Victoria, the state of southeastern Australia, with Melbourne as its capital, is a healing travel destination where you can trek through nature, meet wild animals, and enjoy wine and cuisine. The Gippsland region, which stretches 542km east from Melbourne to the New South Wales (NSW) border, is Australia’s rising wine and cuisine tour destination. We encountered amazing nature and amazing wildlife at Wilson’s Point, a vast lake where black swans swim, and Tarra-Bulga National Park, which is covered with fern forests where dinosaurs used to live.
● Temperate rainforest where dinosaurs roamed
A jungle with dense forests all year round in an area with a lot of rainfall is called a rainforest. Usually, tropical rainforests develop near the equator. However, cool-temperate rainforests have formed in some areas on Earth. They are more suitable for human survival than tropical rainforests, so they are not easily seen because the forests were cleared early.
Tarrabulga National Park in South Gippsland, about 180km southeast of Melbourne, Australia, is a well-preserved primeval temperate rainforest. The dense forest is covered with ferns, with tall eucalyptus, giant zelkova, and beech trees forming a canopy at the top, and tree ferns, mushrooms, and mosses growing beneath.
Among the many trekking courses in Tarrabulga National Park, we walked for about 30 minutes to Corrigan’s Suspension Bridge, which overlooks a fern-covered rainforest valley. As we entered the entrance, a towering royal eucalyptus tree greeted tourists. It is about 74m tall and is estimated to be over 200 years old, having existed when Europeans first arrived in Australia.
Looking down the valley from the suspension bridge, the giant fern trees are densely packed like umbrellas. In Korea, ferns grow like grass, but here they grow like palm trees that grow tall. This is a forest that still has the Jurassic landscape of the Mesozoic Era, when dinosaurs walked around. Going down the valley, the beech trees reveal their roots that wriggle like giant snakes, and moss and mushrooms grow on the forest floor.
On the way out of the temperate rainforest where green water drips down, I met a lyrebird, an Australian native bird. The colorful tail of this bird, which uses the character for lyre, resembles a lyre. When it spreads its tail, it is a beautiful bird like a peacock.
![Sunset half-body bath… Happiness is in the oak barrel[전승훈 기자의 아트로드]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/08/31/126769678.9.jpg "Sunset half-body bath… Happiness is in the oak barrel[전승훈 기자의 아트로드]")
Gippsland has a vast lake developed around the sea. In the middle of the lake, there is a ‘mini island’ called Raymond Island, which is about 6km long and 2km wide. It is only 200m from the coast, so you can get there in 5 minutes by ferry from the town of Painesville. It is said that koalas have spread to Raymond Island since a few koalas were brought in in 1953. It is a true ‘koala paradise’ where almost one koala lives on every eucalyptus tree. On this island, you can enjoy the ‘Koala Trail’ by walking or riding a bicycle. When passing under a eucalyptus tree, look up. There is a koala sitting on each tree like a stuffed doll.
I came out of the island and was waiting for the ferry. The sunset was setting. Black birds were floating on the golden lake. They looked exactly like swans, but they were black. They were the Black Swan that I had only heard of. In Act 3 of Tchaikovsky’s ballet ‘Swan Lake’, there is a scene where the black swan ‘Odile’ disguised as the swan Odette seduces Prince Siegfried. This is the scene where Natalie Portman perfectly played two roles in the movie ‘Black Swan’.
‘Black Swan’ is a financial market term that refers to ‘a phenomenon in which something that seems impossible actually happens’. Black swans are an endemic species that only live in Australia, so it is a term that makes you understand how surprised Europeans would be when they first came to Australia and saw a black swan.
● Foursome of Miteng Hot Springs
Near Lake Gippsland is the Metung Hot Spring, rich in minerals that spring from 500 meters underground. The highlight of the trip is the open-air hot spring bathing in an oak barrel used for aging wine, while overlooking the sunset over the lake turning pink.
In Korea, many people enjoy hot springs together in a large bath, but Australians enjoy it in a single-person oak barrel. Inside the barrel, hot spring water of about 38 to 40 degrees Celsius gushes out, and when you put your body inside the barrel, the water overflows to match its volume.
In Victoria, Australia, there is also Peninsula Hot Springs, which opened in 1997 on the Mornington Peninsula. In the early 1990s, brothers Charles and Richard Davidson experienced dozens of hot springs while staying in Japan, and then developed an open-air hot spring with state-of-the-art facilities, thinking, “Why don’t we have hot springs like this in Australia?” After Peninsula Hot Springs, they developed Mitung Hot Springs in Gippsland as their second development. It is said that 500,000 people in Australia enjoy hot springs every year. Mitung Hot Springs has a glamping accommodation on the lakeside, and there is a personal oak barrel hot spring on one terrace of the tent, so you can enjoy a private hot spring at the accommodation.
Near the Mitung Hot Spring Glamping Site, we met another marsupial, the Possum. It is a fast-moving animal with a long tail that looks like a mix of a cat and a meerkat. It is as big as a cat, but has a face like a mouse, clear eyes, and a cute pink nose. It looked at people with curious eyes for a while, and when we approached it slightly, it quickly swung its tail and disappeared.
● Gippsland Wine and Gourmet Tour
The Lightfoot winery, located on the Mitchell River Valley in Gippsland, boasts a spectacular view of the vast vineyards from its terrace. The Myrtle Point vineyard is spread out on an ancient limestone ridge with rich red soil. Australian wine began in the mid-to-late 1800s when European pioneers planted grapevines. It was produced before Australia was founded (1901). The representative grape variety of Australian wine is ‘Shiraz’. Syrah, a grape variety mainly produced in the northern Rhone region of France, was brought to Australia and became known as ‘Shiraz’. Australian Shiraz is characterized by a soft and dense taste mixed with dried berries, chocolate, and earthy aromas. Pinot noir, which has a gorgeous fruity aroma, is also produced in large quantities in Gippsland, Yarra Valley, and Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.
Gurney’s Cider, located on a hill overlooking Wilson’s Point in Gippsland, is a cider distillery that produces cider in the traditional British way. The farm has over 5,000 cider apple trees from France, England, the United States, and Ireland. Open the cellar door and you will see cider maturing in oak barrels. Here you can sample cider (16 percent alcohol) and cider brandy (41 percent).
I saw a circular rainbow after the rain on a helicopter to the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. When seen from the ground, a rainbow looks like a half circle, but when seen from the sky, I learned for the first time that a rainbow can look like a circle. Apollo Bay also offers a Wildlife Wonders tour. You can see the majestic Emu, Australia’s national bird that resembles an ostrich. The label of Spotted Ale, a craft beer here, features a spotted wild animal. It’s called Tiger Quoll. I drank a glass of cold beer to help support the phrase, “100% of the proceeds from this beer go to the protection of the endangered Tiger Quoll.”
2024-08-31 02:13:41