It’s Tuesday and I can’t believe we’ve already been here a week. Time flies! Lou and I walked to the cafe this morning. The cockatoos were making a racket around the golf course. They don’t stay in one place for very long, but I managed to get a picture of a few sitting in the top of a pine tree.

Another bird that fascinates me, because of its throaty, sort of trill-like call, is the pied currawong. It’s native to Australia and is like a large crow with a few white patches. It has such a distinctive sound and I always pause to listen to it. Pull up a YouTube video of the pied currawong and take a listen.

Lou and I then drove to Kandos to pick up sound equipment from the church there. The Catholic churches in Kandos and Rylstone share a priest and equipment. The Sunday service is in Kandos the first and second Sundays of the month and in Rylstone the third and fourth Sundays. Lou’s friend Angela is the sacristan at both churches and between the two of them, I think they do all that needs to be done taking care of things.
The weather has been difficult to judge because the forecast has been for storms and rain, but so far, in Rylstone, we have watched storm clouds swirl past us without getting any rain. The iffy forecast has kept us from doing much, fearing we’d get soaked, but this afternoon we decided to chance it and go for an adventure to Ferntree Gully.
In past visits, I had seen signs for Ferntree Gully and had read a little about it. It’s a nature reserve just 16 kms from Rylstone. This was on my list of things to do this visit. So with Margaret and Clare, off we went.
The reserve protects an area of unique rainforest and western plant communities. The gully is a ravine that was formed through the rocks by rushing water. The track takes you down to the floor of the ravine. It turned out to be a bit more than we bargained for. You might not be able to see it, but in the lower left of the trail map it says, “some sections of the walk involve a fair degree of difficulty . . .” They weren’t kidding!

We did the gully walk and came back on the overlook loop. It was a beautiful area, but if the steps down didn’t wear you out, the scrambling over rocks and boulders on the way down to the gully floor did.




It was very cooling heading down into the gully. As we got lower into the ravine, the rock walls began to close in and the temperature dropped considerably, a good thing because it was hot and sunny when we started. It was quite a steep descent down into the ravine.


As we neared the bottom of the gully it was remarkable to see the patterns made by rushing water over the centuries. The sandstone was scooped out and rubbed smooth by water.


It was pretty narrow moving through the ravine. It was interesting to see tree roots clinging to the sandstone from trees standing at the top of the ravine walls. Once we were on the floor of the gully, the track was much easier to walk. Christine, with her non-flexible ankles, really had a difficult time picking her way through the rocks and boulders. Clare was so helpful in offering guidance on foot placement and extending a supportive hand during the descent.







On the floor of the gully is a boardwalk through protected rainforest vegetation. At the end of the boardwalk was a bench and we rested for a bit. During that time, Louis felt his shirt pocket for his prescription glasses, which he had taken off at the start of the hike, and they weren’t there. Somewhere along the way they apparently had fallen out of his pocket. Bummer! We talked about splitting up and having a couple of us retrace our steps back up the descent looking for the glasses and the others continuing on up the overlook track. We decided against that and continued on.

Of course, when you are at the bottom of a deep ravine, the only way back out is up. And so we started our climb up out of the ravine. First there were about a hundred steps. And then the boulders and rocks lodged into the gully from rushing water needed to be traversed. It was difficult for everyone, but especially for Christine. Having to step up and heave one’s body over and across large rocks was not easy.


While sitting in the rocky depression in the photo above, Christine’s cellphone slid out of her pocket, unbeknownst to anyone, and fell into a crevice. As I was helping her get up and pushing her over those rocks, a bluish color caught my eye and I reached down into a crevice to see what it was. It was Christine’s cellphone! I had no idea, nor did she, that the phone had fallen out of her pocket. Boy, were we lucky to have retrieved it. Margaret said it would have been a really expensive hike between Lou’s glasses and Christine’s cellphone, had we not retrieved the cellphone.
The hike back up took its toll on everyone. Lou, with his knee replacement, and Christine, with her inflexibility and fear of heights and trails on rocky edges, took the brunt of the strain. Lou said he was really pleased with himself that he did as well as he did. Christine had some dizzy spells, I think from heat exhaustion, and so for the last half kilometer we had to support Christine to keep her upright. At one point, she said, “I’m never going on another hike!”
We reached one of the overlooks and it was quite a site to see how far down we had hiked.


Once back at the car park, Lou, Christine and I waited while Clare and Margaret set off down the track we had hiked down. They wanted to look for Lou’s glasses. While we were waiting for them, we tried to cool off. I put a wet handkerchief around Christine’s neck and I poured a bottle of tank water over Lou’s head, which he greatly appreciated.
After about 30 minutes, Margaret and Clare were heard coming back up the track. Clare was about 30 feet from us and we were looking at her for some sign about the glasses. I thought she was going to shake her head, but then she leaned down and picked something off the ground. Lou’s glasses! They were right at the start of the hiking track and only 30 feet away from where we were sitting. None of us could believe it. We had all walked right past them lying there on the ground coming back to the car park. It was downright miraculous that Clare saw them.
So our adventure at Ferntree Gully came to and end. It really was a wonderful hike with many interesting and beautiful things to see. It was just a little challenging for Christine, but she made it in spite of the rough terrain and I was proud of her for hanging in there.
Back at Lou’s, showers were in order as we were hot and sweaty. Refreshed from our showers, we went to Margaret’s for dinner. She roasted a chicken and had lots of veggies. It was a delicious meal, and Daniel joined us. It was the first time we’ve seen Daniel since we’ve been here. He’s doing well and is working at Woolies managing online ordering and delivery. Clare brought out the cards after dinner, but we were too tired from our hike to play so we begged off.
Back at Lou’s we all were in bed fairly quickly. It was quite a hike today. I imagine we’ll be a little sore tomorrow from all the scrambling over boulders we did.
this time I am glad I wasn’t there