Bushwalking in Watagans

It was the st Patrick's day on Friday and it's the day when Irish get drunk. Most of the Aussies are the grand grand grand children of the convicts who were shipped here from Ireland in the 19th century. The others just pretend to have some irish blood in them and get a pretty good excuse for another big night out. I also went out on friday to see this carneval but it was nothing special since all the people were packed in clubs and the only thing that reminds you of the day were the green shirts, jameson hats and non-sober guys.

Saturday morning, two clocks alarming at 6:45. After 4 hour sleep, fresh as usual, I headed to the mountaineering club and was ready to make a 18km bushwalk in Watagans national park. The weather was perfect for walking, not too hot, not raining. The walk was part of the great northern walk which runs 250kms from Sydney to Watagans. I've heard that people can do that in 12-13 days. Sounds like a challenge.



The trek was literally bushwalking. I just couldn't stop getting astonished when surrounded by 100year old bush, ridges, eucalyptus trees and huge, 35m tall, gum trees. Sometimes the trees were fallen over the track and I had to crawl to get through the branches. I used the breaks to get all the leeches out of my shoes. Luckily it wasn't raining, because then the leech levels would be soaring.

In the evening we went to see some glow worm caves. These little creatures produce light to attract prey to their hanging sticky web. After wandering around the dark forest with torches, we finally got to our destination and, to my delightment, saw dozen worms emitting blue light in the ceiling of the cave. There was also a little waterfall inside and the experience of the sound of falling water combined with starry-like ceiling was really impressive.

After we got back to our camping area, it didn't take too much effort for me to fall asleep. It started raining during the night but luckily the mountaineering club rents tents without holes so I could just enjoy the sound of drumming water without getting wet. I was awaken 6:30am to the sound of screaming kookaburras. Those birds just are loud!