YIN YANG WALKING

We're planning to walk Mt Coolum, not up, but around the base. Jo has arrived from down south and the mountain is calling.

We do our homework and discover just how special this mountain is ecologically, something of a 'Noah's Ark'. Second only to Uluru, it's a huge volcanic dome with a sheer eastern face. The 26 million year old dome is composed of hexagonal crystal jointing columns.

This square kilometre of vegetation has some 700 species of plants…Great Britain in total has 1400. There are the earliest primitive plants, rare plants and some not found anywhere else, as well as two not yet identified, and the site has 40% of the fern families found on Earth today.

A traditional Aboriginal story that is often told about the mountain refers to it as a young male  warrior and I've certainly felt it as strong yang. Rose remembers being taken to a pool around the base of the mountain and will help us find our way there. There's always the yin spot within the yang and this just may be it.

We arrive at the base of the mountain. Cars everywhere, carpark full and flowing over into the residential streets that border the base of the mountain. People are coming in droves to climb the mountain, a sudden local attraction. Not for us. We take a left turn, drive a few blocks and find a quiet entry walk to the old quarry track that runs round the south eastern perimeter. Both old growth forest and regrowth tucks into this narrow border around the bottom of the hulking dome.

We step into the trees, feel to stop for connection. Entry has a sense of ease and welcome. I have a vision of an 'Old Fella' over my left shoulder, always good to have a friendly guide in strong places.

It's a gorgeous day, warm and sunny, shady and cool here in the trees…and so quiet, just a few bird calls, currawong singing autumn songs. We follow the old quarry track. We're aware that the old quarry is up to the right, as we walk.

Reaching a little open space, Rose looks for the track into the pool, finds it immediately. Hmmm…it's narrow and a bit steep, up and down. Good thing it's dry. Not a place to walk after rain.

Scribbly gums guard the track entrance. One bears the scarring of wrapped wire and a gash bleeding red resin that crystallises in glinting sunshine, bark of red ochre and cream, scribbles in insect language the entire body of the trunk.

We take lots of piccies. Of course.

So then up the track we go. Gingerly. Picking our way. Lean forward, hunker down. Notice the footworn stones set by the track. Over the little ridge and now a steep descent into the gully. I'll just stay right here at the top, I'm thinking. And I do. Jo and Rose ease their way down into the gully.

It's stunningly beautiful, deep, dark and moist, black rocks, shining wet from the water dropping down the sheer face of the mountain directly above. Look up, right up through the leafy canopy where sunshine lights the scarp. Watch the water fall in huge glops. Now a fat grey bird fans its wings, dipping in and out of the shower.

We stay awhile, soak it all in. Rose and Jo are taken by thick curling tree roots hugging the boulders. Later that evening a photo will reveal something unseen at the time, the form of a female body with distinct male genitalia. Ah nature! The yin, the yang.

Emerging from the gully now, down the narrow track, don't slip, gorgeous ferns gracing our passage.

We follow the nudging of the Old Fella over my shouder and take the upper track back towards the quarry. Feels like there's something to see back along there.

The energy changes abruptly, as does the vegetation.

Reaching the quarry we step up onto the carved platform. Ah, dangerous edges here. A cavernous hole opens up below us, and behind it, the bulk of the mountain rears its great shoulders into the blue.

Nature has reclaimed the site. The quarried hole has morphed into a paperbark swamp, so beautiful in its lime greens and sky reflections.

Our Earthwalk feels complete. Time to return. Sunlight dapples the space between the trees. Butterlies with soft new wings wobble in the dapples. A blue tiger lands just a few feet from our cameras, staying just long enough for us to capture the image.

We say our sweet goodbyes. We'll be back. And now the cafe calls.

