Seven walkers braved the early Cooma frost and fog to explore the Coornartha Nature Reserve and, hopefully, spotting koalas, which had been seen on the previous walk in the area.
The walk started along the Coornartha Track, where there were many saucer-sized spider webs visible as the fog lifted and the sun shone.
As we neared the northern boundary of the Reserve, we left the track to follow ridge lines and avoid gullies as an indirect route to the Coornartha Trig. Along the way we looked for signs of animals. The obvious sign is dung, but there were also distinctive scratch marks on bark where possums and koalas had climbed the trees. We were also given a bit of a tutorial on dung – the shape, size and texture being keys as to the applicable animal, even smell (koalas eat eucalyptus leaves). Taste was not taken into consideration. We identified dung from deer, wombats, koalas, kangaroos and wallabies. However, of these only roos and wallabies were seen.
The walking was good, fairly mild slopes and pretty much open eucalyptus woodland, changing a bit when we passed through areas which trees had been logged in the past.
We reached Coornartha Trig in time for lunch. It was a bit disappointing that there were none of the hoped-for views towards Cooma, just too many trees and scrub in the way, but to compensate there were some very good views towards Numeralla.
As we finished lunch, some cloud came over and the temperature dropped. Instead of returning the way we had come, we headed pretty directly towards where the cars were parked, and from time to time came very close to the road. There was lots of scrub along the way (ozothamnus?), by no means impassable but enough to be a nuisance. At one stage we stopped to watch a herd of wild pigs, the only animals we saw other than a few birds, roos and wallabies.
An interesting and enjoyable walk, although koalas would have been a bonus. Maybe we should try again in spring.
