Friday Five: Walks in the Rainforest

Last week we were in the rainforest at Lamington National Park. It rained - a lot. But there were beautiful walks and plenty of flora and fauna to observe. We stayed at O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat, which was rather marvellous, and while we indulged and luxuriated in spa baths, steam rooms, infinity pools and restaurants, we also did some walking. Here is a selection of the tracks.

Five (Six) Rainforest Walks:

1.  Booyong Walk/ Tree Tops and Mountain Botanic Gardens:

This was the first walk on the first day (while we were waiting for our room to be ready) so there are a lot of photos of trees and micro-photos of plants and fungi, as I absorbed all the amazing green! I make no apologies. The Black Booyong Tree (Argyrodendron actinophyllum) is a classic rainforest dweller, native to Eastern Australia, with the most amazing buttress tree roots. Walking past monumentous examples of this species heightens the awe-inspiring feeling of being in a natural place of worship.

As you can see, many of these trees are entwined in strangler figs, the name given to a number of tropical and subtropical plant species, including some banyans and unrelated vines. They share a common 'strangling' growth habit as an adaptation for growing in dark forests where the competition for light is intense. These plants spend the first part of their life without rooting in the ground. Their seeds (often bird-dispersed), germinate in crevices in other trees, then grow their roots downwards and envelop the host tree while also growing upward to reach into the sunlight zone above the canopy.

Strangler figs suck up the nutrients from its victims, causing them to die eventually. When the original support tree dies, the strangler fig becomes a 'columnar tree' with a hollow centre core. However, the strangler fig can also help its support tree survive storms - that's one very complicated relationship you've got going on there, nature! 

The Tree Top walk is an iconic aspect of O'Reilly's, of which they are very proud. It is 180 metres long, consisting of nine suspension bridges up to 16 metres above ground and includes a deck 30 metres above ground in a fig tree over the walkway. It was the first of its kind in Australia (built in 1987) and the unique and innovative structure is free to visitors, allowing them to observe life in the rainforest canopy at close range.

We also walked around the Mountain Gardens, which is through a little gate like The Secret Garden. Once inside it is easy to get lost meandering between the boulders along the twisting turning pathways as there are no signs, but it's a delight to find a garden in a rainforest setting rather than the usual urban setting, and it's intimate enough not to feel daunting. An enjoyable time can be spent admiring the delicate flowers on the robust plants, and it's a photographer's paradise. It isn't actually a part of the resort and operates on donations.

I think this is a corkwood tree with its rough bark, but don't quote me on that.

2. Box Forest Circuit

Opinions appear to differ as to the length of this walk (I've seen it recorded as 10.3km, 14.2km and 18.9km) and the time it takes to complete - it took us approximately four hours, and I suspect the weather has a lot to do with it. On the day we walked it, it had been raining heavily and there was lot of mud underfoot. 'Stepping stones' were submerged leading to river crossings becoming thigh-deep wades through fast-flowing rapids, but the waterfalls and rainforest scenery were magnificent. 

The track leads past impressive stands of smooth, pink-barked brush box (Lophostemon confertus) some of which have been radiocarbon-dated at 1,500 years, making them the oldest ever carbon-dated trees on Australia's mainland.

It wouldn't be a rainforest without a rainbow

Him Outdoors sitting on a giant tree

I spotted two snakes together which raised my heart rate considerably: a slaty grey and a carpet python. I screamed at them and the slaty grey slithered off although the python was unperturbed. I suspect it had recently eaten and couldn't have been less interested in us. 

And here are some of the waterfalls and creeks I mentioned, complete with instructions as to what you shouldn't do. 

Him Outdoors on Picnic Rock

3. The Border Track

The 'fabled' Border Track connects the Green Mountains and Binna Burra sections of Lamington National Park. It is a 21.4 km one-way track (which, of course, you can walk in either direction) and crosses the border several times from Queensland to New South Wales and back again. Right from the start, the sun was attempting to break through the clouds and creating stage hazer effects. Apparently, 'on a clear day, lookouts provide spectacular views' but we just saw the signs for the lookouts with no views at all. We spent a lot of time squelching through ankle-deep mud as the mist swirled around us and we couldn't see a thing!

