Not seen since 1876, the Kandyan Dwarf Toad has been found once more in a stream in Sri Lanka. Thankfully the discovery took place in a protected area, the Peak Wilderness Sanctuary, so the toad should be free from most threats. Even so, the species is still considered extremely rare.
For more, visit:
http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0618-hance-kandyan-dwarf-toad.html
Tracks Reopen in Time for Easter
Two tracks will reopen in New South Wales, just in time for the Easter break.
The Giant Stairway walking track at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains National Park will soon be reopened following repairs to the track. A landslide on the 17th February closed the track and over 50 metres of handrails and barriers were replaced.
For more, visit:
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/media/DecMedia12040202.htm
The Cumberland State Forest trail in the Cumberland State Forest at West Pennant Hills has now reopened. The trail was closed for the Bunya Pine fruiting season, as very large falling cones were considered very dangerous to walkers.
For more, visit:
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/aboutus/news/recent-news/forests/state-forest-trail-reopens
Today I have uploaded the first episode in what will be a growing series of documentary-like videos for my YouTube channel (Kevin’s Wilderness Journeys). This series of videos will focus on national parks and reserves in Australia (especially New South Wales), with a view to providing useful information for people who may be interested in visiting the national park being considered in any particular episode. I am hoping to provide a preview of the main attractions in each national park and the facilities available for visitors. Hopefully these will whet the appetite for those who view the videos and provoke a desire to actually visit the national parks under consideration.
This first episode focuses on the Cathedral Rock National Park, with a look at the Cathedral Rock Track and the Woolpack Rocks Track. There will be more episodes to come, including episodes on Dorrigo National Park, Bongil Bongil National Park and Myall Lakes National Park – among others. Hopefully in time better equipment will improve the quality of videos available – but none-the-less, I do think the videos are useful to some degree as they are.
The actual size of the video I have in my archives for the first video is 2.85 GB, so there is a fair reduction in file size (and therefore quality) to get the videos online and within the limits of YouTube file sizes and length.
Kevin's Walk on the Wild Side 