Nathan, Anne, Nina, Justin, Tatjana and Lorien headed off for a day at Belair.
After weeks of gloomy rain-laden weather it was nice to finally have a pleasant day with patches of blue.
The group made good ground and were enjoying the stretch, so we extended the hike to 17 km up from the planned 12 or so. We passed through stands of native bush dominated by eucalypts and acacias as well as heavily manicured areas of willow, poplar and acorn. Quite a contrast.
Managing to blunder through only one wedding, we tore ourselves with reluctance away from the delicacy laden truck and disappeared up a hill to surround ourselves with bush over lunch. Ah, lying in the Sun… A magpie eyed us off beadily, having arrived scant seconds after we sat down. Must have an inbuilt cheese and vegemite radar…
Throughout the afternoon we were stalked by an enterprising icecream truck. The small children enjoying their BBQ on the lawns greeted it with screams of joy. Every now and then we would hear the familiar strains echoing up through the gum trees… or see a white shape speeding up to overtake us… must have thought we looked like good targets!
One of the highlights of the trip was an amazing koala fight we saw in the stand of trees near the Railway Dam. The koalas wrestled with one another with a burst of energy that must have used up at least several days gum leaf rations. One was rather more aggressive, pursuing the other up the tree trunk and grabbing and biting until both slid with alarming speed, half falling, to the ground. One time they fell several metres. Once on the ground, they wrestled like professionals, getting a good headlock. Eventually they set off dashing through the undergrowth, loping like gorillas because of their longer forearms. One particularly active move was a kind of Matrix-style leap where they whirled through the air together twisting as they went…