What do you get...

... if you combine mist, sunlight, and a 3,000 year old Beech forest?



It was actually quite an amazing morning up at Springbrook today, although today I saw a side of it that I don't normally get to see, and one that I hadn't expected to see today.



It was at the top, at Best of All Lookout that really stoodout. On a clear day, the view lives up to it's name, but that certainly wasn't the case this morning. There was very little here that could be seen. However, it was on the way to and from the lookout itself, on the walk through the Antarctic Beech forest (that somehow defies the odds to survive here), the effects created by the sunlight in the mist, providing a visual spectacular that only a few places seem to be able to turn on.



What I had really come up to do this morning was the Purlingbrook Falls walk, largely because it had been so long since I'd explored it. Sadly, the falls themselves were just a trickle, largely a result of the relative lack of recent rain, and quite alarming at the end of what is supposed to be the "wet season". Compare this to the situation last christmas :



Nevertheless, there was still plenty to see up here:





And at least on this part of the mountain, I was out of the clouds.



The only regret is that I've pulled up a little sore from the ride today. This puts tomorrow's plans at risk somewhat, I'll just have to wait and see how I feel. Either way, it was worth every minute of it. On days like this I feel fortunate to have such areas where I can escape from life for a while, escape suburbia and it's short-fuses, deadlines, prickliness and general disillusionment.