When I was a teenager, I had a beautiful skewbald pinto pony (14 hands high, and that's brown and white, if you don't know the horsey lingo). We also had this massive chestnut gelding Dad would ride - he took up riding because he wanted to make sure I was okay I think, and it seemed like a fun thing to do. We used to ride it through the Iron Bark basin, bushland at Point Addis in Victoria's south west. We'd bash away along narrow tracks with branches slapping our face and up and over the cliff that's now fenced off to the public. If you did this now, they'd arrest you. There's very few places to ride a horse now. But every time I do this 45 minute circuit I think of Dad and I on the horses.
The grass trees are like trolls advancing through the forest, though there's a real risk of die off due to cinnamon fungus. They throw off big spear like flowers, which are hard to capture on the camera with the upright trees around them. Here's one that's been broken but you can see the seed pod up close.
In Australia there's always something flowering - no long, colourless winter like Europe's north. Soon the yellow wattles will be catching the golden hour and taking our breath away, but for now there's just these pale, butter yellow ones, and pink heather.
The place is named for the ironbarks, characterized by dark, deeply furrowed bark, which is super resistant to insects and even fire. The timber's valued for it's strength and it can make its way into furniture too.
The beautiful red and yellow ochre of the basin gives the cliffs their distinctive red colour in the distance, but traditionally it was used by indigenous people for ceremony. However the area also held a paint mine, and they'd use the ochre to make a red paint for early trains until they found a synthetic alternative.
Someone's been building cubby houses down here, or perhaps at attempt at Aboriginal dwellings. I'm not sure if it is kids or an outdoor group. I get a little annoyed to see they've removed moss to attempt a kind of insulation. I don't believe you should disturb the natural environment that much, even at play. Sticks are one thing of course, but moss in quite another. Yet, I guess I used to do that kind of thing as a kid. Moss is cool to make wild beds from.
I walk back along the road, glimpsing views of the beach and the headland where I've spent so much of my life. It's very much infused with spirit. I see deer prints on the roadside - it's incongrous here, as one expects kangaroos, but there are a family of deer known to be in these parts and I always look for the white stag, though I've only seen him once.
With Love,
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Looks to me like it's populated with spirits. I love to see you and your father riding horses here. What a wonderful memory that must be, I wish you many many more.
I do get the sense there are the ghosts of past us all around... Including dogs we used to ride and walk with! Sometimes it's sad, sometimes it's nice.
Cool you saw the white one! A lot of the places I used to ride my pinto pony are no longer accessible either. It’s cool your dad used to ride with you.
Yeah, he was scared as he came off a horse when he was young but he overcame it to ride with his daughters. My sister lost interest super early on but Dad and I rode together a lot.
Amazing beautiful place. 😊
Very blessed around here, that's for sure.
Traveling is a big goal in our life Grasses look like trolls. But there is a beauty of extraordinary feeling in it. I wish you success in your journey.
Hello, going with your girlfriend on horseback to the beach would be very romantic my friend, good post.👍👍👍
Yes, except iin this post I talked about going with my Dad.
Nice post, never been in Australia yet but have to some day
Everyone seems to love travelling here!