Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Bromeliad Heaven, 0 by weed_woman

weed_woman wrote:
Today started beautiful and sunny, which was gratefully appreciated after all the rain we've had! I'd had this nursery visit planned for awhile so I didn't get much sleep, and awoke early with excitement.
I left home at 7am and drove down South in my old Datsun 720 (diesel). On the way, I stopped for fuel, but hung up the nozzle when it reached $60! I drove around an hour to a campsite along the Nambucca river, where my friend Belinda was camping with her family.
After the usual "Gidday" and "how're you going" Belinda climbed in my ute and we set off on our adventure, telling ourselves not to have high expectations, as we had been disappointed in the past with Bromeliad nursery visits.
Both Belinda and I had a fair whack of money, as she had been given some for her recent birthday, and I had been saving my plant sale money for a couple of months.
The nursery we were going to visit, belongs to a man called Neil Miskin, and we had met him at the Bellingen plant fair, held in Spring and Autumn each year. He's not open to the public, but open by appointment if you ask nicely. He provided me with a map via Email.
It took us 45 minutes on rough, pot-holed, but sealed country roads, before we turned onto dirt. Then we had to cross a concrete culvert, awash with creek water and continued on the dirt, which became progressively rougher. Eventually we turned onto the private road/drive that accessed Neils house.
Oh My God! We were bouncing over rugged, rutted tracks and sliding in the clay, aswell as crossing two more creeks! When we finally began the ascent up neils drive, Belinda was screaming and laughing that it was more fun than the rides at the show!
We only made it half way up before the wheels were spinning in the clay. I had tried to take the high ground, but kept slipping into the ruts, and my ute is only 2 wheel drive. I kept reversing to find a spot with traction, but couldn't get any purchase, and would slide back even with the handbrake on! Halarious! NOT!
Neil must have heard us laughing and wheel spinning, as he came walking/slipping down the hill and told us to jump in the tray back and put our weight over the wheels. Ha! Belinda is about 50kg wringing wet! Anyway, we clambered in the back and Neil, (after much confusion about the column change gear shift), reversed back to level(ish) ground and got a run at it in first gear. With his knowledge of the bumps, lumps and slippery places, he got us passed the tricky bits and parked at the front door!

This message was edited Apr 27, 2008 9:44 AM