Morning Hike and Scenic Drive Home

Feeding time.

Isn't nature amazing? Incredible animals.

A beautiful blue cheeked Rosella. I have seen a number of these but finally managed to get a photo.

Some of Australia's amazing gum trees.

The main drag of Maryborough on the way home.

Piles of rocks removed from the fields.

A farmstead build in 1863, by early settlers.

Monday, April 25^th

I woke up really early and decided to do a few things around the town and the valley before heading back home via a different route. I had read in the park guide about a hike in the valley through the bush and where early in the morning you might see some wild life. So I headed out by car at dawn to the starting point, which was at the parking lot of the National Park and the Brambuk Cultural Centre. It was a short three kilometre walk and I took my time, enjoying the quiet, the solitude, the bird calls and the bush. I love the Australian trees. There is something about them that really appeals to me. After walking through the bush for a bit I came across a large, flat clearing which was populated by about twenty grazing kangaroos. They were spread out over the area. They looked at me but when I stood still they ignored me and went back to feeding. I watched a couple of large joeys with their heads inside their mother's pouch. I assume they were suckling. In amongst them I saw three emus feeding as well. I really enjoyed standing there and watching, being largely ignored and listening to the calls of the birds and the screech of the cockatoos. I felt very privileged.

It was really cold this morning and I could see my breath. I was wearing my lite down jacket and shorts. My fingers got really cold and started to go numb. As I continued the walk it re-entered the bush and there were more kangaroos feeding in there. I almost tripped over two of them who were well camouflaged and obviously weren't worried about me.

When I got back two hours later at nine, it was open and I went in to see the displays. I was the first person in there and I talked to a woman park ranger about the hike, the park and the roos and then she told me I should visit the Brambuk Cultural Centre. It is right next door and is a museum of aboriginal history in a building named after the cockatoos and whose roof is built to resemble the shape of their wings in flight. Inside I read panels about their sad story, how their homelands were stolen, they were marginalized, some were hunted and killed, children were stolen from families and either put in state schools to educate the aboriginal out of them or were adopted out to white people. Their history and current struggles have some distinct similarities to North American natives. The British Empire has a lot to answer for.

After that I went back to town to have breakfast. I bought a couple of nice sandwiches from a local bakery and ate one of them in the little park in town. Then I went to the car and got my bicycle out and decided to ride around town and out to the reservoir. There is a good bicycle path through town and out through the park. I rode to the reservoir where I sat on a picnic table and ate the other one. Now that the sun had come up and reached the valley floor the temperature had gone up considerably and I was able to ride in a t-shirt. I turned around and rode back to the car, but unfortunately hit a pothole and blew my front tire. Luckily I was close to the car. I got back, loaded it up and decided to head home. But first I had an ice cream cone!

As I said I took a different route home. It was the route the motorcycle riders that I talked to the other day, took from Melbourne to get here. It was along secondary highways and was much more scenic. It went through a few small towns. I stopped at a couple of them to walk around for a bit before continuing on. I drove through some really dry pastures that were totally brown and looked like it hadn't rained for years and past creeks with their totally dry beds. I passed fields of rocks that couldn't be used for anything except sheep and then a few fields where the farmers had removed as many rocks as possible and piled them up in the fields (see the photo). An hour later I was driving through the Pyrenees, a small hilly area with more greenery and large trees, apparently famous for wine and wool. Amazing how it can change so quickly. Then I was back into the dry lands before the highway took my into the suburbs of Melbourne.

I got home just at dusk. I went straight to the gas station to blow up the tire and then Woolworths to get my lunch supplies. At home I unpacked, made my salad and relaxed before an early bed.