The Agrinautica

Sunday, June 25th, Day 52 - Originally Williams and I were going to have the car and driver we'd hired for the day pick us up at 07:00 because we had a busy day of adventures planned. He said Nadia was going to arrive here last night and join us, though given how she's failed to come through every other time I tried to make plans with her I wasn't surprised when she didn't show up. But Williams said he talked to her and she'd come on an early bus in the morning, we'd just postpone our departure to 08:00 to suit. I advised him to call her to make sure she actually was on that bus.
   08:00 rolled around and I hadn't heard from anyone. At 09:15 I tried calling Williams but got no answer. So I walked the 100 meters to the training center (like in Tamale it's the GNAT Hall which conveniently has an event hall, hostel and canteen) to get breakfast and see if I could roust him / find out what was going on / have breakfast.
   It turns out he had overslept but no matter Nadia was actually about to arrive, which she did so at 09:30 and by 09:45 we were actually on our way! Nadia will be with us for the rest of this last week which will be fun. Of the "old crew" from last year its mostly just been Williams and I -- Samuel too but he never spends a minute with us outside of work, as far as I can tell he spends all of his non working time studying the bible which good for him but I'm not about to join him. He's very nice though. And I've been getting along very well with Williams but it will nice to be three instead of just the two of us.

   Around noon we arrived at our first stop. A canopy walk at the Amedzofe forest reserve. This is a mountainous area, the road curving along lushly forested mountains, through some cute mountain villages, fog mists hanging across the valleys. Arrived at Amedzofe village (?) and had to take motorbikes the last kilometers (motorbikists eagerly arrived for our business, 10 cedis (88 cents) per person each way). Paid our entry fee (115 cedis?

[Augh phone browser just prompted "restore from draft" for some reason and tanked the next several hundred words of writing 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬]

Okay switching from phone to computer now. I hate rewriting what I just wrote so the following will probably be more brusk than the original version.



Our guide was nice. The reserve apparently was recently created at the urging of herpatologists to preserve the endangered "slippery frog." Guide said they used to eat it locally but no longer do, and that it is indeed slippery. [coming back to add things as I get less grumpy about this. The slippery frog is listed as critically endangered, was thought to be extinct as there were no sightings reported for over twenty years, though it has been discovered there are a few surviving populations in Togo and Ghana.]

There was a canopy walk in front of a waterfall, with a great view the other direction into the preserve valley with no signs of human development. Altogether very nice. I probably wrote a few paragraphs about this originally, fuck it makes me mad when things get deleted.



There were 159 steps down a steep slope to the canopy walk and back up again. Which seemed like a lot at the time but that was nothing compared to later in the day, and apparently some find the steps "endearing." The walkways were mostly in very good condition, though these steps were pretty dodgy.



   From there Williams asked me if I wanted to go to the tallest waterfall in Ghana or the tallest mountain. I would always choose the waterfall, I love waterfalls but I'm actually not that enamored of reaching peaks. But I could tell he really wanted to do the peak even though he was leaving it up to me and trying not to let his wishes influence me too much. But I conceded for his sake that "well we've already been to a waterfall today I guess."

   Took about two hours to get to the base of the mountain, arriving there around 15:30. There the guide mentioned the waterfall was actually quite close, but the waterfall would close at five while he'd be available to guide us up the mountain whenever. So we decided to do the waterfall first, me secretly thinking I wouldn't mind if we ran out of time to do the mountain anyway.

   At the entry center for the waterfall they as usual wanted to charge more for Willy's DSLR camera. At other places it had only been 50 cedis and we'd paid it but in this case it was 200 ($17.47), compared to my adult non Ghanaian admission was only 40 cedis. So on this occasion we were obliged to leave the big camera behind. I still want to test my theory that if _I_ were the one carrying the camera it wouldn't trigger their "commercial photography" / "documentary making" fees because us foreign dorks are always carrying big cameras.

   The hike to the waterfall was a few kilometers along the river valley, through lush forest, crossing nine bridges. It was estimated to take 30-45 min, I'm not sure exactly how long we took. Assume I had some lovely descriptions here originally.

