a walk in the rain | Mt Ellen

Last week we headed into the Wirrabara Forest to walk the trail up Mt Ellen (there are a few steep bits, but it's not a big climb like Mt Remarkable). The plan was to have morning tea & take some family portraits at the top.

As we drove into the forest though, the rain started falling - we decided to go on anyway & it was a wet but fun walk. It rained pretty steadily for most of the time, with a few breaks & a couple of heavier showers in between. You can't really tell in these photos, but it was pretty wet & mushy under foot.

Normally you can see a long way from the top, but everything was shrouded in misty rain, that & the wind meant we decided against tea & portraits at the top. Instead, after we made our way back to the car we drove to the picnic ground & sat under the shelter there to have our lunch/morning tea.

photo 4 (of the lookout sign) was taken by Kathryn, all the others are mine.

a potentially prickly encounter...

On our way down Mt Remarkable, we had a rather special encounter.

We hadn't seen that much wildlife other than a few birds, until we spotted this prickly fellow, just off the path. It was very shy at first, but once we stood quietly for a while, poked it's head out. The sound of the camera seemed to spook it, so I watched & waited a while between shots. I probably could have sat & watched it all day, but the hot drinks we had left in the car were calling us, so eventually we moved on.

a little further on, we also spotted another local...

on Flickr

reasonably remarkable...

As I mentioned here, we recently decided to attempt the Mt Remarkable summit hike.

It was a 12km round trip, which took us about 6hrs (+ a lunch stop at the summit). The weather was gorgeous - cool & sunny with a bit of breeze & we were well fuelled by home-made pasties, biscuits & flour-less chocolate cupcakes. Although the view at the summit was obscured by trees, there were plenty of opportunities to gawk at the surrounding farmland along the way. While it was not precisely a gentle afternoon stroll, I enjoyed it very much.

All these photos I took on the way down (which is when I carried the camera), you can see some that Kathryn took on the way up here.

a glimpse...

Just a quick sneak peek at the view we had whilst climbing Mt Remarkable last week.

More soon :)