Rainforest in Snow and Fire
Rainforest in Snow and Fire
let me tell you about Paradise and Hell
of the future i saw, the present and even into the far distant past when the aboriginal people walked gently first upon where i now trod.
Of tree ferns towering above me, of sassafras and lilly-pilly draped with vines looking a little like giant children under sheets playing ghosts.
Let me tell you also of the fate that lays ahead for these freindly, gentle, giants.
these trees are deep in a valley and are much taller than they look
( 8 days actually ) in the bush
The alarm squarked out its horrid noise at 4:30 am Saturday
I ate and had a little smoke till my ride arrived.
Soon the city disappeared behind us and we were on our way.
Thanks, Trevor and Elizabeth for lift and being great traveling companions :-)
.We arrived in very good time, and in no time had ourselves organised .
Later that afternoon a group of us went to a place aptly named "Fairyland ".
Walked through a paddock till we got to a stream
After a pretty dodgey log crossing we came upon Fairyland.
Moss covered logs, giant treeferns often covered in epiphytic plants .
Around every turn you half expected to see a fairy or elf or nymph hiding beneath the foliage.
I wandered away from the group , and was leaning against the trunk of a tree
soaking in the magic atmossphere
when Chelsea said in an exited voice "look theres a gnome "......"oh .. it's only Dave "
ha ha ha !!!
Then it was back to camp to cook and talk around the fire,
till our spotlighting guide Kevin Thiele arrived
i didnt go i needed a rest , as I was like an exited child,
and hadn't slept very much at all the nights before
I met many people from my previous trip,
like Adrian who entertained us again with songs and guitar and many others i cant remeber at the moment as my mind is still in the bush at the Blockade
Clematis growing over a tree stump . 
The next day was wet. But we still went on our excursion.
I chose the Curcuit again as I wanted to revisit the coupes i'd seen the year before.
They had changed a little , the logs and other fallen timber had been burned.
There were some tree seedlings but only those desirable species
therefore losing so much diversity.
We lunched at the Board walk, which had been built since my last visit,
adjacent to the wetlands. Avery nice spot on a hot sunny day,
less so on the miserable wet day we had.
Then someone said "Hey it's snowing ".
Sure enough, there were huge snowflakes floating down and melting on the ground.
Then we drove through the falling snow to Brown Mountain and passed a dead wombat laying in the middle of the road
with a blanket of snow over the top of him.
We parked on the side of the road and walked up the the hill to the top of the mountain.
We passed some beautiful sights,
Tree ferns with thier fronds weighed down with snow, the pattern of thier fronds, a perfect contrast to the white, soft ,snow.
ferns and logs covered in snow
Then back down the mountian and to the warmth of the campfire.
Once we got warm, we forgot all about how cold we had been!!!
Later after eating, and darkness had fallen,
we were treated to another of David Cameron's slide shows.
I met a young woman there who was starting her own rainforest nursery. Hi Josie.
Then after what seemed a few minutes of slides, but was several hours,
we headed off to bed , tired but inspired,
perhaps dreaming of a time long ago when our ancestors first walked among the rainforest.
the next day it was time to pack up and move on.
I was lucky, there wern't many people going to Goolengook,
so when Jules and Chelsea offered me a ride I grabbed the offer with both hands. ;-)
a very special thanks to my daughter Genny's teacher Jenny for scanning the pics
my next page.....GOOLENGOOK BLOCKADE
this place is next to go
BACK TO MY sPOT
updated 26th stoned day of November at 4:20 stoned time