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The place where I weekend is in the bush, 20km from my home by the sea. My current weekend walking project is to walk in stretches along the river road between Eurobodalla and Nerrigundah. I take the car to the farthest point I’ve walked to, hop out, and continue on. This is something of a pilgrimage along a road from my past, and it’s giving me great pleasure.
This week, I left the car at the top of Tallyho Hill and set off along a dirt road, with a drop off the edge into a steep gully. I heard the song of a lyrebird and the brief laugh of a kookaburra (unless of course that was the lyrebird too.) The bush was noisy with chirrupings, whistlings, and the vibrating whirr of a pigeon takeoff. The eucalypts sported long ribbons of bark and there were signs of rainforest: crinkle-edged leaves, vines and tall tree ferns. Everywhere in the bush, tall wattles with their pale yellow balls and their sweet smell. The sky a bleached grey with that disturbing glare and lack of substance. I walked down the hill around the twists in the road. On one side a gully: on the other side a steep bank, a rocky cutting rich with ferns and flowers – maidenhair, bracken and pinky rasp fern; faded schelhammeras, tiny white star flowers, purple and white violets, purple dianella with yellow-orange stamens, the gleaming white flowers of branching grass flag. At the bottom of the hill, a bridge and an underpass for cattle, the paddocks an astonishing green for this time of year. An assemblage of grass and flowers decorated the buffer at the bridge. Sandy curves of the river appeared and then retreated again: a vivid patch of purple fan flowers, delicate sprays of dianella in bud, yellow goodenia, and the richer yellow of hibbertia, with its splendour of buds. Occasionally the heat was relieved by a delicious breeze, more noticeable because the hill was generating an unaccustomed gentle sweat.
Only one vehicle passed me in an hour and a half on a Monday morning. I have now walked 8km of the river road.
FLOWERS
RIBBONS OF BARK
Paula said:
I am glad to hear you are doing the recommended distance walk and taking photos while at it too. I only manage 2 km per day. I would be happy as a child exploring the banks of the Tuross with you. Intriguing scenes and landscapes. Thank you, Meg. I will be back to see you other walks 🙂
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morselsandscraps said:
I’m probably not walking 2km each time I river walk. I’ve covered 18km in 10 segments. I’d love your company, and to see what your camera made of the Australian landscape. I’m hoping to reach Nerrigundah before I go to Queensland at the start of December.
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pommepal said:
Walking you see so much detail that is missed when rushing by in a car, and you have captured it so well.
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morselsandscraps said:
I’m really enjoying walking this road: every segment offers something different, and now when I drive, I have the pleasure of what I’ve seen walking to superimpose on the blur.
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Heyjude said:
Tally Ho bridge made me smile – oh, so English! And in fact looking at some of that landscape you could almost be in England. The gum trees of course give it away. And some of those exotic looking flowers – how delightful is the Fairy Fan flower! Crisp fern formations and your usual flare for the descriptive narrative. I ❤ it.
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morselsandscraps said:
I’ve been longing for the fairy fan, and there it was, just one clump. We’re astonishingly green for this time of year.
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restlessjo said:
Thanks, Meg 🙂 Much appreciated now that I know of your busy schedule. I like your ‘mission’. We have done our coastal footpath in chunks like this too, but not for quite a while. I admire your organisation (and your plant knowledge, incidentally) 🙂
That river looks pretty dry but I don’t suppose that’s unusual.
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Lucid Gypsy said:
That was a lovely walk, almost like a meditation, thank you!
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morselsandscraps said:
For me, walking is about as close to meditation as I get. It empties my mind of busy-ness. This was a particularly lovely walk, partly because the gully was unexpected, although I’ve driven that patch of road a number of times.
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