Riverina Roadtrip - Sugar Pine Walk

I didn't really have the most comfortable night. Turns out the Hyandai i30 back seats don't fold flat completely and has quite a significant height difference. I woke up with a pain in my tailbone as that is the area where the ridge was hitting. I also woke up quite cold as it was around 9 degrees C when I woke up and it was 20 degrees when I fell asleep. This meant that I was overheating when I was trying to fall asleep but then woke up at 4am frantically zipping up my sleeping bag. I finally woke up at 6.30am to the sound of kookaburras and slowly got ready for my day.

I wanted to visit the Bago Forest for the Sugar Pine Walk however it was a 1.5hour drive from Wagga Wagga. Since I was "in the area" I decided to still visit and I actually find it crazy that some people head from Sydney just to see the forest (it would be a 7 hour drive). Madness. I do quite enjoy driving very early in the morning, just after sunrise due to the serenity and the roads are nice and quiet. I saw this bridge on the drive there and ended up stopping and found a lot of noisy cows too!







It was a beautiful sunrise with lots of fog and my photos don't really capture the true beauty of it. There was this field with low wisps of fog hanging near the cows and it was just absolutely stunning. It was probably one of my most memorable sunrises.






I love this shot. So glad that I stopped the car for this.
I ended picking a smaller back road unintentionally and drove past lots of orchards. Riverina is known as the "food bowl" of NSW and is where a lot of produce is grown. In the area near Laurel Hill, there is the town of Batlow which is known for their apples. I saw an orchard near the side of the road and I quickly snuck out, ran in and stole two apples from the tree. One of my most rebellious moments!







Laurel Hill is part of the Snowy Mountains so naturally the landscape was very different to the Riverina Region. There were a lot of super tall trees and it was very very quiet. I have this tendency to spot things on the side of the road and want to stop to have a look at it. Sometimes it's a really good idea (like the shot above), and other times I need to remind myself that if I was to keep doing that I wouldn't get anywhere. For this instance, I stopped because I saw what I thought was an alpaca and a dog. Turns out they were just two dogs.


The Sugar Pine Walk was absolutely breathtaking. The sugar pines were planted in 1928 and are the tallest pine trees in the species. Pine trees are not native to Australia and are actually native to the Pacific Coast of North America so it was very unusual to see so many pines planted there. There was one row of trees that had been cut down so that there was a "walk way" to the end of the 500m long path. I arrived there at 9am and was the only person there.







It was so silent except for the chirping birds and since I live in the city and work in the heart of the city, silence is sometimes a very uncommon thing. Since I travel solo, my tripod and self timer are my best friends. Also a selfie stick although I am very selective about when I choose to use it. I wanted to take a photo of me standing in the greens underneath the sugar pines. What I was initially worried about was the possibility of discovering a snake however that was actually the least of my problems. I took a step in after I clicked the self timer and had instant regret since my right leg was attacked by the thorns. It was so painful that I immediately withdrew my leg and ended up with quite a few cuts on my leg. I have this wonderful photo that my camera captured.

Trying to retreat quickly from the thorny plants.

By the time I wrapped up my photos it was 10am and as I was about to leave, 4 cars turned up! Lucky I did arrive early. And I guess that is also why I like heading out early. The roads are quiet and people generally only wake up at 8am which means I get a lot of things to myself.

Next up will be Gundagai! That post will explain why I decided to visit Riverina region.

This is my fourth trip as part of #take12trips. To see previous trips please click here