At the high point (Mt Bithongabel), it was like entering into another world. The forest simply dripped as all the tree-branches were clad in moss and the droplets of water hung at the end of everything green. Shafts of sunlight danced like wraiths before disappearing into the ferns, and paths led to impossible futures.

In case we ran out

Of course there was much hilarity over the potential word confusion of the Queensland Naturalists' Cairn, and Him Outdoors suggested taking his clothes off for  picture (I stopped him; it's okay). The Queenstown Naturalists' Club was founded in 1906, and included Cyril T White, who was the Government Botanist from 1917 until his death in 1950. He was one of a party who camped at Mt Bithongable in 1918 and drew attention to the scientific and scenic value of the National Park. 

Him Outdoors at one of the (alleged) lookouts

We stopped at a point of the ridge with a minor break in the clouds to eat our soggy sandwiches, where we encountered our first other walker - a chap from Brisbane who had come up here on his day off work. He had taken his shoes off to dry out (ha!), and they were those five-finger barefoot running shoes. I realised he would have been leaving large bare footprints in the deep mud and wondered if this might be the origin of the Yowie myth (there is a statue of a Yowie in the resort café). According to a Wikipedia article (so it must be true, right), this region in south-east Queensland has had more Yowie reports than anywhere else in Australia. 

And did I mention it was wet? Up here, if you've been tramping through the rivers, you are going to get leeches. They were very attracted to us (we are clearly so desirable) and became quite attached! A few days after this walk when I had a foot massage at the spa, the woman there told me that I shouldn't worry about a few bites as the leeches were quite harmless - she was from Northern Queensland and used to the much bigger varieties. She was aware that they could be quite confronting, however, and told me she encountered one English bloke who was totally alarmed, having never seen them before until they were wiggling away between his toes, and one fell off his foot into her lap as she was exfoliating his skin. Eeuww!

This is near the end, where we have very nearly made it and I am practically hallucinating with tiredness, but people seem to be smiling, so that's good! 

Koala at Binna Burra

Calamity Sue with bubbles waiting in the bar

4. Balancing Rock and Moonlight Crag

This is a good walk for a rainy day - and there were plenty of them, so that's just as well. The flora is dripping wet, and delicately trembling beneath raindrops.The walk crosses the valley to see similar views from the other side of hills, crags, rocks, waterfalls and (of course) rain-forests.

Looking back across the valley to our villa

The cloud formations over the views at the Moonlight Crag lookout prove how localised these rain showers are, and how those clouds and mist cling to the contours of the hills.

Him Outdoors is not impressed with the beverage options on tap at the bar

Looking back across to Moran's Falls

Balancing Rock

Balancing Him Outdoors

5. Wishing Tree and Moran's Falls

This is a pleasant little walk through the forest to come to the Wishing Tree, a big booyong tree with a hole in the middle that people can walk through. It is an odd feeling when you are inside a tree trunk and I can understand why people are inspired to make a wish. The route takes us across a swing bridge; those are always fun. Once at the wishing tree, there are different options to return - one incorporates the Moran's Falls track. 

Good question; always worth checking

Is is woodland elves?

No, it's Calamity Sue and General Philosophy

View of Moran's Falls

Moran's Falls Creek before it tumbles over the edge

6. (Yes, I know) Python's Rock

The walk to Python's Rock is one of the easiest walks in the park and it is extremely rewarding. We walked along it in the late afternoon just before the sun set and the birds were making their last chirp and squawks before settling down for the evening. It sounded peaceful and the light was amazing. The view from Python's Rock overlooks Castle Crag to the Lost World with Mount Throakban to the left and also more views of Moran's Falls. Beautiful.

