Mount Duval (and surrounding bush)

A couple weeks ago we drove to Mount Duval, north of Armidale, or at least as close as we could get to it.  The hill (mountain) is on university land, so you need to contact the university before you go.  Sometime this winter, we'll call or email or whatever and get permission to hike the trail.  Or maybe in the spring or even summer, but I'd rather do winter, because, you know, snakes.

Mount Duval hiding behind the trees to the right.

I think the countryside around here is really beautiful.  I really love the scrubby pastures and the strangely shaped eucalypts.  The green of the grass and the eucalyptus leaves is a really amazing color, not quite familiar but not exactly strange.  There are a lot of interesting rocks scattered about the rolling hillsides, and of course they're covered with beautiful lichen.  Even the winding, gravel roads, a line of dust going off into the distance seems really striking to me.  I just really like it.  Autumn may just be a very picturesque time of year.. (though I doubt you'll see me complaining next summer).

Classic eucalyptus.

We googled Mount Duval before and after, and somewhat surprisingly it has its own wikipedia page.  Apparently there is a Little Mount Duval, which is actually a little bit taller.  Go figure.

There is also a Mount Duval in Nunavut, Canada.  No polar bears on this Mount Duval, though.  Just merino sheep, cattle and kangaroos.  The sheep ran across the road when we approached but otherwise didn't seem too worried at our arrival.  The kangaroos, of course, split pretty quickly.  I have to say, it's pretty cool to see a troop of kangaroos.  The merino are fun to look at.. but it's not quite the same.

Like most of our weekend drives this autumn, the weather was cloudy with patchy drizzle.  No downpours of heavy rain on this particular day: which is good, because I don't know if the little Berlingo can handle rough roads.  After we drove around Mount Duval we took the road to Thunderbolt's Cave--but had to turn around due to ruts in the road and we were a bit concerned we'd get stuck out in the middle of nowhere.  If it had been muddy, we'd probably still be out there today.

The trail to Mount Duval begins here

Beautiful colors of the Australian countryside

Next up, Mount Mutton.  (Originally I had wanted to put those photos in this post but I couldn't narrow down these enough... I apologize if it seems redundant.)  Hopefully I'll get around to posting those photos tomorrow (Thursday). (No promises.)  Have a lovely day y'all / cheers mates!