Mt Coolum is in Queensland Australia on the Sunshine Coast. Great crd needs be taken when walking in this area. Info about the site may be found on http://www.coolum.com.au/display_listing.asp?id=556&catid=229   and  http://www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/mount-coolum/

SWEET SPRINGTIME

We're up with the chooks and out in the early morning sunshine. Spring is sprung and we have just this week to catch the wildflowers in the wallum country at Mt Emu. 
Traditionally known as women's country and called Peregian (Aboriginal for Emu), it's hardly a mountain, more a rocky outcrop. Several sleek and shiny crows sit sentinel at the entry, sounding their welcome.
I'm thinking to take the track around to the western side where I know there will be masses of  tea tree and dog rose.
The track is damp still from recent rains and the dew hanging heavy, droplets sparkling with colour. A trapeze spider has hung a cleverly crafted web in the tangle of grass and sedge stalks.

So our flower hunting begins. White flowers, always a bit dodgy to identify... tiny bells top a small green tuft.

The growth habit helps…these are on long straight stalks ...might be epacris heath. And then there are the milkmaids, clear and bright, "You look happy to greet me", lovely as Edelweiss, though much simpler.

Contrasting colours of red and green vibrate in the early morning light glowing through the grasses, filtering through the callistemons and picking out the baby seed pods of the prickly moses plants.

It's a gorgeous morning, a fabulous experience to just be, to give over to the beauty. A family of little birds is bathing in a puddle on the track just a couple of metres ahead of us. 

We can see throughout the wallum growth sprays of gold pea flowers with their deep brown 'eyes' and the balls of creamy fluff of the prickly moses still blooming.

Ah these tricky spiders…even laying traps on the ground!  And here is a strange little plant, a club rush in flower, don't see many of them. Grasstrees sprouting new spears.

As the track lifts out of the swampy ground, my flowerhead mind goes completely off …I love the white Queensland wax flowers and just adore the pink boronia, great gorgeous clumps of it. Mmmmm.

It's a little drier here. There's a low growing banksia and a small eucalypt that would gladden the heart of any gardener.

 There's Mt Ninderry rising above the distant treelike.

We walk beyond the fork in the track. The tea tree bushes and the dog rose are gone. Last year there were masses of white and pink bloom all the way up the hillside. It was spectacular. Now there is a broad spread of blackened earth, sprouting grass trees and black skeleton hakea. Looks like a control burn has happened here. It will be interesting to see if the tea tree and dog rose return. The hakea no doubt will love the burn.

Everything changes. Ah well. We return to the fork in the track and wander uphill.

The left of the track has not been burned and there are a scattering of white tea tree plants, quite small, but no dog rose. A little sarsaparilla in bloom.

A murder of crows is wheeling around the rocky top. They're flopping and feinting, vying for position to spy out the territory, see where the next fish and chips will need unwrapping.

We turn near the summit to walk the ridge track down. A brilliant shining ocean lies to the east and a sea of softly waving grasses to the west now. The breeze has a chilly edge to it.

In the distance lies Mt Cooroy.

We're walking a really rocky area. The flowers are different. The yellows sport two kinds of goodenia and a hibbertia, and a lime green orchid, not so easy to spot in the grasses.

And then we find it! A treasure. Just one for the whole walk…a fringe lily, on the very edge of the track, six flowers and heaps of buds. So exciting to see it here, as they're disappearing. Many photos!

But then….we're carefully picking our way down the rocky track when we stop to let a family move past us. As they gather traction down the hill, we see what the mum is twirling in her hand…the fringe lily. Pretty flower, pick it. We're so stunned we can't speak. The family is long gone by the time we gather our wits to think that we could've, should've said something.      

We emerge from the park and wander to the parking lot by the high school. The median strip is planted with native bushes, full with flower. Tiny red birds, scarlet honeyeaters are flitting through the callistemon and nearby a mistletoe is calling to its own little red bird. 

We live in a beautiful land.

Some info for Sunshine Coast dwellers and visitors... the wildflowers on Mt Emu will probably be good for another week till mid September if you want to see them for real, and I hope you do. There are two track entries off Havana Rd East. Best to take the track furthest down this road where it terminates at the high school. Happy wildflower hunting.