Portrait panorama

Typical buttress of a booyong tree

View of Moran's Falls (again)

Eora by Jake Nash

Eora by Jake Nash

This amazing artwork is Eora by Jake Nash, which is immediately outside the National Office of The Smith Family in Sydney (on the corner of Kent Street and Market Street). 

The Eora are an Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales. Eora is the name given by the earliest European settlers to a group of Aboriginal people belonging to the clans along the coastal area of what is now known as the Sydney basin in New South Wales, Australia. The Eora share a language with the Darung people, whose traditional lands lie further inland, to the west of the Eora.

2 Market Street

Jake writes:

"My mother’s Country is Daly River, west of Darwin, and while I am not from Sydney and it is not my ancestral land, for the last twenty years I have lived, worked and created here and it has now become my home and my family’s home.

"Eora sits at the crossroads of the city, a point of intersection between the past, present and future, and is surrounded by institutions that have shaped and governed our land: the Law Courts, the Church, as well as the Hyde Park Barracks. These buildings, both now and in the past, symbolise white governance in this city and represent the very beginnings and formalisation of colonisation.

St James Church from Hyde Park Barracks

"These historical and site-driven factors are what underpin Eora, as the artwork makes a statement about resilience, cultural strength and the everlasting relationship between people and place and reminds us all that the land on which this artwork and these buildings stand, always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

"Eora is a contemporary, timeless symbol and can be passed down through the generations into the future. It is a message stick, within a city which has many cultural narratives running across its surfaces, that describe who we are as a contemporary, multi-cultural people with a shared history and shared future.”

I think it is an outstanding artwork that welcomes interaction and reflection from the design incorporated into the sandstone wall, which we are encouraged to observe, to the outline reflected in the ground on which we walk. I love that this is outside the head office of the place where I work.

Holding Back the Nausea: The Boundary Fence

The Boundary Fence by Alissa Callen

Mira

Pp. 343

This outback romance is full of clichés rather than character.  All the women like baking and organising events, and they all want to get married and have babies. All the men like rounding up cattle (or, in our hero’s case, bison), and fishing. They also all want to get married and have children; they have “dreams of finding someone to love and to raise a family with.” Ella is the local vet who has had heartbreak in her life – we are told this repeatedly – and she has a scar on her thigh to prove it (an attractive one, obviously). She is beautiful and smells of cherry blossom. Saul is a local dude who runs a bison herd, has had trauma in his life – we are told this repeatedly as well – and is devastatingly handsome. Of course they should be together but keep inventing spurious reasons why they can’t be – “As hard as it was, for both of their sakes, he had to stay on his side of the boundary fence” – which drag the book out until they fall into each other’s arms at last.

There is little danger that we shouldn’t see this couple as dreamy but slightly damaged. Ella is “Dressed in loose black running shorts and a fitted white tank top, she was all long legs, curves and tousled blonde hair.” To be fair, Saul is equally objectified. “Even though he wore a loose royal blue shirt, as she drew near she had trouble looking away from where the cotton pulled tight across his biceps.” Ella has a lot of trouble looking away.

For some reason – there would be no book otherwise – they decide they will only cause more heartache if they fall in love, so they try so hard not to. It is a hardship for us all. With supposedly selfless passion, Saul wants Ella to be happy, even if this means not being with her. She cuts her hair to try and see if he will still be interested in her when she’s got short hair – which is, of course, beautiful. Yes, it really is that superficial. While the author falls over herself trying to explain how they are so noble and altruistic, they are incredibly self-absorbed, to the point that Ella seems to think everyone is studying her so closely they remember what she looked like the last time she wore a certain dress. “Bethany had already once remarked that she looked different and it hadn’t been due to her haircut… She’d wear something no one had seen before to mask anything else that could appear different.”

