Gariwerd hike with Emma
We hiked the currently-open section of the Grampians Peaks Trail, a three-day loop that starts and ends in Halls Gap. We spent nights at Bugiga and Borough Huts. When the GPT is complete, it will have 12 campsites.
I won’t belabour you with details of the hike itself, apart from saying it was tough in parts but memorable. Views from the western side of the valley were spectacular (as you can see in my phone photo), and it’s rare that you get to stand on the edge of a big cliff.
Bugiga was especially cool. It’s a zero-contact eco camp, where you walk and camp entirely on boardwalks. Setting the tent up on a timber deck was a challenge, but our tent doesn’t need pegs, and we were able to fix our guy wires to a cable on the edge of the platform.
But the birds were everywhere. Because it’s Spring, they may have been more obvious than at other times of the year. Even without binoculars, this is the list I was able to identify.
- Emu
- Wood Duck
- White Necked Heron
- White Faced Heron
- Straw-necked Ibis
- Australian White Ibis
- Black shouldered Kite
- Whistling Kite
- Wedge-tailed Eagle
- Australian Kestrel
- Masked Lapwing
- Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo
- Gang-gang Cockatoo
- Galah
- Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
- Corella spp
- Crimson Rosella (inc Yellow form)
- Fan-tailed Cuckoo
- Shining Bronze-cuckoo
- Horsfields Bronze-cuckoo
- Boobook
- Laughing Kookaburra
- Sacred Kingfisher
- White-browed Treecreeper
- Superb Fairy-wren
- Splendid Fairy-wren (?)
- Spotted Pardalote
- Striated Pardalote
- White-browed Scrubwren
- Brown Thornbill
- Red Wattlebird
- Noisy Miner
- White-eared Honeyeater
- Yellow-faced Honeyeater (?)
- White-naped Honeyeater
- Eastern Spinebill
- Robin (? Scarlet or Flame)
- Eastern Yellow Robin
- Golden Whistler
- Rufous Whistler
- Grey Shrike-thrush
- Willie Wagtail
- Grey Fantail
- Olive-backed Oriole
- Australian Magpie
- Forest Raven
- Welcome Swallow
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