October yatras

The day of  easy elders’ yatra in Sun Valley was pretty warm, but still and sunny. We enjoyed trees, a creek, the sandy road, the ruins of a swimming pool built in the creek and enjoyed by the Warrimoo community in days gone by....and in that creek

Ducks surprised

shock me with their beating

purple wings

 

There are a great many birds down in that valley, of all varieties.

The bellbird’s beak

opens bright orange -

TINK!

My boobook owl though, had found other sleeping quarters - nothing but a pile of poo on the rocks below a ledge,  to show where it often likes to roost.

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

By contrast, the middlin’ yatra the next day, on King’s tableland at Wentworth Falls, was windy. My car was playing up, hiccuping mysteriously. 

A 747 of wind

forces car-thoughts

off the cliff

My favourite plant was in flower, Boronia floribunda. The wind dashed these plants around so that the air was filled with their scent.

 We found this little chap's skeleton in an overhang -

The cicadas, Yellow Mondays,  were making an incredible racket. You wouldn’t want to be in earshot, if you had a hangover. They’ve crawled out of the ground, and out of their nymph stage of life, a few weeks early this year.

 Dazed cicadas

the wind too strong for them

crash to the ground

Walking in these conditions was a struggle. But there was a good lesson in it. As David said afterwards, reflecting on the day, “You’ve just got to take things as they come”.