The Beautiful Dandenong Ranges, outer Melbourne, Victoria.
We haven't been up to these hills for years. Well we've driven through them on the way to some other destination, but we haven't stopped to wander around in the Ferntree Gully National Park. It was such a gorgeous Melbourne spring day on Monday, it was too good an opportunity to waste, especially after the frenetic pace of life we've been leading lately, running from one appointment to another, waiting for tradesmen, and so on.
Driving through the stately eucalyptus forest.
Ken breathing in the clear fresh air at the picnic area at One Tree Hill. (We have no idea why it is called that - there are thousands of trees here!)
One finds these signpost things everywhere, but they are all different, depending on where you are.
A memorial to some far sighted person in the local community.
The last major bushfire in the Dandenongs was several decades ago, but the scarred trees take a long time to heal. They are alive with healthy leaves and branches near the top. Actually we aren't sure if there was a smaller fire in this part of the Dandenongs on the Black Saturday week...if there was, it didn't destroy the area as fires did so many years ago. I said to Ken "the Dandenongs are a bushfire waiting to happen. There has been so much regrowth since the last bad fires, and they usually happen about thirty years apart". Ken said "Don't even SAY that - nobody knows where or when the next bushfire will occur".
A nicer shot of healthy trees.
There were patches of these pretty white flowers everywhere. When I was a child we called them Snowdrops, but I think that is an English flower, and I'm sure these ones would be native to the area.
The Lyrebird is common in the Dandenong Ranges, but very elusive, and I only walked less than one kilometre, so I wasn't expecting to see or hear any. Ken wasn't up to walking that far, so he waited for me in one of the stone shelters in the picnic area.
Driving through the stately eucalyptus forest.
Ken breathing in the clear fresh air at the picnic area at One Tree Hill. (We have no idea why it is called that - there are thousands of trees here!)
One finds these signpost things everywhere, but they are all different, depending on where you are.
A memorial to some far sighted person in the local community.
The last major bushfire in the Dandenongs was several decades ago, but the scarred trees take a long time to heal. They are alive with healthy leaves and branches near the top. Actually we aren't sure if there was a smaller fire in this part of the Dandenongs on the Black Saturday week...if there was, it didn't destroy the area as fires did so many years ago. I said to Ken "the Dandenongs are a bushfire waiting to happen. There has been so much regrowth since the last bad fires, and they usually happen about thirty years apart". Ken said "Don't even SAY that - nobody knows where or when the next bushfire will occur".
A nicer shot of healthy trees.
There were patches of these pretty white flowers everywhere. When I was a child we called them Snowdrops, but I think that is an English flower, and I'm sure these ones would be native to the area.
The Lyrebird is common in the Dandenong Ranges, but very elusive, and I only walked less than one kilometre, so I wasn't expecting to see or hear any. Ken wasn't up to walking that far, so he waited for me in one of the stone shelters in the picnic area.
posted by Gina E. | 11:07 pm
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