A few km from our bush block in
Yarck is an abandoned pine
forrest which covers
one side of a mountain, from which there are magnificent
views.
For many years only bushwalkers and the odd trail bike went there
as the original logging tracks had long since been overgrown.
Believing it might be for sale someone I knew had recently tried to get
there and didn't make it due to the shear volume of trees and scrub that
blocked the road and just having a basic
farm 4wd.
But they had done most of the hard work.
Need no excuse here and so off we headed with 4lt of chainsaw fuel
, extra drag chain, and got right into it.
Turns out that the blockages I couldn't pass with lockers, winch or drag out
of the way etc were few and soon we were on tracks covered in
deep layers of pine needles where no car had been for at least a decade.
Even though only km's from a highway we carefully recorded each
junction
taking time under the heavy
forrest cover to get good GPS readings because
its easy to take a wrong turn and slide down a slick bulldozer track.
There are no maps in
places like this , and also be no one around to extract us before the thermos flask went cold.
The
forrest was just a picture to be in and even though not-native had
a beauty all its own. We reached the ridge top peak about 2200ft up and came out
of the
forrest in brilliant sunshine to
views over the
Goulburn valley teaming with
jumping widlife and with the knowledge that there are still new
places to explore even an hour from
Melbourne.
Robin Miller