Awakening Ancient Futures is a one day festival all about indigenous culture and our connection to land. In its inaugural year I was invited along to capture the event. There was a range of speakers and hands on workshops on a farm not far from Cooma, NSW. We had the opportunity to camp on the farm for two nights, being in the middle of nowhere light pollution was minimal so I tried my hand at austral photography.

The next morning I packed up my tent and hit the road to meet my mate Stuey and check out two locations I had been keen to visit for some time: Paddys River Falls and Sugar Pine Walk. The drive from Ingelara to Paddys Creek Falls was three hours but very scenic up past Mount Selwyn, Lake Eucumbene and through Maragle Forest. The waterfall was awesome, much more open than some I have visited recently and provided my first wash in some days.

Next up was Sugar Pine Walk in Laurel Hill which was a quick detour off the highway. Walking up to the sugar pines we were blown away by the sheer scale of these giants. The winds were really blowing a gale now, the tops of the trees were crashing into each other making the whole scene slightly eerie. We arrived at the same time as a car load of Queenslanders who completed the walk with obligatory cans of Bundy!

From here we pushed onto Canberra (another 3 hours) and made it in time to make kickoff between Raiders and Knights – we lost but otherwise it was a fantastic weekend!