Monga National Park (New South Wales)

How to get there
Drive via Queanbeyan to around 20km past Braidwood and there you'll see the turn off for Monga National Park. The park is 105 kilometres from

Canberra on the Kings highway.

The plan
There's a variety of walks here but being lazy I decided on the corn trail which I reasoned trailed the river. That plan was foiled by a need to cross the Mongarlowe River which would have meant wet feet. I'm prepared to endure some hardships but not on a Sunday. Not on my day off. Reluctantly, I resigned myself to a walk which required an ascent.



So I drove down the River Road, which is an unpaved 2WD loop and went for a brief eight kilometre walk down an unknown track. I saw some interesting birdlife. Jesus! I realise that I'm starting to talk like Tweetie's owner but I did see a very pretty wren with orange plumage. They are very curious and let you approach within six feet of them before they fly off. O.K. That's enough bird talk. I have to admit that I couldn't be stuffed looking it up and finding out what it is. That's probably the sort of thing that a vegetarian with spectacles sporting lenses thicker than bullet proof glass does. If I did that sort of thing, I'd probably be in danger of following up the sighting with a dance of joy or even taking up lawn bowls. I did see an Echidna on the day and took a picture of the little guy from a distance of less than a foot. I went alone today which was a drag. On the other hand, not having reached the stage where I talk to myself yet, I was reasonably quiet and saw a few animals as a result.



After my grunt walk along an unnamed trail I then walked to a place called Penance Grove which has a brief platform walk around a section of forrest that was stripped of tree ferns by some unscupulous bastards. The area got fairy misty which is always good for photographs. Monga is well worth seeing. It's essentially a subtropical rainforest very much like the Otways or parts of the Yarra Ranges. There's lots of ferns, even a few tree ferns. The area shows evidence of logging with many tree stumps and fern-ladden gaps in the forrest highlighting the selective felling of trees. A mill operated in the area until 1987. It was closed when it become unprofitable in 1988. Monga is a comparatively new national park being established at late as 2001.



Pictures
1. Misty Forrest 2. Mongarlowe River at Crossing on the corn track 3. Split log 4. Mongarlowe river near Penance grove. 5 Misty Marsh 6. Echidna 7. Penance Grove (Click hotos to see enlarged images.)