Kate's Blog

Taking a break

We camped with another family at Dunn's Swamp in Wollemi National Park for a few days last week - plenty for the kids to do, climbing on pagodas - large rocks (5 - 7m high - a bit nerve-wracking for us parents), canoeing, swimming, bushwalking. But also a chance to just sit still and observe patterns of light and shadow and do, well, nothing much. We didn't see much evidence of the wettest water on earth, but the water was definitely cold.

We found one large scribbly gum (Eucalyptus haemastoma) that had been blown over.

It had grown in shallow soil in the lee of two 5m boulders. When it grew high enough, about a week earlier, a combination of heavy rain and wind blew it over, taking all the soil and compost with it and leaving bare rock, ready for the cycle of building up soil to begin again.

The scribbly gum gets its name from the larva of a moth that lays its eggs between the layers of new and old bark - the scribbles are tracks drawn by the larva as it eats the bark while growing. You can see them pretty clearly here:

The lines get thicker as the larva grows. The moth itself is tiny and rarely seen.

Posted at 12:25PM 19 Oct, 2006 by Kate Morris in Personal  |  Comments[0]