Mt Cole - Day 21

Darryl got up early to climb the mountain, Langi Ghiran. Because of the cloud cover and rain he didn't go all the way up the mountain, but went to the Reservoir. 

Once he returned, as it was raining, we decided to pack up and move on. We had decided to go to the next State Forest to the east, Mt Cole State Forest. We missed the correct turn at Raglan, and ended up at Smith's Bridge Camping Area. It was quite nice there, flat and very clean toilets. We had morning tea, Darryl had a bit of a look around, but as it was still raining we didn't stay. I had aimed for Ditchfield's Camping Area, and when we arrived it was just beautiful. Very ethereal with tall trees shrouded in cloudy mist, and a large open area in the centre. A little red robin decided to display to our rear-view mirrors. This site has a shelter hut with a chimney. 

Strangely there were lumps of quartz at the base of most of the trees

Violet (Viola spp)

We decided to walk the Archies Lookout Road to find the lookout. At the end of the road there was no sight of the lookout. Some huge beautiful granite boulders were across the road and we went to the top and got a pretty good view of the farmland below, although it was still rainy. 

Twining glycine (Glycine clandestina)

Daisy (Brachysome spp)

Tree-ferns

Darryl went for walk, and came back to get me as he had found Raglan Falls. It was a lovely walk down to the falls, following a creek jammed thick with treee-ferns. At the top of the falls was a stainless steel barrier, which really was a surprise. Just at the base of the falls a huge gum tree had recently fallen, the centre filled with red termite mud. 

Millipede

The millipedes were everywhere on rocks and logs

Railing at Raglan Falls

Slime mould

Shell-less snails playing chasey

Some of these trees are 'really' tall

Darryl built the fire (in the pig), in the chimney in the hut, which was great as it was so cold.

First time we used the pop-up