Road trip from Foster to Bombala - orchids near Bairnsdale : March 22 2026

Time to start the road trip home. Plan is to do a 5 hour leg with a side trip to explore a known orchid stop near Bairnsdale. Route starts off following where the rail trail went East

Hotel in Alberton sets a theme - old pubs

Stopped in Yarram - first pub photo shows the problem with the cracked lens cover on the phone. Keeping the photo as the dome is a bit unique

A few grand old buildings

Pub at the bottom of the road

Old National Australia Bank building

Woodside Beach Hotel next village along - not with the same style buy maybe as old

Oldest swing bridge in Australia not far from Sale which was an inland port. The bridge rotates on its centre to allow high masted vessels to pass

A few angles

The history sign

Along the deck - now closed to cars

Filled up in Bairnsdale - price for 98 has gone from under $2 to $2.14 to $2.44 with this one at $2.67. Next step is to find orchids

Took the Bengworden Road to access a nature reserve - hall photo. This is a bit longer route but there is little traffic and it avoids the km after km of centre crash barriers on the Sale - Bairnsdale road. There is a reserve behind this section - walked one bit. No joy

All I had was the name of the reserve rhat my friend had found orchids. Google Maps got me here. Had to walk into the reserve - track was narrow and sandy. My friend tells me he got stuck there once

As it happens it was not far to get to Moormurng reserve - maybe 400m. The reserve is a little enclave of bush surrounded by open farmland

Australian bluebell - often a good indicator for orchids

Mushroom action on a sawn off log

More mushroom action

Found orchids a little beyond this point where the track worked above the watercourse

First time find for this orchid - corunasrylis capparina. The only info I had is they were seen last week in this reserve. This spot may well be different to the one my friend found

A few angles on the first plant - front on

Side on focus is quite good

Then found another - 2nd one shows up the variation in colour - one greenish and one purple

Two photos again with front on and side on bits in focus but not in one shot

With the rains in the past few days mushrooms are coming up everywhere in quite a few colours and shapes

Quite different. Had I not stopped for the photo, I might well have missed this plant

It is a large mosquito orchid flowering

Acianthus exsertus - surprised to see one flowering this early. The guide book says April on. My friend says they often overlap with parson's bands orchids which he found here the week before. I did not find those

Hard to know what is holding this tree up. Must be the ant mound as there is no timber cladding at the bottom of the tree

Jewelled spider - saw a few after commenting there had been no spider webs

One last mushroom for this leg. The bush seems to be doing well.

Contrast the state of the field in the scene shot - grazed to the ground. This is why the reserves are key. Without them the whole landscape would look flat like this

Back to the road. Long drive left to get from Bairnsdale to Orbost to Cann River to Bombala. Copped a heavt rain shoeer coming out of Cann River - at one point could not see the road in front at all. The drive to the reserve did go over some track sections with a mound in the middle of the track. I did not notice any noise from under the car especially at the snack atop in Cann River

Made it to Bombala with enough daylight to go for a ride on the bike. Bombala Hotel carries on the theme for photos

The other hotel still going

Rode up the lookout road to see if there were any orchids in the reserve up there. Walked under the powerlines - neat little daisy

Paper daisy - my wife's favourite

The view of Bombala from the top on a stunning afternoon

A few buildings with some history - once a Masonic lodge

Bombala Literary Institute - maybe cut from the same cloth

Did ride a bit more than this shows as forgot the turn the computer on for the leg down the main street

Walked to Club Bombala for dinner

One last Victorian building for the series of Victoriana for the day.

Dinner was an Aussie favourite - burger with egg, bacon, pineapple, beetroot, two slices of cheese and a patty. Served with a GF bun. I ate it as two courses - breakfast course and then main course

Was a long day driving but did get the big reward of an orchid I had not seen.

This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io

Cycling, Daily Activity, Photowalking

Height 183 cm		Weight 90 kg		Body Fat %
Waist cm		Thighs cm		Chest cm