Manna Gum

From Lofty, who says: A couple of pics of the bottom 10ft of the Manna Gum behind the house. The old bark detaches in great crinkly sheets every year and leaves behind a mottled surface with tiny defects.

Gorgeous trees, and that wood! There’s some fabulous insect engraving there.  Oh, that would make an extraordinary walking stick.  (I have more than enough of those, all hand made, but still…jealous.) Thanks, Lofty! Click for full size.

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Photos © Lofty. All rights reserved.

Cyclin’

Beautiful photos from Lofty. I’d love to be out on a bike if I was there, too. Click for full size.

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Beetaloo-valley-lunch-stop

Photos © Lofty. All rights reserved.

I’m a cyclist who loves the variety of the Australian bush, and sometimes I remember to take along my old Sony Cybershot. Sometimes I ride alone, sometimes with a group of mature aged reprobates like me. The first picture is of a pine forest lunch stop, just a rotted stump for furniture and the gentle sighing of light breezes in the tree tops for company.

The second is of a road sign that may indicate where your antipodean spirit hides.

The third is a juxtaposition between native and introduced forests of the region. The pine trees are “Pinus Radiata” or Monterey Pine, picked 120 years ago for great swathes of monoculture crops of building timber in the wetter areas of the state.

The last picture is of my cycling gang resting against a pipe line in the curiously named Beetaloo Valley, in the Flinders Ranges.