Looks like there's going to be more hazard-reduction burning this year than ever before. It's still rather unclear whether it does more good or harm, but after the horrendous fires of a few months back, it's going to be happening anyway.
Here's the view today across the Berowra Valley National Park, from Westleigh, across towards Dural and Galston.
I discovered yet another hidden-away little bushland gem today, with a couple of kilometres of excellent bush tracks secreted within it. It's deep in the heart of North Shore suburban Lindfield. Here's where you get to cross Little Blue Gum Creek.
The world's second oldest national park is just south of Sydney. Royal National Park is big, and there are lots of great bushwalks to be done there. Many of them can be done train station to train station, and the other day I did Heathcote to Engadine, via Karloo Pools, Uloola Falls, Robertsons Roundabout, and Kangaroo Creek.
The other day I was shown around a series of old, unmaintained tracks and lookouts in the Wentworth Falls area in the Blue Mountains. It's always a surprise to find something new (or in fact old) in such a heavily touristed place.
There used to be a walking track just above the busy Overcliff-Undercliff Track, complete with lots of rather exciting lookouts. The lookouts became more and more exciting as they aged and the guard rails rusted or worked loose, so National Parks stopped maintaining them and pretended they didn't exist.
They've abandoned the old tracks, but they've at least been doing great work on the ones they have decided to maintain.
Here's the magnificently renovated Undercliff Track.
And the Den Fenella Track
A few weeks ago I visited Ku-ring-gai Chase's Mt Murray Anderson via the gruelling off track route. See here: Last month's trip. As reported, I was delighted to discover that there was also an easy way, along a pleasant little bush track. So this time I did it that way. It was a pleasant half day stroll.
I even had time to thoroughly explore the extensive rock platforms, with their many indigenous carvings.
There are great views from Pemulwuy Lookout, aka Prospect Hill. To the east there's Parramatta, Chatswood, St Leonards, North Sydney, and Sydney.
Here's nearby Parramatta, with St Leonards directly behind.
Below: the Sydney CBD, and North Sydney. There was a very angry sky going on, with yet another wet weather event approaching.
And to the west, there's the Blue Mountains, and in the immediate foreground, an unexpected industrial estate, sitting neatly within the enormous disused Prospect Quarry.
Pemulmuy was a noted Eora resistance leader in the Australian frontier wars. He came to an unhappy end in 1802. Here's Wikipedia's piece on him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemulwuy
He's now immortalised in lots of ways, including having a western Sydney suburb named after him. It's a new and seemingly well designed suburb, and I checked it out for the first time today.
There have been a few worrying Covid-19 clusters around my part of northern Sydney recently. Last week it was looking like Sydney was coming good again, and wouldn't be going the way of Melbourne. Some of the hot spots are schools, like the Catholic girls school above, in Cherrybrook. There was a TV news crew outside as I passed it this morning.Premier Gladys was muttering yesterday about it being no time for schools to be organising religious retreats, and it seems that is what this one had been doing.
The Koolewong Track is a short, scenic sightseeing track, going off to the left towards the end of West Head Rd. At this time of year it's a good place to see the winter wildflowers, as are all the other West Head tracks. And from the lookout at the end, there are good views over the Hawkesbury mouth and Lion Island.
