Birthday Creek

There is no birthday creek in the Blue Mountains. The 80th birthday of one of my usual walking suspects fell on the day of the exploration of the creek. Unfortunately I was unavailable on that day so a year later, we went there to satisfy my curiosity and took the opportunity to celebrate his 81st birthday!

Access was through a shrubby gully: the side cliff was imposing with an amazing balancing rock on the top!
Birthday Creek was also scrubby and I was getting some doubts about my friends’ taste in creeks. The creek dropped noticeably and made room to a rainforest with mossy rocks, logs, coachwoods and the compulsory fallen timber…
iron bacteria were busy on the upper reaches of the creek delivering bright orange hues to the creek bed. Some sections were closed in, canyon-like but not sustained. I avoided getting my feet wet (as you do) until we reached a three metre drop with a pool! The creek continued down and turned into a small gorge or canyon with magnificent palm tree ferns. The moss on logs and rocks was untouched. It was a lovely part of the world!
The creek ended and it was up to the top of the ridge and back to the cars where we celebrated with the birthday man!