Lara: finding the pretty on a bleak day
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| View from the start of the Stock Yards Walk |
My last day on the mainland and there's a serious wind blowing at Lara, adding quite a wind chill factor to the air. I was headed to the You-Yangs to entertain myself for two or three hours with a walk. Given the wind, I had no desire to approach any of the high points, not that the You Yangs really has high points, they're more of pimples in a flat landscape. But I didn't say that because when I lived in Geelong, four decades or more ago, they were considered to be mountains.
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| Native Tobacco |
My hostess had suggested that I walk the Stock Yards Track which would be somewhat sheltered, so that was my plan. I was rather horrified by the amount of invasive bone seed in the area. There was acres of it. Parks did acknowledge, on the sign, that it was a big problem in the park.
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| Wattle |
The walk was otherwise pleasant enough and I found a few nice flowers, including various types of gum flowers - unfortunately the red and pink were moving too much in the wind to photograph.
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| An ex-parrot |
I also found a deceased parrot of some variety - lots of lovely colours on it, and I can only hope it died from natural causes and not some invasive species attack.
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| Pom-pom Hakea |
I was a little intrigued by the total lack of understory in some areas of gum forest. Not only was their total lack of understory, it looked as if it had been burned very recently, it was that clear, but with no evidence of any burn and no scorching on the trees, so that was a little bit intriguing.
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| Gum flowers |
I diverted to look at the geoglyph, Bunjil, thinking it was aboriginal artwork, but only to find that it was a recent arrangement of rocks in the shape of an eagle - to see the shape, I would have had to go higher where the wind was seriously chilly, so didn't.
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| Bunjil from the ground |
There were a few rather scenic billabongs on the way
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| Billabong |
I then went on to look at the view from the Big Rock. My expectations were not high and my expectations were met. It wasn't helped by the fact that it was pretty misty, dim and grey on the horizon.
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| Flinders Peak in The You Yangs |
I was reminded of a lovely view of Melbourne CBD as I was driving the previous afternoon. I crested a rise near the turnoff to Hoddle Road and the sun was lighting the skyscrapers against a backdrop of a very stormy black sky.
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| In the Roraima nursery display garden |
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| In the Roraima nursery display garden |
I spent almost an hour and a half admiring the plants both in the nursery and in the display garden. I felt a bit like a kid in a candy shop, as I admired all the beautiful things and thought how I did not have any room whatsoever to put any in my garden, even if I had been allowed to bring them back to Tasmania.
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| Part of the resident bat colony |
I was also rather delighted to find that the display garden had its own resident colony of bats!
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| This was a sculpture |
By then it was past mid afternoon and I thought that finding a cafe for a hot chocolate would be just the perfect thing to do. However, it seemed that no such thing existed in Lara on a Sunday afternoon unless I fancied McDonald's or similar. In fact, the only shop in the shopping complex that sold food ready to eat seem to be a rather drab fish and chip shop.
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| An ENORMOUS bromeliad |
So instead of my hot chocolate I went to Bakers Delight which was still open and purchased a loaf of low FODMAP bread and had Jane's homemade strawberry jam and butter on the slice of bread for afternoon tea
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| In the Roraima nursery |
So, off to the ferry terminal; I queued to check in, then I got checked promptly and rather perfunctorily by security. My windscreen was marked with a pink cross, the meaning of which will become clear to me, I presume, in due course.
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| Jasminum nudiform - very unusual |
Then, of course, it was the interminable wait to board. The queue I was in was moving forward slowly but then was stopped at the car in front while they loaded from other lanes instead. I realized that relates to size of vehicles and all sorts of things and which decks that they're filling up, but it's a little tedious nevertheless.
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| In the Roraima nursery |
The forecast for tonight is rather horrible. The swell is forecast to be up to five meters and winds are forecast to be up to 45 knots, so all I can hope is that I managed to sleep well through it.
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| In the Roraima nursery |
We departed early, and are scheduled to arrive on time.
By the time I finish this trip, I believe I will have been away for 25 days (24 nights) driven over 3500km, walked over 100km, spent 2 nights on the ferry 6 nights staying with friends, 6 nights camping and 10 nights in accomodation options.
I probably would have camped a couple more nights if the weather hadn't turned quite so cold quite so quickly (and appropriately located and priced options were on offer).
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