I'll Take the High Road

The rare Slender Tree Fern Cyathea cunninghamii Friday 31st May The day dawned fine but windy and I enjoyed my breakfast looking at the pond which featured a few ducks and some ripples but few enough ripples for nice reflections of the trees opposite. The sun promised a little warmth. Reflection on the duckpond at Gardenfarm Farm Stay I tried out my new little solar panel to get a bit more charge into my phone, and while it didn't take it to full charge in the 45 minutes I was using it, it did make a difference. Given the wind strength, I took my gas stove into the kitchenette to heat water for coffee. The stove doesn't work well in cold and or windy conditions. Tarra Falls I chose not to return to the Grand Ridge Road - the Albert River Road which I had travelled on the previous day was obviously little used and there was a real risk of trees down across the road. So I followed Google Maps' advice in relation to a more direct route, and it didn't take long before I w

  Hiawatha Falls Day three dawned a lot milder than the previous night had suggested it might, although I was not immediately aware of that so I wriggled into my fleecy jacket and fleecy trousers and got out to make some coffee. I promptly decided I was way too hot. It's a later start then anticipated because once I finally got to sleep, I slept very well and didn't wake until almost 8am. A short conversation with fellow camper Jason, actually a long-term resident of the campground, suggested that a stop at Turton Falls (my first planned stop) is probably not worth doing (I had deduced this from the weather and internet reports) The lyrebird walk So I headed off to the Lyrebird walk. The forest on the Lyre bird walk was quite different to that of the previous day; much more dry schlerophyl, probably because I was walking on a ridge. The forest shows evidence of quite severe fire and, in a couple of places, the devastation of the weather event of a few months ago the really st

An interesting mushroom in Susan's garden Wednesday 29th May The day dawned bright and clear although that was not terribly evident when I first woke.  I became aware of quiet sounds within the house and extricated myself from Susan's very comfortable brass bed in time to say goodbye to Susan and Charles as they were leaving. The previous evening Charles had shown me intricacies of his sophisticated coffee machine so I enjoyed a  leisurely couple of cups of coffee and breakfast and by 9am I was heading out of the door to realise why I had been cool inside - my car said 5 degrees and there was a very heavy dew, so I needed to deal with window visibility before braving Melbourne traffic. Rolling green hills The traffic wasn't too bad and Google maps took me on freeways and highways, from which I diverted for a few minutes to fill up with petrol at the excellent price of marginally under 180c/l.  I only wish we could pay that price in Tassie! I was most delighted, on the appro

Tuesday 28th May Emergency department instead of breakfast with Susan; deciding on staying in Warragul rather than with Nina who was feeling more ill, then allowing Susan to to persuade me to stay with her.... All in all, my first day in Victoria was not as I had planned. Given that my wrist was still very uncomfortable and during the previous day codeine had not been really touched the pain, a trip to an emergency department was in order. After disembarking the ferry (delayed because the car parked in front of me was missing its driver) I headed to to Barwon Hospital. emergency department. The staff there were lovely. I was triaged, had all my details recorded (no, I had not had anything to do with Barwon Health before!) and sent to the first track waiting room to pass only a small amount of time before I saw a doctor. She, concerned about my pain, offered endone - I declined on the basis that I wanted to drive when I left the hospital and the pain wasn't bad enough, in my view,