[okay now I'm caught up to what I hadn't written yet]

   Wikipedia says Wli Falls is "Wli Waterfalls is the highest waterfall in Ghana and the tallest in West Africa." which makes me wonder what the difference between highest and tallest is? Maybe one is referring to the actual altitude it is located at? A factor in waterfalls I've never thought to care about, but I could see how it could be used misleadingly to say a waterfall is the highest just because its at a higher altitude. The falls are known locally as Agoomatsa waterfalls - meaning, "Allow Me to Flow." I didn't catch the origin of Wli, I can only assume someone traveled back from the future to name them after my colleague Williams "Willy" Clinton Appoh (clearly the most famous William Clinton).
   The falls are 80 meters in height and indeed impressive. On the cliffs on either side a huge colony of fruit bats were roosting, chittering, and occasionally flying about. Some people were bathing in the water, and the water temperature was quite alright, and I'd even thought to bring my swim trunks but left them in the car, d'oh!



   From there hiked back without incident and returned to the base of the mountain, it was now nearly 18:00 and approaching twilight. It was only about an 800 meter hike (I think, though I'm still not sure if it was or they were conflating the hike distance with the altitude of the summit, which was 885 meters), so I anticipated it wouldn't be that long and we could be up there for sunset. Our guide and Willy also seemed optimistic

   After an initial flat approach for 100 meters or so the trail commenced to climb at about a 45 degree angle, which it maintained for most of the hike. Apparently they've never heard of switchbacks. I began to regret that at this point I hadn't eaten since a small bowl of outmeal for breakfast, and later began to also regret having not taken a waterbottle with me.
   We passed the first "quarter way" mark, and then the half. We could hear chainsaws buzzing in the not to distant distance, the guide said it was illegal logging that happens a lot on this mountain. He said every day there are 4-5 chainsawmen working on the mountain, sometimes even at night. If the police do happen to come someone at the base warns the chainsawmen in ample time for them to make themselves scarce. Another time the immigration department (for some reason?) came and just heavily fined the people financing it but didn't actually take any measures that would stop it. We also passed sawn timber that had not yet been taken down the mountain.

   The sun set, darkness set in. We used the flashlights on our phones to keep going. It seemed to take forever to get to the third quarter sign, I suspect they weren't evenly spaced but it could be just that I was getting that tired. Finally got there and Willy asked if I wanted to turn around but I am not a quitter, so we kept going!



   Reached the summit at almost exactly 19:00. It was by now completely night, the sky full of stars overhead, a crescent moon at its height. In the valley below us we could see the twinkling lights of many villages.
   I'm very confused about the height and/or identity of this mountain. We were told and I'm pretty sure it was Mount Afadja, height 885 meters. The signboard at the top was labeled "Mount Afadja" but it looked more like it was meant to be a picture frame framing the mountain just to the east that did look taller. Our guide explained that that was Mount Aduadu, whose peak is at a higher elevation but its not considered the tallest mountain because its not freestanding as this one is. I really don't think that's how it works? And on any account wikipedia says Mount Aduadu is 746 meters. But it looked taller, and the picture from its peak on wikipedia clearly has it looking down on Mt Afadja, and the pictures on wikipedia look like they match what I saw as the respective peaks so.. this is just confusing? And on top of that on the Mt Aduadu wikipedia page it says it's the second tallest mountain in Ghana ... behind Mt Lakleta at 908 meters?!?! My Lakleta doesn't have a wikpedia page, though googling does bring up references to it on dedicated mountaineering websites. Google maps puts a pin right on Mt Aduadu, and labeled as such, if one puts Mt Lakleta in the search. Putting the GPS coordinates from one of the mountaineering websites into google maps it drops a pin to the east of these two mountains, at a peak altitude that looks to match the the listed 908. And it is juuuust inside the border from Togo so I can see why it is some times not counted.
   Looking at the google terrain map and counting topography lines, it looks to me that Mt Afadja is actually between 560 and 580 meters, indeed shorter than Aduadu, third behind Lakleta. Thanks for bearing with my tangental livejournal entry, wherein we discover the public information being put out around Mt Afadja is incorrect and several wikipedia entries probably need to be corrected. I feel like "if I were a good citizen" I'd correct those wikipedia pages but I can't really be bothered, if someone wants to get their good citizen points up. While we're at it I just used the measure distance tool on google maps and from the car park to the peak is 1.08km so the the 800 meter number is neither the height nor hike length!
   The moral of this story is as with the fact checks on things told to us by our other guides, they are usually locals repeating what they heard from someone who heard from someone etc etc and while they'll usually get you in the ballpark of the actual story, if you for example were going to go on and write an article or something based on information told to you by a local guide I would take them as very low reliability for actual facts you're about to set down on paper.


