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Stage 35 - Saltwater Creek to Green Cape

We awoke to a fine morning, though camping out for the first time in a while, we realised how much the temperature had dropped since we set out on our walk 2 months ago. In the last week, there had been a distinct change in weather regime and cold nights with brisk mornings were the order of the day.

Trish and Mike accompanied us as we crossed the beach at Saltwater Creek to rejoin the lighthouse to lighthouse track. The reflections in the still dark waters of the lagoon on the southern end of the beach were superb. Trish left us here, heading back to Eden by car to buy fresh seafood and supplies for our overnight stay at a Green Cape lighthouse keeper's cottage; she would then head there and set up for our arrival.


Reflections in the still tea-coloured
waters of Saltwater Lagoon

The track from the beach climbed up through more paperbark forest, passing through areas of open heath and banksia woodlands, before crossing an expanse of heathland. Here we caught our first glimpse of Green Cape lighthouse, our destination for the night.


Pacific gull

A first glimpse of Green Cape and its lighthouse

View across the heath and back along the coast


One more red rock inlet

Life can be hard for some in the bush

A small creek flows down through the
coastal forest
Descending down to Hegarty's Bay. we picked our way across the boulders and rocky ribs protruding on to the beach. Near the small rivulet at the head of the Bay we encountered a flock of yellow-tailed black cockatoos feasting on wood grubs in the paperbark trunks. An even better encounter was to follow as we crossed the low shrubby heath south of Hegarty's. The ground parrot is one of Australia's rarest birds and is restricted to a few locations with coastal heath; two of these special birds flushed out from beneath the low bushes as we passed and skimmed across their tops in a flurry of wings.

Hegarty's Bay

Peekaboo cockatoo

Flock of yellow-tail black cockatoos watching us pass

The track then followed a large arc around the cliffs on the north side of Bittangabee Bay, giving splendid views of the entry of this long, narrow inlet, before re-entering the heath. The vegetation changed to taller eucalypt forest, as the track headed further inland and crossed the creek at the headwaters of Bittangabee.


Another beautiful coastal stream


Overlooking the entry to Bittangabee Bay - the rainclouds appear

Forest near Bittangabee

It then took us along the southern side of the bay to where the ruins of an old depot used to supply Green Cape lighthouse stood. Bittangabee Bay was the nearest location to the lighthouse where a boat could be safely moored. It was also the location where the cold front that had been promised by the bureau of meteorology finally caught us. A cold wind sprang up and a gentle drizzle started to fall as we donned our wet weather gear and headed off through the bush toward the Cape. The track followed the old overgrown supply route taken by horse drawn carts between Bittangabee and Green Cape and the first part was through a range of forest types. Wearing wet weather gear in the rain tends to focus the gaze downward, but it was easy to recognize the different vegetation habitats from the litter-covered path; some times the serrated leaves of coastal banksias, sometimes the thin needles of casuarinas and other times the gently curved or tapering leaves of different eucalypts lay underfoot.

It was good having Mike on this part of the trip, as the rain also focussed attention on various animal footprints, scratchings and droppings. Mike is a vertebrate ecologist and his expertise soon had us recognising such things as, where lyrebirds had been scratching and how wombats use their poo as territorial markers. There certainly must have been a dense population of wombats in the forest!


Rock pool in Bittangabee Creek

Finally the forest gave way to a broad expanse of low heath land as we headed out on the promontory of Green Cape. Out of the protection of the forest, the wind was stronger, colder and the rain seemed heavier. The dull wet greenness of the heath was broken from time to time by splashes of colour from the pink and white bells of Epacris flowers and the orange candles of banksias. In the distance we could at last see the top of the Green Cape lighthouse and the promise of shelter. It was a relief to finally arrive at the lighthouse and the assistant lighthouse keeper's cottage, which the National Parks and Wildlife Service have restored and transformed into accommodation for rent. A hot shower, dry clothes and a fire crackling away in the fireplace of the lounge room soon had us in good spirits.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

By late afternoon, the rain had moved on and the sun broke through low in the western sky, bathing the lighthouse and cape in a pale glow against the darkness of the receding storm clouds. The green of the grass and low tea-trees and banksia heath was luminous in this light. The clarity of the light was intense - 110 km to the north, the silhouette of Gulaga appeared as though an offshore island (surely this is the the last point on the coast from where we will see it) and 40 km to the south, the high sand dunes of Cape Howe glowing in the sunlight, marked our destination at the New South Wales - Victoria border. The fierce cold wind that had driven away the clouds blew in across the wide expanse of Disaster Bay. It was exhilarating.

I am describing this in particular detail because, when uploading the flash memory card from my camera to the notebook, the card had a catastrophic failure, and the last half of the photos stored on it were lost. This also included one of another rare ground parrot that posed for a full portrait in front of a tussock of grass below the lighthouse. I suspect that you need to be a photographer to experience the anguish I felt after the euphoria of talking such a photo.

mmmmmm
IIn memory of lost photos

Memo to self: next January 1 make a resolution not to feel that you have to capture everything beautiful or inspiring that you see on film – to enjoy the moment and hold
the memory of it in your mind is reward enough.





The following morning I got up early to try and get
another portrait of a ground parrot - although I saw
two more birds they were not as obliging and this
grainy enlargement is all that I could manage

It was a special night at Green Cape – good wine, a fine dinner of prawns, oysters and flathead tails and an enjoyable evening with friends in front of the fire. Again we made a mental note to return to this isolated and beautiful part of the South Coast.

Our accommodation at Green Cape - taken the following morning

Green Cape Lighthouse - the name of the cape is self-evident
     
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