Having no work today, I went for a bit of a stroll down the road. A short distance from the winery is park called "Carter's Scenic Reserve". It is a bit of marshland set aside in the original estate owner's will for preservation, and is now part of the national trust. Or something. I can't remember exactly what the sign said, and I didn't read all of it, but that is the general idea of the place.
There are two walks on offer, one a short loop, the other a somewhat longer, path that leads to the river. I took the former, which the map at the beginning indicated would take fifteen mintutes (or twenty?), but which seemed to take five, or maybe ten. Perhaps I was insufficiently bewondered by the wilderness, or perhaps the signs were targeted at those with shorter-legged people in tow. The first bit of the trail was a board-walk built over the marsh, which seemed fairly dry as wetlands go. Fat people and baby stollers are not allowed: a special gate at the entrance leaves a meager few-inch passage:
The scenery was interesting, with a slightly exotic feel, which I hope (vainly) will be conveyed in my photographs. The eerie air, no doubt, should be attributed mostly to the scattered dead and half-dead trees, combined with those spiky-topped ones, which (for me) evoke the desert. The neatest thing around was these cocoon-webs:
At first I thought some poor tourist, by dint of an indescribable misadventure, had abandoned a scrap of toilet paper atop a spiky bush, but soon noticed the place was riddled with the things and took a closer look.
Further along was a foresty sort of area, pictured below.
Either there was very little fauna to be seen, or I scared it all away, because while I heard some ordinary-sounding birds, I don't recall seeing a single animal.
After that adventure, I contined along the road (toward Carterton) and saw many fields, some sheep, and some hay.
No comments:
Post a Comment