Having shown you the civilised side of The Old Brush reserve, we now walk just beyond the mown edges and into the forest, where owner Robert maintains and marks kilometres of narrow paths.
They tempt you to walk into the wild side, but with safety, and to experience the greatly varied vegetation of the surrounding bush.
Robert has chosen the paths to take you through hillside forests and gully jungles, past luminous blue gums and thriving cabbage tree palms, the oldest, wartiest paperbark tree I have ever seen…
…and battle-scarred eucalypts so tall I can hardly see their tops.
They show the mighty but they also pass near such richness of detail that I keep stopping to marvel — like this tree trunk parcel, its bark so trussed in its vine that it can’t escape.
Or the coachwood (I think) whose roots resemble the claws of a strange bird, feathered at the ankle with moss and protectively clutching its green egg.
When the narrow tracks reach the valley again, give way to the broader mown and mossy expanses, and the statuary begins to reappear, I know I am leaving the wild behind.
It’s been an easy walk, even for my knees, and my rustic cabin by the billabong is just across the creek.
A glass of red awaits me, to aid my reflections on what a wonderful juxtaposition of worlds this place offers.
Hi DWG,
The cabbage palms grow best in the riparian rainforest right beside the creek there, as do others like the coachwood, but eucalypts like the blue gums in that photo thrive in that rich moist humus too, and they all grow together for a short way up the slopes before it gets too dry.
The forest changes nature within short distances there, which is why it was so interesting a walk, without too much effort!
Very unusual scenes from your forest, but the cabbage palms are most unusual and appear to be right in the midst of hardwoods. The foot of the strange bird is right on…so real.. and great use of the imagination!!
Thanks for the post! DWG
Yes Denis, I often wonder at our use of the one word ‘forest’ for such diverse types of vegetation; ‘bush’ likewise.
Interesting how forests vary from place to place.
Thanks for this posting.
Denis
Indeed I do Fleur. I especially love the deep green silence of them.
Hi Sharyn, this area looks just beautiful – are you like me and get goosebumps when you walk through these majestic areas, hearing only the call of the wild?