Today, I headed for Laurieton, and the North Brother Lookout!

It’s called North Brother because of an Aboriginal legend that says three mountains are actually transformed brothers – North Brother, Middle Brother, and South Brother.  The man doing the woodturning at Timbertown recommended the lookout to me, so I went to check it out.

The drive up was a bit nerve-wracking – it’s a narrow road, and some people come around the corners way too fast – but eventually I made it to the lookout:

It was indeed a nice view.  I took a close-up of the river:

And the curve of the coast:

According to the sign, that cluster of buildings near the point are Lake Cathie/Port Macquarie:

There was another lookout on the other side of the carpark:

Again, the close-ups:

The lookout also had a quick walk, just called the ‘rainforest loop’.  It wasn’t even a kilometre, so I set off down the path:

And nearly got eaten alive by mosquitoes.  I certainly wasn’t expecting them to be out in such numbers; seriously, they were swarming around me like flies.  So, you guys better appreciate these photos and videos – I paid for them in blood and itchiness!

First, the landscapes, because I must have them!

I also recorded some birdsong, as I usually do.  In the first one, I caught the tail end of a kookaburra’s ‘laugh’:

 

As you can see from the photos, it did a good job of looking and feeling like a ‘lost world’.  A lot of Australian forests are good at that, I’ve noticed – maybe because we have a lot of primitive-looking flora, so it tends to look like something out of a dinosaur film.  It probably helps that no one else braved the mosquitoes, so I was completely alone on the walk and never saw or even heard anyone else.

Either way, the path was a pretty adventurous one:

No one’s tying lianas out of the way for me, here.  Between these and the mosquitoes, it felt like some kind of test, that I had to earn the right to walk this path.  Which probably just goes to show that your brain is very good at making it all about you, even when it’s not.

I took a picture of this strangler fig because I liked the contrast of its pale bark against the darker bark of the tree it’s latched onto:

I managed to spot two pale yellow robins:

Well, they could be the same bird – it’s not like I would know.  It would have to have been following me down the path, but who knows how birds get their entertainment?

I heard the distinctive ‘laugh’ before I saw this kookaburra:

At one point, the path narrowed pretty drastically, pinched between two large trees and some moss-covered rocks:

I went past a huge tree that was also covered in moss, with a hollow forming at its base.  I took a photo:

I’m not sure if it’s dead or not.  The hollow makes me think so, but I couldn’t check if it still had leaves at the top – its neighbours’ leaves blocked my view.

Another section where I had manoeuvre through lianas to continue:

And check out these crazy plants:

I have no idea what they are, beyond some kind of cycad (thanks, Mum!), but there were a lot of these scattered through the forest – it really added to the whole ‘lost world’ feeling.

Past them, I found a short section that was full of birds.  First, an eastern yellow robin:

I even got a video of it vocalising:

 

I’m not really sure I can call that ‘singing’ – it really sounds more like it’s just whistling to itself.

What is the difference between a yellow and pale-yellow robin, you ask?  (And even if you don’t ask, I’m going to tell you).  To tell the truth, not much that I can see, but the yellow on the eastern yellow robin is brighter, while the pale-yellow robin seems to have darker-hued feathers throughout its chest plumage.

I also found a white-throated treecreeper!  Again, this is a female (I don’t think I’ve ever caught a male one of these on film):

 

A male Variegated Fairywren, that’s just caught an insect about the same size as his head:

 

That was a new one, and I was pleased to have caught it on video.  These ones coming up are old favourites – a large-billed scrubwren:

 

And a grey fantail:

 

After that sudden rash of birds, it wasn’t long before I came out in the little picnic area near the lookout.  There was a magpie strutting around on the grass, and I took a photo:

It managed to find a grasshopper, and I filmed it for a little while:

 

I took another photo of the river from the lookout – in the time that I’d been gone, the tide had gone out even further:

Guest-starring the magpie, at the bottom of the photo – I guess it felt I hadn’t given it its due, and a photobomb was needed.

And I got a close-up of the boats, just because I wanted to:

I could actually see the waves on the beach from the lookout:

 

I found that pretty amazing.  I mean, you know, logically, that waves are big, but you get a real sense of their scale when you realise you can see them break from a mountaintop.

At this point, it was mid-afternoon and my mosquito bites were itchy, so I headed back to Turtle Shell, where I could scratch like crazy and not be judged.