I've taken the liberty of drawing in my rough guess of the course of the hiking trail here. Dropped pin is the mysterious Mt Lakleta

   Anyway back to the story, so Williams, who despite his constant protests to the contrary is secretly always basically making documentaries, video interviewed our guide at the peak. And then we headed down. Which is easier but its still hard on the legs going down a 45 degree angle (okay while I got the google map open I looked at it and its 600 meters to climb the last 300 meters, so literally a 30 degree angle which feeeeels like a 45 degree angle when you're hiking it, I honestly thought I was exaggerating by more lol).
   At one point our guide, who was in the lead, saw a light coming up the trail towards us and emphatically whispered for us to off lights. I remembered at that point what he'd said about loggers being active even at night. As the light approached the guide thought he recognized him, called out hesitantly, and on hearing the response told us we could turn our lights on again, it was one of his colleagues coming up to see if we were alright. We were around the halfway point at that time. As we hiked I'd occasionally shine my light into the surrounding trees hoping to catch the reflective eyes of a nocturnal animal. I've been on fauna surveys in Australian national parks where we saw quite a lot of nocturnal animals by such "spotlighting," but I didn't see anything. As we trudged along I fantasized about pizza.



   Got back to the car around 20:30. The extra high fee for our guide after hours came out to 100 cedis ($8.74). Nadia, who had remained behind, was fast asleep in the back seat.
   Felt like it took forever to drive home. In the numerous villages we drove through it appeared most people were sitting on their front steps whiling away the evening, or otherwise slowly strolling about with their friends. I know I've said this many times before, but as someone who is no fan of just turning one's brain off and turning on the TV, I envy the lifestyle where people aren't retreating into their houses in the evening but hanging out outside all evening.

   Williams said there was food for us waiting at the GNAT canteen, we didn't know exactly what it was but I'd been fantasizing about pizza all day, so requested if there was a pizza place in town if we could stop there and get pizza, so we did. Got one pizza for me and one for Nadia and Williams (I'd have gotten them each one but they preferred to share it. I found out the next morning that they'd popped into the canteen when we got back for the local food that was waiting for them anyway). Two pizzas came out to 205 cedis ($17.91), practically the most expensive thing all day. Car and driver were 900 cedis ($78.62), and we tipped him an additional 50 ("we'll buy him dinner" -- I rely on Williams judgement on these matters). My pizza "meat lovers" with ham, pepperoni, beef and chicken, was good but I still find chicken doesn't go pleasingly on pizza, comes off kind of tasteless compared to the sauces, and the beef chunks were chewy as is local beef norms, which consistency didn't fit with the rest. And thus was our very busy day!

   Legends of the Gunai People tell of a fearsome monster, like a giant man made of stone. Boomerangs and spears merely bounced off of him, and he'd prowl around at night and drag unwary travelers or children who wandered off away to its den to devour them. It sounds fearsome, though the only representation of the manxome foe google image search brings up is this decidedly dorky 1980s-eque monster.

   Meanwhile, this past Friday (the 17th), my parents and I woke up in a surprisingly decent motel in the town of Traralgon, and decided to head out for the den of the Nargun!



   Our route east took us first on the Princes Highway (which I note here is no longer the M1 but A1), which incidentally is the same highway that passes just close enough (but not too close) to my own village much further west. Then we headed onto smaller country roads and headed up north. As you can see on the map above there's a broad plain in this area that is I think one can say the heartland of Eastern Gippsland. I'm not sure I would have known how to get around this area without the ever trusty GPS but most of the small towns we passed through and other landmarks I recognized as having previously been to with my good friend Billie. She's from the town of Maffra you can see in the middle of the area in the above map.

   At the Den of Nargun, one is driving on a country road amid private paddocks and then quite suddenly one enters state forest and comes to a parking area with picnic benches. There was only one other car there. It was already rather warm (80?) and still only early in the day. There's informational signs mentioning the traditional beliefs about the Nargun. Among the Gunai People, we learn, the Den of Nargun was a sacred place and only women could go there, and, according to the sign, to this day men of Gunai descent respect that tradition and don't visit the site. That made me feel mildly guilty but if they really objected I suppose they'd have had the site closed down, as has happened with some other sacred sites (notably the famous Ayers Rock Uluru). Though their wishes aren't always exactly perfectly respected. Anyway here we were.



   From the picnic area one proceeds down a trail which very shortly is making a very steep descent into a narrow canyon. Down at the base one suddenly finds oneself amid a shady forest in which everything seems to be covered in moss or ferns (picture from previous visit). This is a relatively unique ecological refuge of relict plant biology from Gondwanaland the ancient south-hemisphere supercontinent. While down there we encountered the one other visitor, a bearded man by himself who was friendly, he was just about to start heading back up the canyon side when we came down.



