A 200 km drive from Cann River to Bairnsdale via Orbost, passing Cabbage Tree Creek, the Snowy River floodplain, and the Buchan Caves. The narrator explains how Australian gum trees use fire to open their seed pods and quickly regrow foliage after burning.
Chapters
Okay, next section of the trip is from Cann River to Bansdale. It's just a little under 200 kilometers, and we'll see if we can do it in 10 minutes. How's that sound? Beautiful mountain roads most of the way. We'll be going across the top through Orbost rather than down through Lakes Entrance, which will save us 20 minutes or so, but will mean we don't get to see the ocean today. But amazingly, about a Australia, you don't actually have to see the ocean to have a beautiful day in Australia. There's beautiful things to see everywhere. The outback, the bush tracks, the everyday road just winding its way down from Cann River to Bansdale. Just passing Cabbage Tree Creek, little place to stop if you're in need of a watering hole. Well, we've got to the bottom of the hill from Can River down to Orbolst, which is is in front of us still. Beautiful valley. The sun is just perfect today. The weather is 12 degrees Celsius. It's 9:30 in the morning and we're cruising to Bansdale. You can see the trees are black here because there's been a fire. It's also why there's lots of thin trees. If you have a close look at the trees as we go by on the right-hand side, you can see a lot of black. They're actually healing pretty well. Forest fire is important in Australia. Some of the gum nuts that grow these giant gum trees only open in the heat of fire. So they need fire to crack a new generation of trees out of their little shells. Just realized it's my birthday today, which is pretty cool because I'm doing one of my favorite things to do, which is drive through Australia. Actually, I like driving anywhere, but Australia is absolutely beautiful, and I get to spend about 8 hours driving through the countryside today, so can't think of a better birthday present I could give myself. Here we are crossing the valley floor just before we get to Årbost. I'll show you Årbost in a minute. There's the sign for Orbost, and you kind of have to turn off the road here to go out to Orbost. We're going to keep going straight. Graveyard off to the left, right, sorry. Paddocks out to the left. Just crossed the Snowy River, and this is the floodplain for the river. You can see off to the right, just out of these trees, there's an old train bridge. Nothing on it anymore, just still there. Beautiful lush ground underneath this bridge. Must be beautiful soil for growing stuff, and then really sad when it floods and everything gets drowned. Looks like cows get to live on it. You see the trees on the side here, the way they're covered in leaves really close to them? That's what the trees do right after fire when they're healing. They put branches and leaves right out around all of them to get as much, as much sunlight as they can to regenerate their strength, and then they turn back into normal gum trees. So they're pretty smart. Well, we passed the turnoff to Lakes Entrance, and we just passed the turnoff to the Buchanan Caves, or Buchan Caves, and, uh, we'll be coming into Broodwyn soon, and I'll show you that place when we get to it. And just like every other country in the world, road work. We're moving. How many guys are working? How many are standing still? Hey, this is epic! There's 3 guys working, 4 guys working, and 1 guy standing still. Another guy working. Oh, that's insane. Only in Australia. Something special about following an old troopy as you're exploring Australia. Makes you feel like you're having a bit more of an adventure than you really are. Coming into the town of Brewton. Beautiful little spot. Here's Brython. And that was Bruthen. The old Troopy's fighting with this hill. Coming into Bansdale soon. Overtaking the troopy. Bye-bye, Aussie vehicle. And there is Lansdale coming up. Just up ahead is the bridge into Bansdale. Just on the right here is a fantastic little park for families if you ever come to Bansdale. There's a huge slide, there's all kinds of fun stuff, um, for kids, and even a bike track if you bring your BMX bike. Here's the bridge. Nice river here as well if you want to get involved in some river activity. Activities, kayaking or fishing. And here's Bansale. Thanks for joining me on this fun little trip. See you next time.
