Cooyar

Yesterday, we drove about an hour or so north up the New England Highway to the small community of Cooyar. There are several things in and around Cooyar that make it worth the trip.

One of the things available in Cooyar at the Water Inn is a good cuppa. We stopped in for a hot cup and rest after doing about in the nearby Palms National Park.

 This park is very small. You could probably walk across it in 20 minutes or so. The problem with actually doing that is that it is very thickly wooded with palms, pines, fig trees. The walking path thought the park was only 350 m end-to-end.

One of the amazing things we learned here is that there is a kind fig tree, the strangler fig, that takes root high in another tree. It then puts "limbs" down to the ground to become roots. More and more are sent down to the ground and the fig begins to cut off the water supply to the host tree. Eventually, as more roots are sent down and they spread, the host tree is surrounded completely and killed. What you get is a gift fig tree that looks like this.

One of the attractions of Cooyar was the possibility that we might see a platypus. We read that it might be possible to see them at dusk at the Swinging Bridge Park in town. Since this left us with a little time until sundown, we drove up to see the Yarraman State Forest.

This is a forest of Hoop Pines planted in 1950. There are enormously tall. Pictured here is the access road. It is most of a mile long and as straight as can be. It was a beautiful and quiet place. Only the songs of the birds broke the silence. A very calming and refreshing for a break from the noise and bustle of the city.

We went back to Cooyar and stood watching from the swinging bridge in the park to see if we could see us a platypus. The short answer is that we did not get lucky. No Platypi, just a couple ducks. What we got instead is a beautiful pool reflecting the evening sun.

These images and more are found on flickr.