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Home > Diaries > 2015 > 465 |
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THICK fog and rain greeted me this morning up at O'Reilly's. Following the Toolona Circuit it was quite a challenge keeping the lenses and filters dry today as I set up the tripod and camera for a good shoot at each main waterfall. Upon reaching the headwaters of the Toolona Stream, the sound of rushing water dissipated into a solemn silence over the misty plateau at the edge of one of the world's largest calderas. At this altitude it is too cold for the subtropical rainforests that cover much of the mountains. Here they give way to a tiny remnant of a great forest that once covered Gondwanaland. The dominant tree species here is the Antarctic Beech, an unusual tree that once covered Australia and Antarctica. Growing for many thousands of years, these trees are covered in a protective layer of moss. The strange mass at the base of each tree is the original root system from a time thousands of years ago when it was below the surface of the soil, now eroded down to its present level. I am standing in front of the largest specimen in Lamington National Park. Standing high up near the summit of the park's highest mountain, Mount Bithongabel (which I later summited), the ancient tree towers a good 35 metres high from several trunks. Superblog from today: |
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