Skip to main content

Mountain Pass


I like the view driving down the western escarpment to the lowlands beyond. Over the years getting a good navigable road down the steep descent was a challenge.

This photo is taken from Barden's lookout near Mount Victoria. From it (but not in this picture) you can see Mitchel's Victoria Pass of 1832 and below that the line of Berghoffers Pass of 1912. Victoria Pass was brought back into use in 1920.

Musing:
Three-Mountain Pass by Ho Xuan Huong
"A cliff face. Another. And still a third.
Who was so skilled to carve this craggy scene:

the cavern's red door, the ridge's narrow cleft,
the black knoll bearded with little mosses?

A twisting pine bough plunges in the wind,
showering a willow's leaves with glistening drops.

Gentlemen, lords, who could refuse, though weary
and shaky in his knees, to mount once more?"

Comments

  1. "the black knoll bearded with little mosses" - this would be lichens, yes?

    I do not know those place names at all? At all ... where am I looking? What is the name of the hamlet? It is so gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes it would lichens! Barden's Lookout is on Mt York Rd, which goes off to the right just a little after Mt Victoria, the last village before descending the western escarpment. The hamlet you are looking at is Little Hartley.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mmm ... I can feel a weekend loop forming in this weary head ... living where I live there is a desperate need to take scenes like that in on a regular basis.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have such a limited visual idea of Australia that seeing a view like this, seeing the trees off in the distance, the green shading...I'm making adjustments. It's a beautiful sight. Julie I hope you have a good trip!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Coolibah?

Is that a Coolibah tree beside the abandoned house? Every Australian knows about Coolibah trees because the bush ballad Waltzing Matilda is nigh on our unoffical national anthem but most of us live nowhere near the inland where they grow. Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong, Under the shade of a Coolibah tree, And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled, You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me. Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda, You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me, And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me.

The end

I retire from the workforce this week and to celebrate have decided to retire my current blogs and start afresh with a single consolidated blog -  My Bright Field  - to record the delights of my new life adventure. If you are interested follow me over there.  I will still be Sweet Wayfaring and collecting Royal Hotels.  The delights I discover along the way will appear together with my gardens and towns where I live.

Brown streams and soft dim skies

I gave my husband a thick book on the history of Australian Art for Christmas. It documents just how long it took the artists to paint what they actually saw -- at the hands of early artists our wild Australian landscapes looked like rolling green English countryside. Today's photo has "that look" so I have referenced words from the poem describing England. It was Christmas Eve. We were camped by the Tumut River in the Snowy Mountains of NSW. A shady spot planted with exotic trees from the "old world" and with the soft burble of a swiftly flowing stream. Bliss after a hot afternoon drive. But the old world dies slowly, a hot roast for Christmas dinner followed by plum pudding is one of those traditions that just won't die. Knowing we were going to be on the move on Christmas Day we settled for having our traditional hot meal on Christmas Eve this year.