The book makes an effort with the setting – the town of Woodlea near Dubbo, NSW – and it’s all red earth and dusty boots in the outback. There are bush dances and rodeos; country weddings and hay bale competitions; beer nights and convoys of hay runners; snake bites and sick horses. It is very hot and dry verging on drought and this conveys a soupçon of atmosphere. There are lots of characters in the book but they have no individual features and are impossible to tell apart; sometimes it’s even difficult to know if the characters are human or animal.

It is no spoiler to say that Ella and Saul get their happy ever after, as that is the only point to this pap. “Nothing could have prepared him for kissing Ella. Her sweetness and warmth moved him in ways that went beyond the physical. She filled the lonely and dark void within him with laughter and warmth. Emotions he’d banished and refused to acknowledge flared into life. Being with Ella made him feel complete.” Well, good for him; being with them has made me feel nauseous.

Friday Five: Endurance: What Does it Mean to You?

Last month, The Endurance, the lost vessel of Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton was found at the bottom of the Weddell Sea. It was discovered by an expedition mounted by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, led by veteran polar geographer, Dr. John Shears, using a South African icebreaker, Aguhlas II, equipped with remotely-operated submersibles.

Looking like a ghost-ship, the vessel is remarkably intact. It was crushed by sea-ice and sank in 1915 and was found resting in 3,008m (approx. 10,000ft) of cold, deep water. Due to the temperature of the water, the timbers are in remarkable condition, with the name Endurance still clearly visible on the stern over a century afterwards. The water is too cold for wood-eating organisms, although other deep-sea marine lifeforms have colonised the ship, including stalked sea squirts, anemones, sponges of various forms, brittlestars and crinoids (related to urchins and sea stars).

This story is an incredible achievement on many levels. The discovery of the wreck itself is remarkable, or, as Dr. Shears described it, 'jaw-dropping'. He explained, "We have successfully completed the world's most difficult shipwreck search, battling constantly shifting sea-ice, blizzards, and temperatures dropping down to -18C. We have achieved what many people said was impossible." 

Mensun Bound and John Shears stand by the icebreaker SA Aguhlas II 

It was an enormous challenge to find the ship at all. The Weddell Sea is pretty much permanently covered in thick sea-ice, the same ice that ruptured the hull of Endurance in the first place. Getting near to the presumed sinking location is hard enough, let alone being able to conduct a search The last month, however, showed the lowest-recorded extent of sea-ice since these records began (1970s) so in that respect, conditions were favourable.

For over to weeks the subs had combed a predefined search area, investigating various interesting targets, before finally uncovering the wreck site and making a detailed photographic and video record of the timbers and surrounding debris field. Because the wreck is a designated monument under the International Antarctic Treaty, it must not be disturbed in any way and no physical artefacts can be brought to the surface.

The ship looks much the same as when photographed for the last time by Shackleton's filmmaker, Frank Hurley in 1915. The masts are down, the rigging is in a tangle, but the hull is broadly intact. Some damage is evident at the bow, presumably where the descending ship hit the seabed. The anchors are present and the subs even spied some boots and crockery.

The other incredible thing about this story is Shackleton's amazing 'escape' which he and his men undertook on foot and in small boats. After Endurance was crushed, Shackleton organised the crew to take a couple of the lifeboats across ferocious seas to get help after months spent in makeshift camps as the ice drifted northwards. The party took the lifeboats to reach the inhospitable, uninhabited Elephant Island. Shackleton and five others then made an 800-mile (1,300km) open-boat journey in the James Caird to reach South Georgia. From there, Shackleton was eventually able to mount a rescue of the men waiting on Elephant Island and bring them home without loss of life.

Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew of five men launching the James Caird 

The dictionary definitions of endurance seem to sum up all of the above:

1. The ability to endure an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way
2. The capacity of something to last or to withstand wear and tear
3. Denoting or relating to a race or other sporting event that takes place over a long distance or otherwise demands great physical stamina
4. The ability to continue doing something for a long time
5. Stamina; persistence; especially in the face of hardship, distress or pain