Autumn is a special time to walk in the Gloucester Tops. It's cool and damp, often misty - the rainforest seems lusher, the air fresher, the waterfalls and cascades more spectacular at this time of the year.
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Bushwalkers from the Gloucester Environment Group therefore decided to walk the Gloucester Tops Circuit this month.
This circuit combines the Antarctic Beech Walking Track, the Gloucester Falls Walking Track and the River Walking Track, to make an easy circuit of 8kms.
It was a perfect day for walking - cool and overcast with an occasional misty shower and very little breeze.
We first walked through the Antarctic Beech forest, where the path wound down through gullies of tree ferns and across a creek whose water cascaded over the rocks providing spectacular photographic opportunities.
The season being autumn, the path was littered with fallen leaves from the Antarctic beeches in beautiful reds and browns.
This rainforest is also home to an amazing variety of mosses (including Australia's largest species of moss), lichens and interesting (and often colourful) fungi.
Having enjoyed our lunch at the picnic ground where the Gloucester Tops Road terminates at the river, we continued along the River Walk, returning to our starting point.
- Gloucester Environment Group member, Di Montague
From the cascades, the path climbs again into sub-alpine woodland of mostly snow gums, and continues to the Andrew Laurie Lookout whose view was entirely obscured by the low clouds.
However, continuing to the Gloucester Falls Lookout, we found that the view of the falls was made more scenic by the mist.
Having enjoyed our lunch at the picnic ground where the Gloucester Tops Road terminates at the river, we continued along the River Walk, returning to our starting point.
In this section of open eucalypt woodland there are also many varieties of rushes and grasses; most interesting of all, a sphagnum wetland, one of the sources of the Gloucester River.
Sphagnum is said to be one of the most important plant genera in the world, and Barrington Tops National Park has several sphagnum wetlands (including Polblue Swamp), with six of the many species of sphagnum being endemic to Australia.
If you are interested in learning more, I recommend the site at anbg.gov.au/bryophyte/ecology-sphagnum.html
