Mt Mitchell

On Saturday Mum and I went on our first YHA Bushwalkers walk, a pleasant 10km stroll up Mt Mitchell in the Main Range. There were fifteen of us on the walk and was it was meeting some new people and walking in clear weather.
birds on a log

One of my highlights was “feasting” on wild raspberries with my lunch and ringing Grandad in his hospital bed from the top of the mountain.
Wild Raspberry snacks Wild Raspberry snacks Ringing Grandad

It is such an easy walk, I almost felt like running back down the track but didn’t instead I ran my hands over the grass trees, each time, delighting in the rush of the leaves over the palm of my hand.
grass trees

I had forgotten how much I love the view from the gap. Sitting on a rock looking out over the Fassifern Valley it just looks so nice.
Fassifern Valley Looking West

When the walk was over we had a little shop in the very nice Aratula Fruit Market before heading back to Brisbane and stopping in for a little while at the hospital to visit Grandad for a while.

bush delight

I went bush the other weekend to the Goomburra Section of Main Range National Park. We were sitting round the kitchen table on Thursday night after dinner and Mum was planning what she needed for her weekend away. I suddenly realised there was nothing stopping me from going, and I really needed to get out Brisbane. 5 seconds later I was going and we were planning the new logistics. We nipped over to the shops to get some extra groceries and I packed my bag ready to depart shortly after I arrived home from work on Friday. It was also the first time my car got to go a little big trip, all up doing about 400km and going up and down some steep hills πŸ™‚

I can’t describe how absolutely happy I felt on Sunday morning as I was walking up to the toilet block, the sun was shining on the eucalyptus, the air was filled with the scent of those gums. Then there was this wanderer butterfly that always seemed to appear as I walked up to the toilet block. Yep I’m the sort of girl who decides that one of her highlights for the weekend is a wanderer butterfly that always appears when I go to the toilet block but never when I was exploring with my camera.

I got to give my ankle quite a work out too and bar a bit of minor “yes I do remember hurting this ankle on Saturday evening” I was brace free and happy scrambling up/down/over/under all weekend, well for the most part. I couldn’t physically bring myself to rock hop up the creek though so I took off my shoes and waded.

I spent the weekend, reading, a bit of walking and generally just lazing around. Quite nice πŸ™‚ Ohh and one of the highlights was hearing Lyrebirds x 100 times, ok maybe more like 40 but it was soo cool, I just wish I had seen one!

Some photos πŸ™‚
swoon Yellow thistle and bee, bee and thistle Mount Castle Clouds over Main Range lichen and moss The crew, wel most of us Mt Barney/Mt Ballow Massif dry seed podsTwisted Water Vine
and more photos here

The weekend was topped off with a present that a carload of Italian papas gave me on the way home, which will be featured in a blog post shortly πŸ™‚