   It's only a short walk up the valley to where the Den is. As we were walking I heard noises across the creek on the far side of the narrow canyon and spotted what looked like a large goanna (monitor lizard), I'd say it was at least three feet long. An informational sign said there were water dragons in the area so I suppose it was that. We saw (presumably the same lizard?) on the way back again as well.

   The Den of Nargun itself is a cave under a waterfall by a large pool. The waterfall was only barely flowing but the pond was as full as ever and cool and placid. I kicked off my flip flops and waded out into it, it was nice and refreshing.


Took this picture looking back towards my parents. Here's a picture from a previous visit looking from their location towards the waterfall.

   After enjoying the cool serenity of the Nargun Den Pool for a bit, we headed back out and up to the car. We though about eating as it was getting towards lunch time but decided to continue on to our next destination on the assumption it might be cooler there, as the day was already getting a bit warm.

   As we drove from there to our next destination, the Raymond Island ferry, we noted that now the outside temperature was getting up toward the mid 90s. Fortunately the AC in the car worked fine. "This is odd," dad pointed out looking at the weather app, "it says there will be thunder tonight but '0% chance of rain'."

   Arrived at the unfortunately named town of Paynesville and found there were picnic tables right on the shoreline. So we had our lunch there (cheese sandwiches as usual) and it was nice and not too hot. Walked to the ferry and realized I've been here too before, when I went boating with Billie and her friend the chancellor we boarded the boat here just beside where the ferry comes across.
   This is a small ferry that only holds about a dozen cars, and doesn't charge pedestrians or bicyclists. It goes back and forth across a (50 meter?) channel pulled by a chain (or mabye it pulls the chain? anyway its on a chain rather than using a propeller like a normal boat).



   So we ferried across to do the famous "koala walk" on Raymond Island. Walking around just among the several blocks nearest the ferry stop, even though there's as many houses as any old suburb, there's enough trees that it feels like a forest, and we saw maybe between 6-12 koalas sleeping in trees. For me the highlight though was actually an echidna we found snuffling along someone's front lawn. The creature, like a giant hedgehog with a cute proboscus-like nose, evidentally accustomed to tourists, hid its face for about a minute when we first approached and then got over it and jsut went about its business letting us get within feet of it taking picture. Neat.



   After this we took the ferry back to Paynesville, had ice cream, and proceeded on the two hour drive to our destination for this evening, an Airbnb in the town of Marlo (which I'd never heard of) on the coast two hours drive to the east, at the mouth of the Snowy River. After we'd passed the nearby town of Bairnsdale we were for the first time in new territory to me! I'd only been further east in Victoria briefly, when we went by boat to the town of Metung on the previously mentioned boating adventure, but soon we were past that town too!
   I definitely noticed that east of Lakes Entrance on the eastern side of the Gippsland Lakes (this giant lagoon), the populated part of Victoria seems to have ended. There's still a few towns out there but its not like Gippsland west of here with large swaths of farmland. It was beautiful country of forests and low intensity pasture land.

   Arrived at our bnb in the town of Marlo. This not a single residence like most Bnbs we've stayed in but a four unit "retreat" that was really nice. There was a pool and bbq area and almost uniquely for anywhere I've ever stayed I think, the other guests (families with kids) were very friendly and acted like we were all there together. It was a really nice place, would definitely recommend it for anyone headed that direction. The owners whom we met later were also really nice.



   Walked to the Marlo pub (called the Marlo Hotel of course). We'd called ahead to make a reservation even though it seemed like a small town, but the day before the first place we'd tried to go to, on a random Thursday in Traralgon was all reservationed up. Arriving at the Marlo pub and seeing all the cars parked out front I began to be nervous that there wouldn't be room (actually, writing this nearly a week later now, I remember being worried, but I thought I called in a reservation. Maybe I didn't? who knows). Anyway it was packed but it was a big place and I found us seats around a barrel by the rail on the edge of the back veranda, overlooking a lawn (with one random electric car charging station that was in use!), and beyond it the river, and forest covered hills on the far side.
   I held down this seat while my parents stood in line to order the food. I had identified a lamb tangine on the menu I thought looked really good and I think had re-stated my desire for that to my mom as she went to stand in line. Seeing a specials board I hadn't seen before I commented "oh they have a cubano sandwich" just as an observation. When my parents had ordered and joined me I learned dad had thought I had changed my mind and asked for a cubano sandwich. I actually don't terribly much like sandwiches in general and was getting a bit tired of the cheese sandwiches we were always having for lunch and had NOT intended to order a cubano sandwich so I was actually very disappointed by this but whats done is done so I did my best to act like it wasn't a big deal though I felt pretty disappointed. As luck would have it, when the sandwich came it was actually absolutely delicious. Altogether the pub seemed to have really good food and a really good atmosphere. Definitely recommend.



