Point Danger, Victoria.

January 15, 2018 / wordynerdbird / Leave a comment

2018-01-12 19.51.36 Danger Point

Point Danger is on a promontory just south of Portland, Victoria.

2018-01-12 19.58.36 Danger Point

Just off the coast is an island that hosts a gannet rookery. It’s not accessible to the public, but you can go down to the coastline and watch them flying just beyond the fence.

2018-01-12 20.02.18 Danger Point

The shore itself is fenced off so that the birds remain undisturbed by visitors. There are better places from which to take photos of the birds and the island, but I wasn’t able to access them on this visit because of mobility issues: I’m on crutches!

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You can also turn off the road to the rookery to visit Crumpets Beach. This is a beautiful spot that lies almost at the end of a fairly rugged track that you would only attempt in a 4-wheel-drive or on foot.

2018-01-12 20.12.50 Crumpets Beach

Once the track has negotiated some tight bends and bumpy stretches, all the while going fairly steeply downhill, it levels out to run along the beach toward the headland.

2018-01-12 20.17.11 Crumpets Beach

This magnificent scenery all lies within fifteen minutes’ drive of Portland, on the south-west coast of Victoria, Australia, which is actually one of the oldest cities in the state. It has some lovely old buildings, a very active deep-harbour international sea port, and is very popular with fishermen and holidaymakers.

LAKE PURRUMBETE, VICTORIA.

April 9, 2015 / wordynerdbird / Leave a comment

Lake Purrumbete is one of the volcanic crater lakes near Camperdown and Cobden in the Western District of Victoria. It is well known among those who love to fish, but many other people have never heard of it.

Moorhens are common in western Victoria, nesting on the edges of lakes and farm damns.

The Lake Edge Cafe is on the western shore of the lake. It offers lunches and a range of delicious home-made cakes, tea and coffee, cool drinks, and is licenced to serve wine and beer. There’s plenty of parking, and whether you sit inside or out on the deck, you get a great view of the beautiful lake and surrounding scenery.

Melba Gully.

April 3, 2015April 3, 2015 / wordynerdbird / Leave a comment

Driving through the Otway Ranges from Princetown to Cape Otway, the road snakes through lofty forests of mountain ash, often lined with tree ferns and vines. In more than one place there is old growth forest on one side of the road and views of the Southern Ocean on the other. Pine plantations dot the landscape, sometimes prim and green, sometimes cut and messy.

We took an “unscheduled detour” down a dirt road that led to one of the plantation logging sites. The bush hugs the side of the road even more closely, enormous trees towering overhead. I have no idea how those enormous log trucks negotiate those tight bends on a narrow road, but the signs that warn one to “proceed with caution” should not be taken lightly.

As we took advantage of a clearing to turn around and head back to the main road, we saw a mob of kangaroos in their natural environment. There was a big male in the group who would have easily stood six feet tall. I think he is the biggest kangaroo I remember ever having seen.

We headed further east to our destination for the evening: Melba Gully.

Melba Gully is tucked into the Otway bushscape not far from Lavers Hill. It offers beautiful scenery and some well-maintained tracks for walking. During the day it is magnificent, but as the sun drops behind the forest the gums and ferns take on an other-worldly quality and one’s other senses become more alert. The chatter of the birds and the gurgle of the Johanna River at the bottom of the gully become more prominent. The smell of the eucalypts and the damp forest floor is refreshing and clean.

At the end of the track is a section of boardwalk which keeps visitors on the track and out of the surrounding forest. All along this section of the walkway, glow worms twinkle like fairy lights. It’s a bit like looking at the stars in the night sky except that these tiny creatures are embedded in the bank about a meter away from where you stand.

It’s a beautiful, serene place to enjoy a little of nature’s magic.

If you ever have the chance to visit, wear good shoes for walking and take a torch so you can find your way back up the track in the dark.

RAIL TRAIL. COBDEN, VICTORIA

April 1, 2015 / wordynerdbird / Leave a comment

This old bridge formed part of the railway line between Cobden and Camperdown. It can be found on Sadler’s Road, Naroghid.

Most of the rail trail between Camperdown and Timboon can be walked or cycled. It weaves through the outer edge of the town of Cobden, where these pictures were taken.

Murray River, Renmark, South Australia.

August 12, 2014 / wordynerdbird / Leave a comment

2012-07-13 13.35.50 Renmark 2012-07-13 13.36.15 Renmark

2012-07-13 13.47.29 Renmark

Peterborough, Victoria.

August 10, 2014 / wordynerdbird / 1 Comment

Peterborough is where the Curdies River meets the Southern Ocean.

2014-01-02 14.06.06

This tiny hamlet sits on the Great Ocean Road, where people often see little more than the wide river as they drive over the bridge toward better known sights and the town of Port Campbell.

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By doing so, they’re missing out on some great scenery and a beautiful sandy beach where the river provides much safer swimming than in this part of the ocean, which is notorious for rips and strong undertows.

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2016-12-28 14.57.20

Roadtripping #13

April 15, 2014 / wordynerdbird / Leave a comment

I woke very early this morning to the sound of rain on the roof of the RV. The humid warmth of the night melted into the crisp punctuation of
big fat, lazy drops of rain splattering one after the other, until the rain gradually became softer and steadier.
I closed the windows and roof vents just in time.

Call me crazy, but rain changes everything. It’s beautiful.
This morning in West Virginia, It adds contrast in the trunks and branches of naked or newly-budding trees, and makes the colour of blossoms more vivid. Roads shimmer with silvery light, and grass comes to life with lush, bright-green enthusiasm.

As we continue to drive down I79 South, the misty rain softens the stark outlines of the trees and of the mountains that range as far as the eye can see. Near the horizon, they blend into ethereal nothingness.

There are more picture-postcard villages dotted along the highway, but the rain and the fog on the windows makes it impossible to take photographs. That’s the only thing I don’t like about the rain.

Middle of nowhere.

April 10, 2014 / wordynerdbird / Leave a comment

The brainPod is playing George Strait’s “Middle of Nowhere” on a loop as we head to the Deer Park KOA near Cuddebackville in the Hudson River valley, NY.

If you want to get away from it all, this seems like the place to do it. The campground is nestled inside a gully out in the middle of nowhere, so even your phone and it’s associated internet capabilities can take a well-earned rest… unless, of course, you actually want to chat to friends or update your travel blog so that all of your adoring fans know you are still alive. (I am!) In that case, you are likely to be frustrated. (I am!)
Sigh.

The facilities are all clean, and there is hot water in the showers. The joy of a hot shower at the end of a long day of travelling is hard to express adequately, or at least without moaning with pleasure.

A shot of the maple whiskey my friend Sean gave me in dry ginger ale finishes the day very, very nicely. I confess, there were one or two moans of pleasure associated with that, too.

Morning reveals just how very pretty it is here. It’s early spring so there are no leaves on the trees, but lots of leaves from autumn still lie all over the ground. Little flurries of wind chase the leaves in a silly frolic that deposits them under trees until the next burst of wind comes along and continues the game.
There are squirrels running around, but they are shy and won’t let me take their picture.

The laundry is done, we’ve had coffee and a maple oatmeal cookie, and we’re off again.

An Aussie Maple Leaf, adrift on the wind…

Scattered thoughts, brief moments.

nature