correas (first named by Hooker) hung thick with white flower candles.
Legions of orange bracket fungi marched up dead wood, and there was a rather wilted coral fungus growing on one of the steps. There were snatches of bird calls – a whistler, crested honeyeater and wrens and the conversation moved to the magnificence of bird song, with particular reference to the repertoire of the lyre bird.
Unfortunately our walk on the way back had turned into a squelchy ramble as the track had been turned into a very muddy trail as waterfall trail runners were doing 20-50kms run on the same day!
However we all found our own pace and enjoyed the company of likeminded walkers and naturalists – our leader gratified that all made it back through the mud to the picnic table where the wrens and honeyeaters twittered around our lunch. A timely reflection on the beauty of forest bathing!!
Report by Lesley Cadzow