   As we were eating, we had a good view of where the sun was setting behind the hills across the river. Dark thunderheads were gathering in that direction and so the sunset was a beautiful combination of the golden glow of the sun breaking through and illuminating some clouds while around it the dark purple thunderheads loomed dramatically. As we finished our dinner there were smoe flickers of lightning over there, that ramped up to fairly constant flickers of lightning and soon many people were at the rail watching the show.
   After dinner it was a short walk across the lawn to some steps that lead down a short tree-covered slope to the road along the waterfront. It was still nice and warm, a lovely summer evening, and just down here where we now were on the waterfront (of the river) there was a narrow pier sticking out into the river and about half a dozen kids around 12ish were out there in their bathing suits enjoying jumping into the river. I reflected it was the kind of classic childhood moment they'll probably cherish in their memories forever (or perhaps one of many memories of doing so to be remembered in aggregate). The sun is setting around 8:30pm-ish around here these days and the sun was just setting. We watched the flickering horizon for awhile. Further down the river it looked like there were some adults out swimming or chilling in the water. As I said it was a warm summer evening.



   We walked back to our hotel. The other guests were still hanging out in the bbq area. Presently the lightning was all around us and we went out and watched for awhile as flashes lit up the sky all around us. Oddly there was hardly any sound of thunder, and only there merest smattering of rain.

   My dear parents arrived here on Friday!

A Yarn
Yesterday, Saturday February 15th - We didn't really have a plan other than to go to the historic sheep station just outside of Birregurra in the morning for coffee and a scone, and it turned into a day long adventure (a good one) though we never got our scone.

   "Sheep stations" massive tens-of-thousands-of-acres sheep operations, are an important piece of Australian history, and apparently this one right here, Tarndwarncoort was actually the first one! Founded in 1840, they pioneered the polwarth sheep breed adapted to the local climate. Once 15,000 acres, the core of the operation has been whittled away down to 60, though many of the adjoining properties are also still in the hands of descendants of the original Dennis family. A beautiful grand old bluestone house still sits on this core lot as well as some historic outbuildings. (I didn't get any good pictures really but if you click the link earlier in the paragraph you can see some)

   I had been fortunate that in about my first week in Birregurra town I was invited to a party at "Tarndie." Someone on whose land I have hives had invited me. The party was to celebrate the launch of the refurbished "cider house" as an accomodation. At that time I was introduced to the very nice family who own and run the place, the same family who has lived there for [???] generations since the founding in 1840.

   So on Saturday we popped in there. We found Tom Dennis, 40ish, entertaining some guests who appeared to be eating carrot cake and coffee, on a the table under the leafy veranda of the wool shop.
   "My parents are here from California!" I announced to him
   "Oh these people are from San Diego!" he said.
   Too funny. It turned out to be a woman originally from Chile, her mid-20sish daughter, and the daughter's Australian boyfriend whom she had met while backpacking in Guatamala.
   We went on a little walkabout around the grounds and then were perusing the wool store -- they sell yarn from their own sheep in their little shop, hand dyed locally with natural dyes -- when Tom mentioned the other group was about to go on a tour of a woollen mill, which was just under an hour away and the tour was beginning in an hour! So mom purchased some wool and we dashed out the door without pausing for the planned for coffee-and-scones!



