Today, I set off for the rainforest centre just outside Port Macquarie.

I had lunch at the café there, and then set off on the boardwalk.  It’s a pretty long boardwalk, too – over a kilometre.  This is the start of the walk:

It started out in what was basically a palm forest – just long, thin trunks and very little undergrowth.  I took a photo:

I managed to find a grey fantail perched on a little branch, and took some video:

 

Beyond the palms, it turned into the more traditional rainforest:

This place had tied back some lianas, too, like Dorrigo – check it out:

Of course, every rainforest has its strangler figs (or at least, every rainforest I’ve seen thus far):

I took a picture of this tree purely because it’s horizontal and still alive:

You can see it split where it twisted, but the top part if clearly still alive, as it has several leafy branches growing out of it.

This is a walking-stick palm:

They have very narrow trunks that only grow to a few metres, and guess what they were often used for?  Walking sticks!  Come on, it’s in the name!

The boardwalk started up in the canopy, but at times it was barely a foot off the ground:

They could have turned that into a trail easily.  But boardwalks are preferable because they disrupt the environment less.  Or something.

I kept looking out for animals, but I didn’t see many.  There was plenty of rustling in the undergrowth, but I rarely saw anything.  This is one of the few times I spotted what was making the noise – a land mullet:

 

I did manage to record some birdsong, though:

 

There were a lot of dropped palm fronds caught in other trees along the walk.  I took a photo of the most extreme example:

Several times I heard loud crashes in the distance that I took to be palm fronds dropping.  They’re pretty deadly.

It was around here that I spotted a western gerygone, and managed to film it for a few seconds:

 

I also got a yellow-throated scrubwren:

 

This is a triple strangler fig:

No, that’s not a new species of strangler, it’s what happened.  A strangler fig killed a tree, then another strangler began wrapping around the first one, and another strangler on top of that.  I never thought about strangler figs attacking each other, but of course it must happen – they just latch onto any mature tree, which obviously includes other strangler figs.

I came across this in the middle of the boardwalk:

I had no idea what it was, until I came across a sign informing me it was called Bryce’s Classroom, dedicated to Bryce Laut, a Senior Ranger who died while firefighting in a national park.

These are the sculptures on either side of the entrance:

This is the ‘classroom’:

The teacher’s chair (or whatever it is):

The sculptures at the exit:

On the way out of the classroom, I spied a Lewin’s honeyeater:

 

And a white-throated treecreeper:

 

This blog entry actually marks the first time I didn’t have to look any birds up – I knew what all these were as soon as I saw them!  I double-checked before posting this, of course, but I was right on all counts and I’m feeling very clever right now.  Bow before my knowledge!

Now, back to the walk!  This a python tree, also called ironwood, because it’s so hard:

The python name comes from the smooth, mottled bark, and the fact that the trunk is always slightly crooked.  I’m not sure why smooth + mottled + crooked made them think ‘snake’, but what do I know?

I crossed a little watercourse at one point, but it was very still and quiet:

Now, I’m not sure if these were deliberately introduced or just chance, but check out all the tree ferns on this particular tree:

This clump was attached to its neighbour:

This one is a ribbon fern:

After the fern-bedecked trees that look like they’ve dressed up for a party, I heard some scuttling below the boardwalk (now in the canopy again), and found a brush turkey:

Then it was the end of the boardwalk:

I had a look at a short film in the centre that told the story of some local Aboriginal legends, then headed back to Turtle Shell.