More on the Tour Down Under

This morning we decided to go to Kuitpo and take a picnic lunch as the weather is just lovely and cool today. As we drove along the road where I took photos yesterday, not a sign remained of all the festivities, balloons , bunting flags and the marquees all gone, not even any litter in sight! Except, when we drove up the old road the cyclists would have pitted their strength on yesterday, on top there was the two story marquee still up but in the throes of being dismantled. I would love to know what that would have cost to put up and take down!! The other photo is from yesterday and shows part of the huge entourage these cyclists have.
Kuitpo forest is one of our favourite places to have a picnic lunch. The trees are stunning and tall and give that wonderful feeling of being personally small.It has the feel of the Hundred Acre Wood in the Pooh Bear stories.And Lo! and Behold! after eating our lunch I went off to take photos and found a Koala bear (they are not bears of course) high up in a gumtree, the first one I have ever seen there.

 We had a Kookaburra come and look to see what we had to eat, but when I got the camera out , he flew off and the little thorn bills were really hard to see let alone photograph. Otherwise the forest was pretty quiet with only a few families having a picnic. A lot of Kuitpo is used to grow Pinus Radiata which are harvested and taken to the mill near by.The yellow tailed cockatoo lives there in small numbers and there are times when the Corellas are there too. Kuitpo has quite a high rainfall and along the Meadows

road is a quite substantial strawberry farm.The tree on the right , the pale green straight up and down tree, is a lemon scented gum, I think, the trees in the foreground are pines of some sort with amazingly lumpy bark. Further in are some cork oaks which can't be seen from here.
Afterwards, we went to a whole sale nursery which was having a closing down sale. It was half way to Aldinga and occupied a huge area. There were huge numbers of plants but none we saw we wanted. There were some native hibiscus in pots but they looked so neglected they would never amount to anything when planted out in our heavy clay soil.Besides, my violin playing friend has been able to strike some for us from the bush we have here so we must have a go at getting cuttings to go as well. They are the most stunningly beautiful flower which will last when picked, in a vase without water! How is that for an easy care flower arrangement!!