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Published: March 24th 2014
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Today we started by going to the Candelo Farmer’s Market, despite Barry’s reluctance. He doesn’t like markets and I love them so we have to compromise and go to some. I bought some nice fresh vegetables but, with only a very small fridge and little storage cupboard space, it had to be small quantities, unfortunately. The best buy was a punnet of various types of home grown tomatoes for $2, including grape tomatoes, romas and one I can’t wait to try – Tiger tomatoes, which are kind of stripy red and green. I also found a 500g jar of home-made blackberry and apple jam for $6 - a vast improvement on the $5 or $6 for a 250g jar most stalls were charging! I expect to pay more for home made jam but that’s ridiculous.
Barry found a new hat for himself (to stop his thin patch from burning - he he!) made of canvas dyed with natural dyes to an olive green colour – just the way Mum used to dye the wool she spun. He also found a stall with the perfect little size leather handbag for me with a shoulder strap for $20. I bought one
The lower lookout on Mt Myrtle
Too many trees in the foreground meant a limited view. but when we got home we couldn’t find it anywhere. I must have left it on the stall or dropped it. I’m very cross with myself. I needed the bag and I’ve wasted $20!
We had a hamburger with the lot at the school fund raising stall, (mine without the hamburger – so technically I had the lot only!). Then we drove up into the South East Forests National Park to see the lookouts on Mt Myrtle and to do the Goodenia Rainforest Walk.
The first lookout was nice but the view was very misty and only in one direction. While we were there, a young couple roared up the track on an off-road buggy. They told us how to get to the better, higher lookout further up the mountain. Then they did a wheelie and roared off again.
We went to the Rainforest Walk first, as it was closer. It was a lovely area, and reminded me a lot of the Dandenong Mountains, with towering Lilly Pilly trees and Sassafras trees; plants using others as their support to grow; two types of tree ferns- the rough (with the thin, tall trunk) and the soft (thicker and
Goodenia Rainforest Walk
How to strangle your neighbour. a bit shorter); slight clearings with ground ferns all over them; areas with lots of tiny species; and fallen trees that had become covered in mosses, lichens, ferns and fungi. We also saw evidence of animals having scratched for roots and grubs and Barry found two small round clearings where Lyrebird males perform to get a mate. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any animals at all and the only birds we saw were more Bell Miners and a Crimson Rosella, although we could hear a lot more.
The Pambula River at the bottom of the gully was barely a trickle but it had ferns along it. And that gully was the problem. The walk had been labelled as Easy and was 1.2km and rated as taking 45 – 60 minutes to do. The path was good most of the time and there were lots of steps to help get up and down the steeper sections. Very nice if you are fit and healthy. Not so good if you have bad knees! I did manage to negotiate the slopes and pulled myself up the more than 50 steps, slowly, but my knee was getting progressively sorer as we descended and became
Goodenia Rainforest Walk
Rough tree ferns and soft tree ferns under tall timbers even worse on the way back up. I collapsed into a seat at the top and told Barry I wasn’t walking any further. I was staying in the ute for the other lookout.
He decided he still wanted to find the higher lookout so we set off down more bumpy, stony dirt roads. After about 5 kms, we had to come to a sudden halt. A small tree had fallen from the bank and blocked the road. End of Lookout! We backed up to the junction we had just passed and Barry started down it (with my misgivings on the idea ringing in his ear) as he thought it would knock about 5 km off the return to the main highway. We’d only gone to the first bend when Barry decided it wasn’t such a good idea after all - it was getting narrow, more stony and looked unused. He backed out and we went the long way round to the highway, thank goodness!
We arrived home safely but I was too sore to stand and cook so we ordered pizza and I put my feet up. It was a tiring and achy day but I
Goodenia Rainforest Walk
A small area below the giants thrives with many different types of tiny plants enjoyed it, nonetheless. Oh and I didn’t get chance to buy the oysters. We’ll have a rest day tomorrow and I’ll try and buy them, then.
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