Restricted Access

One of the water reservoirs on Mt Rogers.

Trig station

This is the trig station at the summit of Mt Rogers (704m elevation).

Salvation Jane

This is Echium plantagineum, better known (depending on where in Australia you come from) as either Salvation Jane or Paterson's Curse, and it originally hails from the Mediterranean region. The seeds were first brought to Australia from Europe in the 1880s, to be added to the garden of Jane Paterson, who lived near Albury.  From there it started spreading, and it is now a common weed in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory, parts of South Australia, southern Queensland and south western Western Australia. And it's still spreading.

It's very pretty, with masses of purplish-blue flowers forming carpets across entire paddocks after rain. But it can also be deadly. Horses and pigs are particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects it has on the liver. Cattle and sheep are more resistant, and in fact it has carried stock through bad periods of drought in South Australia (and that's where the name Salvation Jane is most widely used), but too much of it in their diet can make even these animals very sick.

Just a dirt track

It may just look like a muddy track around the fringes of the suburbs, but this particular dirt track is a little more significant than most. This is part of the Bicentennial National Trail. The trail is actually 5330 km long, from far north Queensland down to Victoria, and it even has its own website! The trail began with an idea of a horse trail linking the stock routes along the Great Dividing Range, and developed into a $300 000 Bicentennial project, opened in 1988.

The trail is used by all sorts of people - for short walks or long treks on foot or horse, by cyclists and by people accessing bush camping areas, fishing spots and more. There are easy stretches like this one between the houses on the edge of Spence, Fraser and Dunlop, and rugged parts through national parks. What you can't take on the trail is your dog (parts of the trail go through farmland where there may be baits for wild dogs and foxes) or any sort of motorised vehicle - so leave your 4WD and trailbike at home.

The website has lots of information about the trail, its history, and how you can help maintain it, as well as maps and details of the guidebooks available if you wanted to follow all or part of the trail.

Lost dog

Lost dog notice on Mount Rogers.

Promise

Spotted this rainbow when I was out a little earlier this afternoon. What you can't see in this photo are the ominous dark clouds on the right, coming through on a cold front that's supposed to bring blizzard conditions over the next few days. This was about 4.15pm, and now, an hour and a half later, it's pitch black outside with sleety flurries, and the wind is making it feel quite a few degrees lower than the actual temperature.

This rainbow is certainly not promising the end of the rain!