mycena interrupta | Natureloverswalks

April 22, 2023

Tullah region wanderings

Two friends and I spent three days in the Tullah region, climbing this and that, sleeping high and sleeping low. It’s a great area for exploring.

Unfortunately, it has too often been my observation that pretty photos with names and locations attached have inspired the wrong sort of people to flood our beautiful wilderness and thereby ruin it. The Western Arthurs and the Walls of Jerusalem are two extreme cases in point.

Summit of Red Hills. I don’t mind naming this one, as it is not dramatic in an insta sense of the word; it is worth NO points; it is thus a thoroughly pointless exercise, ha ha. Not for us.

Mycena interrupta never fails to entrance

And who are the wrong sort of people? People who have not been taught any bushcraft and have made no effort to learn any; people for whom the words “Leave no trace” are a foreign language; people who seem to think that it’s just fine to spoil fragile areas now that they have seen them themselves; people whose sole aim in being there is to take some insta-photo and exit, without ever stopping to understand the place where they are; people whose sole concern is the self, who don’t care about the people who live near the area, or the children and ones yet to be born who might want to see the place. In short, shallow, selfish people.

For some of us, these regions are our quasi “holy places”. They are places where we revive our spirits and refresh our souls; where we take time out to connect with the wider natural environment. They are not just precious to us: they are essential to our mental and spiritual wellbeing. They are not just huge playgrounds (which they are also. Give me a mountain rather than a gym and treadmill any day, thanks!!).

My lack of blogs over the summer has had nothing to do with any inactivity on my part – I seem to have lived in the wilderness this summer – but rather due to my not wanting to over-popularise the beautiful areas I have been in. These spots are, or rather, were, our playgrounds, but we are now being locked out of them so that the tourists can come in and spoil them. They have been turned into a money-making commodity.

Thus I don’t want to aid and abet that process by being too specific about anything much other than indicating “Tullah region”. If you can enjoy photos of beauty that don’t specify location, then please enjoy these examples of what our amazing planet has to offer to those who have worked on their fitness, and acquired bush skills to survive in lonely and challenging locations. We left no trace. Keep tassie Wild.

June 22, 2021June 22, 2021

Wellington / kunanyi falls and fungi 2021 June

It was a perfect day for fungi hunting – albeit a little cold – and, as I had been waterfall bagging cum bushbashing the day before, I decided to have a lovely relaxing day searching for treasures on the slopes of kunanyi / Mt Wellington. I also wanted to get my first ever photo of Myrtle Gully Falls with a decent flow, so headed in that direction.

Amillaria novae-zelandiae Myrtle Gully Falls

Silly me. I only brought my landscape lens. No matter. It meant I could return later with my macro one. I hate changing lenses in the forest anyway.

Having set out early so as to ensure a parking spot, I had the entire forest to myself on the way out.

At the time, and having finished shooting landscape shots, I was cross at not having brought my macro, but once I’d resolved to return, I could just relax and select the specimens I wanted to photograph later.

One patch of fungi that intrigued me was a total gang of Hygrocybe firma in a kind of open mossy area. I resolved to also bring little Abby there later so she could play fairies. There must have been at least 50 specimens – all tiny – in a slightly scattered cluster.

On the second trip, I met heaps of people: some in family groups, lots walking their dogs (all on leads), some fungi hunting, like me. We all smiled as we passed each other in a general feeling of good will. Several commented on how lucky we are to have this mountain at the city’s doorstep, and they were not wrong. It made me really happy to see so many people out enjoying its beauty.

Anthrocophyllum archeri Myrtle Gully Falls

My joy, however, was quickly dispelled when I returned to the area of all the Hygrocybe firma. There I saw four females in their early twenties (probably) ducking down and gathering things from the ground. There were NO Hygrocybe firmas left! I was really cross. I asked them what they were doing, and they said with a kind of chuckle: “Oh, we’re just doing a little foraging.” Their hands were absolutely full of fungi! Fungi that belong to ALL the people of Hobart, and not just them. I was so cross I followed them back to the car, and took a photo of their number plate. They were in a car from NSW. Tourists, stealing our fungi. As if it isn’t bad enough that our government wants to rape and pillage everything called “National Park” to sell it as a commodity to tourists without said tourists also thinking they can come and destroy public space in this manner. I told the slowest of them (the others were scurrying away from me) that she should take up photography, as then she could “take” fungi without touching or destroying them for others. I pointed out that their piles of fungi were presumably going to land in a bin somewhere; they weren’t even of any use. One of them was videoing the caper (as I arrived). I’m sure it made a fantastic Insta story.

So. I didn’t get to show Abby the red fairy bonnets growing on “her” mountain.

April 21, 2019July 11, 2019

Hellyer Tributary Falls i D-F 2019

As I set out for home heading west, the Hellyer Tributary Falls were only one of several options in my mind, but somewhere along my journey, I decided it was the one for the day. I had researched these falls a short while ago, and thought I had the information in my phone.

Alas, when I parked and went to retrieve the exact location of these falls, I discovered the area has no mobile coverage, and that I thus couldn’t open the message that contained their whereabouts. I was faced with three little tributaries, any one of which could contain the object of my quest.

Hellyer Tributary Lower Cascades (Falls F)

I thought I remembered them being on the right hand one, but was not at all confident. Off I set through magically lush forest. At first there was a pad, and some pink ribbons, but I got dumped by both, and forged my own way along the creek. After 14 minutes, I came to a nice little cascade, which I photographed (now called retrospectively, Falls F in the group, just for those counting), and another few minutes beyond that, reached the double waterfall (that I have now labelled “falls D and E”), depicted below. I loved the second of this duo-drop.

Were they the falls I was actually seeking? They didn’t really quite fit my memory, so I was unsure and pushed on. The river became very choked at this stage. I went to where I had a bit of a view ahead, which contained no falls, so decided that either what I had photographed was my goal, or that the falls lay on the right fork of the other offshoot. I took a higher route through the forest to go a bit further, and explored for a bit, but that creek was very cluttered with fallen rubbish, so turned around at that point.

mycena interrupta having a family Easter gathering

I had seen lots of fungi, so decided I would prefer to photograph fungi in my remaining time than flounder around searching for something when I had insufficient information. The fungi were fabulous: my favourites: mycena interrupta. But oh, they are so winzy small that they are very challenging to shoot. Ini the mud I rolled, providing excellent fodder for investigative leeches.

After I finished and had set out for home, I once more entered mobile land, and was able to see my original hunch was correct, but that I hadn’t, in fact, gone far enough, and that the falls I really wanted were higher up: hence my label of the ones I did find as “D, E and F”. At that stage I felt satisfied with my catch for the day and continued the drive home. I have saved other treats for a later occasion. (Obviously, from the lettering, you can see that I found lot more later.)