Grass trees
I hit the bush near home today to do some more geocaching. The rain’s been hanging around again but that’s not going to stop me getting outdoors – I won’t melt like the wicked witch. I started by spending an hour out in the Native Dog Creek area hunting down three caches hidden along the trails. Despite having lived in this area most of my life, the hunt still took me to trails I had never traveled before.
Native Dog Creek
Paperbark
The walk was rewarding, both because I added three more smileys to my geocaching records and because I got to spend time in the bush. We often take our local bushlands for granted and I’m not exception to that rule. But geocaching is opening my eyes to the real beauty of our local bush because I’m alert as I walk on my hunts.
Grass trees are prolific here. Given that they grow slowly, many of them must be hundreds of years old. Depending on our local species, the largest grass trees in the photo above might be anywhere from 150 – 500 years old. This means the smaller ones I see today might be seen by my great great grandchildren if the bushland is preserved.
The low lands in the bush here are true swamp. Your feet sink into stinking mud when you try to walk through it. In some places the suction will steal your shoes, leaving you barefoot when you pull your feet out. The water is often stagnant because it has nowhere to flow to, especially after the nearby Logan River has been in flood. But it’s my home swamp and I’m rather used to it. My sister and I used to run or ride our horses through it when we were teenagers growing up as wild ones.
The sight of paperbarks makes me feel like I’m home. Like grass trees, paperbarks thrive in our local area. They grow in the swamp lands while the grass trees grow up on the ridges and spurs. The paperbarks shed their bark, making interesting patterns.
Caught out in the rain this morning
I got caught out in the rain while geocaching this morning but still had a great time. Even if I did look and feel a lot like a drowned rat.
A nasty little steep re-entrant
I had chores to do today so after my morning geocaching expedition I went back home to continue cleaning the house and doing the washing. I’m leaving on a two-week motorbike trip on Monday so wanted to make sure the house has had a spring clean (in autumn) for my partner who is staying home.
After cleaning the house I went out again for some more geocaching in another area of bush slightly further from home. This bush is similar to that near home, except that there wasn’t as much low land. There were some nasty hills and re-entrants though. I did a lot of scrub bashing to find some of the caches and sometimes taking short cuts means working hard.
Sweating in the post rain humidity this afternoon
Transventure 
That is the beauty of geocaching. It will take you to places you would otherwise never visit. Happy caching!
It is, isn’t it 🙂 I’m going off to do some more exploring this morning when I go trail running
I need to develop a tougher skin- getting caught in the rain would have stopped my search- next time, thunderstorm or hurricane I’ll continue onward! Great Blog Post
LOL. Sometimes it feels like if I didn’t go out in the rain I’d never be able to go out. Such is the Brisbane weather … beautiful most days but when it rains it rains and there’s no avoiding it 😉
The rain did cut my geohunting short this afternoon though. I found a few caches up in Lamington National Park but then decided to just ride home afterwards because of the rain (will write about it later today)