Sunrayasia...Mildura...Monday Afternoon...

After spending the morning indoors on the Monday I headed over the river to the NSW side and spent the afternoon outdoors...at the Inland Botanical Gardens...

There is a "rule" that a copy of the gardens map is obtained from the coffee shop before taking the one-way self-drive tour (I hadn't seen the sign so luckily the ladies in the coffee shop put me right when I went in for sustenance first off)...the gardens are large at 124 acres with parking spots so area can be explored along the way.

I walked around the Nature Trail Walk (1) and the Mallee Flora area (2) and Sturt Desert Pea Display (4) before hopping back in the car and heading onto the park circuit...I was ridiculously excited to see flowering Sturt's Desert Peas...

It was quite a warm (OK veering mighty close to hot) day and I was starting to get a bit tired so once back in the car didn't get out in all the areas...

There was one big foray out of the car...I parked near the Rare Fish Habitat and found this fellow by the ponds...

The point of the walk in was to find the WOW Tree...a 2,500 year old mallee tree!...

...while this particular tree (Eucalyptus oleosa) is estimated at 2,500 years old it's oldest stem is estimated at 700 years old...the tree will have withstood many many fires and regrowth of its aboveground stems from its 2,500 year old lignotuber...all the generations that would have benefited from this one tree!...

 

After a few hours I'd barely touched the surface of these gardens! On Saturdays at a particular time there is a tractor train ride guided tour...something to remember for another time...

Happy Stitching