   So we went driving out west through and beyond Colac town, through the rugged "Volcanic rises" area.. out just past the town of Cobden where I was fighting a fire two years ago or so.. and sped past the woollenmill and had to make a turn and come back because it was so small and easy to miss. Basically just a big shed by a house. One car in the parking lot which was of course our friends the Chilean-Australians.
   The Great Ocean Road Woollen Mill is run by this shortish guy and his possibly-European wife (accent.. dutchish?). They have machinery to turn alpaca or sheeps wool into yarn. The guy stressed that he's "not a greeny" but the mill is almost completely self sufficient, generating something like 85% of its electricity from solar and all of its water collected on site, and very little waste going out.
   But yeah so they can do alpaca from start to finish on site. Apparently sheep's wool is naturally greasier than alpaca and needs to be rinsed by people with more advanced and regulation-complaint filtration systems. He was saying that only costs "$5 per kilogram" for the washing "and yet people still send it off to china for cheaper rinsing! And that's probably because there's less environmental regulation there but it all washes down into the same ocean!" (I told you, I think he's definitely a greeny, which in my opinion is a good thing but I think it's kind of pejorative in Australian politics).
   Their machine can handle really small batches so they can do yarn entirely from one of their alpacas at a time. Even though I'm not exactly into knitting it was fun seeing the machines and hearing him explain all the steps involved in taking freshly shorn wool and cleaning it and spinning it into yarn. And mom is a bit into knitting, she had even worked at a yarn store (actually so did I briefly, putting the yarn up on ebay), so she was very interested and had some insightful questions to ask.
   The guy was definitely passionate about ethical production. If I understood him correctly it sounded like he had declined to do business with a customer because they were going to take his painstakingly-ethically-produced yarn and send it to India to be made into garments ("they said they wanted to give their business to the poor people in India but did they pay them Australian wages? no of course not. Hmmmmm!"



Quest for a Scone
   By this time it was around 3:30pm. We asked if there was anywhere good to eat and he suggested the Distillery in the nearby town of Timboon. We headed tehre (about ten minutes), but a sign on the door said they stopped serving food at 2:00. We looked around Timboon town and every eatery was dark and closed up. It looked like people were going into the pub but a sign by their door also said they stopped serving food at 2:00. Welcome to Australia, where you're out of luck if you want to eat between 2-5!

   I knew there was next to nothing between here and Colac on our way home, and really nothing very good in Colac either for that matter, and having not had anything to eat since breakfast I was kind of deliirously hungry. But Port Campbell on the coast was only ten minutes away and knowing it was a tourist hotspot I was sure it must have places open all hours. So we headed down there.
   It had been grey all day but here in Port Campbell it was _cold_ and windy. "This is summer!?" dad kept exclaiming. Now you feel my pain!
   We walked into a cute cafe by the beach but they were only serving tea and scones, the chef had already packed up too many things to make real food. We said we'd be back and went walking down the short main street. Long story short EVERYWHERE had stopped serving food at 2:00. Except a pizza place. None of us were really in the mood for pizza but being as it was the ONLY option we didn't have much choice. It was actually pretty busy, being the only place open and all.
   They only had the basic beers and being a bit of a beer snob I'd rather drink wine than that shit, but I was so delirious with hunger I ordered a souvignon blanc when I meant I souvignon gris. Yes just what I need on a freezing day to go with my pizza, a cold white wine.
   After this we walked back to the cafe to finally have our tea and scones .... only to find it was closed!!



Today, Sunday February 16th
   Today we decided to hike to another of the nearby waterfalls, Beauchamp Falls (locally pronounced as "Bocham Falls" I believe). This involved driving for an hour into the rainforest, where as usual I hummed the jurassic park theme music as we took the tightly winding road that weaves amongst towering ferns. I hadn't been to this waterfall in many years so I wasn't quite sure which one it was from my memory-bank of waterfalls but they're all nice. After driving to seemingly the middle of nowhere we came upon this nice parking lot with a very well maintained trail with a lot of people on it (where did they all come from??). Today the sun actually kept coming out which was nice, I'm not very accustomed to the sun actually shining while I walk in the forest here!
   Round trip hike was 2.4 miles, down on the way in and up on the way out. It was very nice, amongst big leafy ferns and towering "mountain ash" eucylypts. Among the many other people on the walh, of note were two young men doing the whole thing barefoot which I just thought was so Australian.

   On the return drive we stopped at one of the places I supply honey, the Otway NouriShed, to finally get our tea and scones. Well mom had this pastry calleed a "beesting" which was pretty delicious.

   In the afternoon I dragged my parents along to pub trivia at the Moriac Pub (which was quite a drive, forty minutes the OPPOSITE direction from my house from where we were, took us an hour twenty to get there from the trailhead). I was worried they'd die of boredom during the first two rounds, "entertainment" and "sports," where like me they didn't have a clue on a single answer. But as usual we caught up on the remaining rounds. My friend Mick and his girlfriend and mom were there so my parents got to meet them and experience an authentic hanging-out-at-an-Australian-pub experience. At dinner there, was good.


My parents and the waterfall. It doesn't look as big as it is here since you can't tell how far back it is

   And that's days 1 and 2!