November 2021

I do not visit Behana Creek as much as I used to but it still is one of my favourite spots to get away from it all.

Along the creek this is my favourite place to visit. The swimming hole is about 5-6 feet deep during the dry, the water is amazingly clear, convenient rocks to rest on ……… and I have never seen anyone else there.

Swimming underneath this stunning tree is a wonderful experience. Not sure it could get much better for me……other than if there were a few less march flies.

Further downstream the creek forks into two streams for a distance and one of those flows all year round whilst the other is reduced to a small trickle for the dry season.

When I first started spending time in Behana Gorge it was the dry side of the fork in the river that I spent most of my time in. I stopped exploring that part of the creek some time ago but have recently returned to it….when I am not at the previous swimming hole :)

Quiet little ponds can be found along the dry side of the fork in the river and those ponds attract some special little animals.

The Azure Kingfisher lives at the pond in the third photo in the gallery and a more striking bird I am yet to see. When I first spotted it in a tree I quickly took photos thinking I might not get a better chance.

I need not have worried as once I sat down and stopped moving it flew over to a rock not more than twenty feet away from me. There it stayed for a good 20 minutes bobbing up and down and rotating.

I have since spent another two afternoons with this bird in the same spot in the hope of getting a photo of it catching something and bringing it back to perch to batter before eating as they often do.

When the big rain comes both streams of the river rage with great force and that little pond becomes part of a raging creek/river. Enough water flows down there to push a large fallen tree like this downstream until it comes to rest up against living trees at a bend.

There is a section of the creek near the exit from the Gorge that has a lot of driftwood caught in the trees. A great indicator of how high the water gets during the soon to arrive wet season. I took the above photo there.

You can see from the photo that whilst the large branch might possibly have fallen there the little piece of wood jammed to the far left is driftwood. Now to show you high up that is :)

Directly above my head is the driftwood from the previous photo. When the wet comes this whole tiny little dry creek goes about 8 feet under water….and the kayakers love it.

During the wet season it is usually too dangerous for me to cross the two streams and explore. You can imagine the force of the water once it gets to the level of the driftwood to the left.

For now during the dry season I can walk along both streams of the river. Which I have been doing a lot of late to relax and cool off.

On the wet side the water is shallow enough in most places that I can walk in the creek. I can certainly cross in enough places to go wherever I want. As you might have guessed I took these photos standing in the creek.

Running off the all year flowing side of the creek are many seasonal creek beds. Some totally dry at the moment they allow me to rock hop deep into Wooroonoonan National Park. I spend whole days just exploring along these small creeks.

One thing that I never get sick of viewing wherever I go in this area is the wonderful shapes that mother nature creates in the trees. I might complain about the lack of colours outside shades of green where we live but other things make up for it.

Mushrooms growing on dead and fallen trees are another thing that keeps me occupied when there is not a pretty bird, flow of water or tree shape to photograph.

No matter how well I think I know the area things are always changing. It was not until recently with the water flow in the creek as it is that I noticed this pretty little spot. The rocks to the right divide this little waterfall from another.

In the photos they look like two totally different places yet they are the same place just 10 to twenty feet apart.

Some places that I like to visit in the wet are now totally different. This spot back in March was covered in moss and is now so dry and colourless that you would barely recognise it.

Yet other locations like this bend in the creek lined with trees that have an amazing exposed root system seem to sit there unchanged. If a tree could think I guess it would ponder why I am yet to take a photo that does this spot justice.

Occasionally I will bump into someone in Behana Gorge off the main track but very rarely. I am more likely to come across traces of a human than an actual person.

When the light fails me for photography, too bright, too dark or what ever….. I never get annoyed as time in this place is always joyful until………..

………..I see human behaviour like this. Why would you do this? It is almost as if the trees have fallen to cross themselves in disapproval.

As certain as it is that whoever put that car in the creek is a total grub, my car is usually the last in the carpark when I make my way out of Behana Gorge in the dark or near.