Off to the bush again for the odd bit of "fossicking".
We turn off the highway and go another couple of hours until we reach our destination. The area was dry and dusty but still we are surrounded by bright green shrubs and new seedlings. You'd almost think someone had been going around 'handwatering the plants' every morning.
Seeing the black tree trunks and crispy remains of bush it was obvious that a fire had been through at least a couple of years previously. This explains the vigorous new growth. There's nothing like the smoke of a fire to promote seed germination.
This time we brought our 'secret weapons'. Well, quad bikes. What fun these were!
A much better way of getting around the bush rather than walking or bush-bashing with the Land Cruiser. Also, these light, manoeuverable, four-wheeled bikes were much less likely to get punctures.
Our friends, the bush flies, were all there to greet us. And they weren't there in ones and twos, they were there in their gadzillions. As we walked along, each one of us had our own personal
cloud of flies to accompany us. Oh, what friendly little things they are. They just couldn't leave us alone; not for one minute. They seem to enjoy riding on our backs, in their millions, all just sitting there, the backs of our jackets black from shoulders to waist, and there wasn't room to swing a mozzy!
Yes, eating was a problem!
Batman and Robin.
I don't think these bushes were originally this shape.
It's almost as if, as the fire went through, they tried to wrap their arms around themselves and crouch down in an effort to avoid the inevitable.
The majority of the trees here looked like this; bent right over with new branches sprouting upwards from the bent trunk. A result of prevailing winds or maybe fire.
This looks like a pile of deadwood but it is in actual fact, a tree! It must be very old because I could see where it has grown, fallen over, grown some more and fallen over and even now it still has roots in the ground so there are new branches growing up from the horizontal trunk.
David has a friend who goes to the bush and collects pieces of tree trunk which have hollows in them for the purpose of making them into works of art. On one trip to the bush as he was driving home with his vehicle full of potential artworks, a snake slithered into the front cab with him. Obviously he hadn't received his eviction notice! The guy stopped, opened the door to let the snake out and carried on home!
