Summit Walk Early Spring

Anger, Flexibilty, Planning, Seasons, Spring, Vision, Wood Element, , , , ,

Monday 31st August 2026
Early Spring
Mount Barker Summit – Womma Mu Kurta

It is three months since I last drove up the rutted track to the summit. Time to see what has changed. Today is comfortably warm and sunny, prompting outer and inner smiles. In the spirit of the Wood Element of the season, I am on a mission. Armed with a printout from Green Adelaide’s ‘Common native orchids of the Adelaide Hills’, I’m on a private treasure hunt to find as many as I can.

First, I take the short trail to the trig point which gives a clear, panoramic view of the surrounding district. Mount Lofty to the north-west seems so close but the old metal plaque on the cairn reveals it is 21.5 miles away (34.6 km). To the south-east, further still, I can see the sun glinting on the waters of Lake Alexandrina and at the edge of vision, the dunes of the Coorong. Such wide vision engenders a sense of expansiveness, raising the spirits and imbuing me with optimism.

Tearing myself away from these views, I head back down to rejoin the main track around the summit that I trod in the winter. This time the sky is clear and blue, the sun warm on my skin, the ground dry underfoot. Last season I walked hurriedly huddled in my jacket; today I want to linger and savour everything the land has to offer. This suits my mission as I hunt for the elusive orchids.

Here is my first flower find: a pink-tinged white flower, but, hmm there are loads of them. I take a photo and identify it as kind of freesia. Or iris. It becomes clear that I am no botanist.

Ambling along the eastern edge of the ridge, scanning left and right, I find another candidate, a tall, pencil-like flower with small purple flowers with smaller yellow centres. It does not fit any of the images on my identification sheet. And again, there are many more examples. Another strike.

A gorgeous pink six-petalled flower turns out to be onion grass; a white beauty is completely unidentifiable; another purple one might be a kind of… I begin to realise that AI is not set up for plants in the Adelaide Hills. A subtle sense of disappointment and frustration creeps in: my mission has been unsuccessful. I recognise the feeling as a minor expression on the anger spectrum. And yet, I have seen an abundance of beautiful wildflowers! In not finding what I’ve been looking for, I haven’t really appreciated what I have seen. Bound by my tunnel-visioned mission, I have missed the wider picture. Such a lesson of the Wood Element.

Letting go, I continue in a lighter and more open frame of mind. I reach the northern end of the loop and turn onto the western slope. This was very cold and windy last time; today it is balmy and inviting. The tree canopy is denser on this side and I notice there are far fewer flowers. They peek out from open pockets of sunshine. Rounding a corner, there is a blaze of yellow bubbles from a wattle over-reaching the path. It is gorgeous, rich, bursting with yellowness. It doesn’t need a name or a label. Letting go of labelling somehow allows a fuller appreciation of its beauty. Reminds me of how we label people and thereby fail to see their uniqueness.

The last leg of the circuit is a steep climb up high steps strewn with rocks. Now I am hot and take off my sweatshirt which today is living up to its name. Just before I get back to the carpark, there is a profusion of wildflowers in the scrub by the path. Nameless and heart-liftingly beautiful.

Back home I do some research and discover that the orchids most likely to appear at Mount Barker Summit in September are Donkey Orchids, Pink Fingers, King Spider, Pink Fairies and Sun Orchids. I am advised to look closely at the damp, shaded soil patches beneath the open stringybark canopy and around exposed rock slabs. Maybe a little more planning would have helped, but such is the nature of Wood. When plan A doesn’t work, think again and try plan B.

I look forward to my next try.

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Summit Walk Early Winter

Cold, Metal Element, Seasons, Water Element, Wood Element, , ,

Friday 29th May 2026
Late Early winter
Mount Barker Summit – Womma Mu Kurta

I arrive mid-morning to a grey summit under a sinking sky. A weak sun shows its outline behind layered clouds. In the car park, a group of elderly volunteers sets up for a shift of eradicating invasive species. Otherwise, I have the mountain to myself.

It is years since I’ve been here. I used to visit several times a year, delighting in the seasonal changes, charting the pulsing of the year. Out and in. Up and down. Hot and cold. Yang and Yin. Now I have made a pact to visit at least once every season over the next year and to make a written and photographic record.

There have been changes to the signage around the carpark. Two beautiful installations of rock and metal welcome me to country of the Peramangk people. I used to feel something of an intruder up here, but now my heart is touched and I feel welcome to visit this sacred land. To reach the sculptures I step over puddles left by recent rain. Like meaningful configurations of stars, one group jumps out as a representation of the Five Element cycle. This too feels like Nature’s welcome for my Elemental project.

Five Element Puddle Cycle

There is a short walk to the trig point on the summit, but today I choose the 2-kilometre loop that runs either side of the north-south ridge. On a map, the loop has the look of a stone axe which feels appropriate to the ancient land I am traversing.

In this early winter, the temperatures are cool but not too cold. The path is muddy, the landscape damp from early rains. A few mushrooms sprout by the path, something I’ve never noticed here before. I am alone, see no-one, and enjoy the solitary commune with nature. I am in my feet as I pick across the rocky outcrops in the path. When I look up, it is to gum trees windbent across a greyscape. I smile inside as the land seeps upwards from my boots, spreading through me like a blotter soaking ink.

I have been sheltered from the wind thus far, but at the northern end of the loop, it gusts from the west and bites cold through my jacket. I welcome the discomfort as part of plumbing the Water Element. Here my eye is caught by a silver-green shimmer of movement on the wind. It is a young grass tree, xanthorrhoea, its multitude of slender spikes radiating light. In the greyness of the day it stands out in a way I haven’t  noticed on brighter days. The winter backdrop brings these plants to the fore, like the bass in a band stepping forward for its solo.

Grass Tree – Xanthorrhoea

On the west side, the path drops down through more dense shrubs and trees, and the light fades to gloom in places. I must stoop and bend to avoid drooping branches. It is very quiet here, sheltered from the noise of the south-eastern freeway which sprays the eastern side of the ridge with its endless hiss. The silence deepens my connection with the land and with the Water Element that I have come to seek.

My mind is caught by a curious sight which I stop to photograph. On the downslope, an ancient tree stump, smoothed with age and blackened by fire, nestles with a rock formation that echoes its form. Wood becomes stone; stone, wood. I think of the Wood-Metal axis of the Five Element Cycle which represents the seesaw of the ethereal and the corporeal. These Elements surround the Water Element which is the focus of my day, but remind me of the interconnectedness of all the Elements.

Wood Stone Nature Sculpture

The journey on this side of the ridge seems longer, for I have slowed down to match the yin nature of this part of the path. But finally, it takes me upwards on a slippery, stony slope to a broad path that returns to the car park.

I return to the installations of country and once again am touched by their welcome. I will return here to continue to chart the passage of the seasons and the Elements. Perhaps again in winter, certainly in spring.

I invite you to find your own special place in nature, and visit it in each season over the next year. You may find some unexpected discoveries, not only in nature, but in yourself.

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