Bush walk the pines and collect rocks
Up the back of the ranch once you go past ‘the old girl’ tractor that pays homage to the ranch that once was, you’ll find old fire trails to the right lined with eucalyptus and pine trees that we’ve tidied up for bush walks, on the trails you’ll find these beautiful white rocks, we call them sugar rocks which is how we came up with the name for the ranch.
The first thing you’ll notice aside from the impressive foliage is the smell of fresh pine forest, it hits you like nothing you may have experienced before. Smell is one of the senses that you somehow never forget, it really takes you to another place and reminds you of where you’ve been.
Along the path stop and take it all in, feel the freshness of the forest clear your mind and let the feeling connect you back to nature. Take a look through the trees and you might see some wildlife like those bellbirds that you hear or kangaroos resting out their day til dusk. The fallen hollow logs have been left in place, these provide much needed shelter for our small mammal wildlife, these are best left undisturbed so nature can be the way it’s intended to be.
The ranch is home to lots of wildlife we share and encourage our land to be used by the wild and as part of our rewilding activities. We’ve found so far on our journey kangaroos, black swamp wallabies, various reptiles and an abundance of bird life like the famous bellbirds we mentioned before known as the Bell Miner who feeds on bugs that eat the sap from the eucalyptus trees. Whilst these birds aren’t endangered, they are sacred. The Bell Miner is known as the bellbird because of its distinctive bell-like call, that’s the sounds you’ll hear your entire walk reminding you you’re in nature.
This particular part of Eden is well known for its bellbirds, not far from the ranch is the Bell Bird Creek which runs to the north and under the Princes Hwy into the Bellbird Creek Nature Reserve. The previous owners of the ranch called the property Little Bellbird... so you get the drift.
Collect those sugar rocks heading up the trail, there’s something mindfully soothing about finding and picking up stones as you walk. You can collect them on your way up and scatter them along the trail on your way back down so you can do it again next time.
On the ranch map you’ll see a smaller track that heads off into a loop, this trail lets you get a bit wild, it's for the more adventurous with steeper rock formations that make the trail a little tougher but more rewarding. You’ll head deeper into the forest with thicker trees and dense shrubs. We've made these low impact trails so you can feel completely immersed in the bush without leaving the ranch, unless you want to.
If you choose to stay on the main trail you’ll know when you’ve hit the end when you see the classic No Entry sign left there as a reminder of where on the ranch you are. To keep going you’ll be entering Crown land so best to turn around and head back if you do keep going the road does lead to somewhere it actually curves back around and you'll end up on the Princes Hwy.
Coming back down the hill scattering those sugar rocks as you descend, take one big breath in and one big breath out. #ranchorelaxo
