Heart of the Nation: Bunya Mountains National Park, Qld

This amazing strangler fig is still standing, long after its host tree rotted away. It presented an irresistible challenge to one climber.

Wonder: Sabina Allemann climbing the strangler fig

A strangler fig starts life as a tiny seed, deposited via bird poop high up in the forest canopy. If it’s lucky enough to lodge in a crevice on a host tree where there’s moisture and organic matter, it’ll sprout and reach upwards for the light while simultaneously sending roots down the host tree’s trunk. Once those roots hit the ground the strangler fig is really in business, competing with its host for water and nutrients as well as sunlight. Often, after being smothered like this for years, the host tree will die, and rot away, leaving the strangler fig still standing – its gnarly roots forming a tubular, lattice-like structure.

Sabina Allemann couldn’t resist squeezing herself into the hollow of this strangler fig and scaling it from the inside. She’s a rock climber, and a self-described “reformed ballerina”, so contorting her body wasn’t a problem. Allemann had a 20-year career with the National Ballet of Canada and the San Francisco Ballet. In 1990 she met a visiting doctor from Australia, Andrew Peacock. They felt a spark, a connection, and for the next five years they corresponded by letter (“Snail mail!” she laughs), before their platonic relationship blossomed into a romance that they conducted long-distance for another five years.

When her dancing career wound up 20 years ago, she emigrated and they’ve lived together in Noosa ever since. She’s a massage therapist and he juggles his work in emergency departments with photography. In their fifties, and without the responsibility of kids, the couple give full rein to their wanderlust, with trips to Nepal, Antarctica, Iceland and Alaska. After 18 months’ confinement in Australia, they’re now working on an adventure cruise in California’s Channel Islands – he as a photo instructor, she as a wellness specialist. Sounds like a good gig to kick off their overseas travels again? “It’s a great gig,” says Peacock.