If I go to heaven (and not the other place- which is far
more likely) I want it to be a Rainforest just like Minnimurra Rainforest. This place is
only 7km from Jamberoo and maybe 15min drive away. Not that Jamberoo isn’t
pretty, because it is. In a beautiful, rolling hills and dales, country sort of
way. Filled with lush green meadows and big-eyed, docile, cows lazily munching
away.
Minnimurra Rainforest is another universe. One filled with ancient
trees that wind up into the sky, so high you can barely see the tops. Strange
trees. Trees as wide as small cottages. Trees that twist like spiral
staircases, or seem to have their roots sprouting in the treetops, hanging down
to the ground. And ferns curling like the feathers of the lyre birds that live
there, dancing on the breeze. Or huge palms sprouting from rocks. And the rocks
themselves, great domes with ringed ridges around their rotund forms. Resembling
ripples on a lake. And so much more.
Everywhere you look there is such architecture in every natural structure. A
breathtaking picture in every second glance. And the light! There is no light
anywhere like the light in a rainforest.
It dapples the scenery in untold shades of green or makes one particular
aspect almost electric. And it scintillates through the water like millions of diamonds. |
| The path I almost didn't take |
I was so enthralled at Minnimurra I went back twice in the
same day. The first time was around 10am. That time I decided to take the route
up to the falls. This incorporated two routes in fact. The short lower valley
route (whose scenery I found I much preferred), full of light through the
greenery and brooks of clearest water running over rocky beds. And the second,
attached leg, which wound steeply up to the mountain top, to the falls, and
then back down to the valley walk again. This was challenging physically,
despite all the seats along the way. Or maybe it was just my Fibro showing. But
it was also daunting
visually. The trees became leaner but denser and therefore
the surroundings developed a darkness to them. The paths which had been wide,
easily walked platforms of man-made structure, allowing you to meander at
leisure, taking all the photos you wanted to (and I took soooo many!) still
retained their manufactured form, but narrowed, sometimes twisting and
contorting as well as sharply rising. I have to admit I nearly did not complete
that second leg! I was almost at the falls (though I didn’t know it then) when
the path became enveloped in a tree which had slid down it’s precarious slope.
Gnarled and contorted it clung menacingly to the paths edge. As it was already
darkly shaded and damp now, it was like some scene from the
Hobbit or Grimms Fairy Tales. I had to duck under the tree to keep on the path. But I
was so lucky I did. The falls are spectacularly beautiful. There
are two viewing platforms there. I chose the one with the direct view of the
falls, as the other looked down into the far, far bottom of the valley below.
It was too much for my fear of heights.
That walk of 2meters Lower Valley Walk and 2.5 meters Upper
Falls Walk took me two hours. So I was just in time to have a coffee and some revitalising food
at the little café there, when I came down. The café is really nice and very
well priced, not far from the information/ entrance center. It’s only basic
food like chips, pizza, sandwiches,
cakes etc, but very tranquil both under
the café canopy or at the many picnic seats along the side of the babbling brook, and
there’s even a BBQ area if you want to. I was lucky enough to watch some lyre
birds there avidly pecking the earth for food.
But I had not had enough and returned to do the Lower Valley
Walk again. It is amazing how the light can change in such a short time. This
time I saw things that I hadn’t on the first journey, as the light lit up
different angles now. And even some of those special views I had seen the first
time were well worth another photo in this alternate setting.
All in all a fabulous day. I went back to Jamberoo very
happy that evening. Not just one of the highlights of my travels so far, but a
highlight I will always be drawn back to. Minnimurra Rainforest.
I hope you, too, find Minnimurra, somewhere in your life and see
the wonder of the light in a Rainforest.
The Grey Chihuahua
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