The Wild Side

Bush Friday again - dropped Eloise off at Nursery at 9am or so. Squeaky inexplicably upset to see me go, and was bawling her eyes out as she left, which is always a little upsetting.

I drove up to Mount Coot-tha with the dogs and we stopped in the usual place, but set off in a different direction, which we've been up before but had to abandon because of time constraints. There's a transmitter mast up there which towers over the forest, and I had a look around there taking snapshots.

The paths are steep around there, and the heat was building already. It felt like it was going to be a swelter of a day. The dogs were panting away before we'd covered half a kilometre.

The transmitter is at the top of a mountain (that's Oz-speak for big hill rather than an Alpine peak) and the path we followed led down the other side into a deep valley lined with thick, dense eucalypts forming an almost sclerophyllic forest (that being one where the crowns of trees form a continuous canopy). The thickness of the canopy gave a pleasant dappled shade with took the worst out of the strength of the sun, which was a blessing as I was breaking a sweat climbing down the winding path of staircase rocks, mindful that I would have to climb up them all again on the way back.

At the bottom of the valley was an almost dried out lake which the dogs jumped into eagerly and drank from hungrily. Waterlily pads floated around the edges of what would have been a central island were there enough water to make it so.

It was a heads-or-tails choice as to whether to climb up the other side of the valley but the dogs were keen so up we went, following signs to a track called the Kundun Circuit (I think). The track was even steeper on the side, but once it found its level, it led around the hill/mountain and through the trees were nice views across to the city. It's a little displacing to be wandering around in the wilds with the sounds of the bush all around then remember that a major city is just below you.

After a while the circuit led back to the little lake and we started the heavy-duty climb back to the car. By the time we got back, I was sweating buckets and the dogs just laid down by the side of the car with a "No more walking, just give us some water" look on their faces.