After a week of work, sitting around at a desk and being locked indoors, my spirit was desperate for some nature time. As the hubs was still feeling poorly, I went on my own, to a place we used to go with my folks when we were kids - Phantom Falls, behind Lorne, Victoria.

To get to the Falls, you first need to park at Allendale, and walk past the most beautiful properties in the area, two I have wanted to own my entire life. I love them as they're in a kinda of 'hidden' valley, where lichen grows on trees and a river trickles past even in the heat of summer. With a wall of bamboo when you cross the bridge, white arum lilies and fruit trees, it contrasts the wild of the bush that surrounds it.

My favourite is the old shed - there are interesting timbers stacked up against the walls with curlicues, perhaps from a boat, that haven't been moved since they were stacked there many years ago. I wonder at their purpose, and marvel at teh huge tall gum that's been witness to it all.

Across the river that divides the two properties is a newer build, where a woman sits reading the paper in her kitchen and the kangaroos graze. I'm intensely jealous of her. I don't like to be, but it is what it is - it takes some money to own a property like this, and this property has it all - a pool, a bush setting, a swimming dam, a jetty that hangs out over the river. I console myself with saying that it's not that private with all the walkers travelling past through the avenue of poplars to get to the waterfall. With the coastal population what it is, Phantom Falls is no longer a secret.

The track begins to get more jungle like almost straight away, with beautiful tree ferns on either side. The river is loud with the rains that have graced the land in the last few weeks - it's not the sad trickle that flows down in the summer months. Along the way I spot mushrooms, of course, but it's even getting late in the season for those, and mushroom hunters have knocked the tops off to see the gills to identify them.

The ascent to reach the waterfall is quite the hike - I can feel my heart pumping! It's so nice to be out and about on the weekend - I can feel myself shed the stresses of the week. From the hill the views are stunning, looking down into the valley and the river below. The track goes up before hitting a fork, where you either cross a stream to get to another waterfall or go left to a gorge. I take the ascent down to the falls, gagging at a couple who come up stinking of perfume and both on their phones. He's wearing converse - hardly the shoes for the slippery and muddy terrain. But I'm grumpy - sometimes I hate people and I already have two chocolate bar wrappers in my back pockets from litterbugs marking the trail. If anything is going to wash that away, though, is a waterfall, am I right?

It's so stunning that I come back on Sunday as well with the husband as he feels better. You really can't beat a waterfall. There's lots of them near us if you go looking. From there, I take the lower track along the stream whereas everyone else seems to go back up the way they came. I like an adventure though, and the road less trodden.

The tree above is worth a post all on it's own, but for now I'll keep going, save to say what a beauty it was. I stood inside it for a little while admiring the life in and around it.

Of course, part of the forest life is fungi - it's everywhere. I even find tremella, or snow fungus - wondering if @ligayagardner might correct me if I'm wrong here.

There's other features too that are easy to miss if you're thundering by on your phone - unfurling fern fronds, the rare black otway snail (I've only ever found it's shell, so finding it is a real thrill!), dew drops hanging like jewels off lichen. The forest in winter is a really fucking magical place.

The bridge crosses the river (der) and goes for a couple of kilometres before hitting a dam, and then up a hill that looks over the valley before hitting the road and the carpark again. It actually took me through a private locked gate, which was a bit confusing, but there were signs pointing to various bushwalking tracks and we saw one guy with a fishing rod going the other way, so we didn't think anyone would mind. Excuse me as I slip into 'we' - doing the track twice in a weekend, once solo and once with the hubs, confuses the story a little!

Another one for the 'I'm learning the names of mushrooms!' list - what I think is a variety of Amanita sp. - perhaps Amanita vittadinii? I'm not sure, but it sure is fun learning. I'm almost getting to a point where I'm at least nailing the family or genus pretty quickly. I was talking to hubs on the track why I love fungi so much - I could easily rattle off about twenty reasons, if not more. Aside from the challenge of identifying, what blows me away is that you can look at the entire forest and admire it, without even knowing that without fungi, it wouldn't exist. And when you do know this, you spend your time marvelling at it.

I'll leave this post with a picture of my hubs in front of the waterfall which made me laugh. He's laughing because I'd made him cross the rocks to hand me my phone, slipped and got his foot wet. Given he's always telling me to watch I don't slip, which annoys me as I am perfectly capable of watching my own feet, he had his comeuppance a little. Needless to say the rest of the walk I was saying 'watch your step, don't slip!'.

With Love,

W

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