Botanising hike, Faulconbridge Ridge Trail

Hey folks,

Spring* is sprung and we’re doing a slightly odd and left-field thing for the Outdoors Club: a botany hike!

You’ll be with me, Grant, a based plant enjoyer and Hugh, an ecologist and photographer. If it turns out there’s appetite for naturalist hikes like this, we’re both terribly keen to run many more!

We’ll be hiking the Grose River Lookout via Faulconbridge Trail ; nominally it’s 14.2km return, but it’ll be up to the group as a whole for how much or how little we end up doing. There’s some nice views at the end but we’re mostly hoping we’ll happen onto some orchids which should be all popping at the moment or any other interesting things (no guarantees! But at least plants don’t run away like birds when birdwatching…)

Meet at the trailhead at 10:00am. As herborizing tends to involve a great deal of staring at plants, we’ll be a tad slower than usual, so I guesstimate we’ll take about 4-5hrs all up.

Unfortunately, the trailhead is not public transport accessible so be accepted on the trip you’ll need to have a way of getting there. (Feel free to DM me on Facebook if you don’t have a lift, I’ll see what I can do)

Bring/wear
– at least 3L of water
– lunch
– sun protection (sunscreen, hat, sunglasses)
– long sleeves, trousers, enclosed shoes: mud and being exfoliated by heath vegetation is likely in order.
– (Optional) your fancy macro camera (I actually don’t have one, but Hugh might)
– (Optional) your copy of Robbo or maybe just download iNaturalist and make an account if you haven’t got one already.

And to show you’ve read all of the post please do tell us about your favourite native wildflower/insect/bird/animal/living thing or a plant of any sort you know about that is very queer indeed. Also, if you’re a keen photographer too or are a plant nerd who can tell me the difference between one bacon-and-eggs or eucalypt from another (they’re my current project to puzzle out) pop that in the comments too!

*perhaps actually Sprinter, but also there’s many indigenous/First Nations season systems that are quite localised to specific places.