Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Garden

I think it's 20 years since I last visited the Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Garden in St Ives. I think there used to be an entry fee, and that might have kept me away. There isn't one now, and I can report that it's well worth a visit. They've done lots.

 

There are picnic facilities, lots of educational signage, short tracks, long tracks. Some are bush tracks, and there's a bicycle track.

 

 

There seems to have been some hazard reduction burning here recently. It's a bit contested, whether this does more good or harm, and how best to do it when we do. But from a photographer's point of view, there are always spectacular images to be got,with the resulting colours and patterns.

Liversidge Hill and Birrabang Walls

My Thursday walk this month was again to the burnt-out but majestic series of ridges between the Bells Line of Road and the Grose River valley in the Blue Mountains. We explored Liversidge Hill and Birrabang Walls, both with magnificent views across the Grose to the cliffs on the other side.

Above is Liversidge Hill, our morning tea spot. Straight across from us was Baltzer Lookout and the amazing Hanging Rock.

An hour or two later, and up and down a few more bits, and we're heading south again, along the ridge out to Birrabang Walls.

Here's our lunchtime view from the edge of the Walls.

An excellent outing as ever. Easy walking after the fires, though we got rather black from all that charcoal. And there's a certain beauty to the green (and red) shoots of the regrowth.

More Blue Mountains: Govetts Leap again

The tree ferns are sprouting nicely, and there's promising growth on the rest of the trees. The massive bushfires seem like years ago. We're into pestilence instead now.




The waterfall is flowing well too. It's called both Bridal Veil Falls and Govetts Leap, by the way. Same difference.

I'm not sure when we'll next be allowed to venture down into the Grose Valley.

More Blue Mountains: Furbers steps waterfalls

On my post-fire Blue Mountains exploration the other day, I headed down Furbers Steps for a bit, to see how it was looking down there.







It was looking quite good. There had been a fair bit of rain, and here was Witches Leap, the first waterfall you come to, doing its thing.

And here was Katoomba Falls.










The mist made for some very atmospheric views through the rainforest on the way down.

Real sisters visible again

On a recent trip to the Blue Mountains, I'd gone to Echo Point in Katoomba hoping to see what the 'Ruined Castle' fire was up to, only to find that all I could see was smoke. (Here: I see no fires )

The fires have been out for a while now, and there I was again the other day, showing off the Three Sisters to a couple of tourists.

Except that for a while at least, all we could see this time was clouds and rain. I had to pose them in front of the billboard.

Eventually it did clear though, and the view was indeed excellent.

After the fires: Maiyingu Marragu

We called in on the Maiyingu Marragu Aboriginal Area the other day, mainly to see how it had fared during the recent bushfires. It's a protected area within the larger Gardens of Stone region north of Lithgow. Most of the area is not currently protected, and should be all combined within a new national park. Not that anything would have protected it from the ferocity of those bushfires, of course.

The Gardens of Stone provides some of the finest bushwalking locations in Australia, and the prospect of not going back there could not be countenanced. Looks like we will be able to go back there, but will have to be ready to get very black and sooty.

There's a very special collection of aboriginal hand stencils on one of the rock faces. Maiyingu Marragu means 'Blackfellows Hands', which is the alternative name for the place. They're looking fine.

And there is a certain new visual drama to the scenery. I'll be back there soon.




Here's my post on our visit of three years ago:
December 2016 visit

After the fires - green shoots

Or pink shoots more often. Signs of life re-establishing itself. It's going to be much harder this time, such was the scale of the destruction and the heat of the fires.

The green shoots that might really matter are the slight glimmerings of climate change awareness at last appearing among some, but by no means all, members of the weirdly ignorant Australian conservative political classes. There again, maybe I'm deluding myself.

After the fires - Echo Point

The view over the Jamison Valley to Mount Solitary and the Ruined Castle. From here at least,  it's not looking too bad, in that in many areas the fire appears not to have destroyed the forest canopy.


I was here a few weeks ago, during the height of the 'Ruined Castle Fire'. Couldn't see much then because of the smoke. See my report: I see no fires

The Ruined Castle itself sits just behind the very brown area in the middle distance below.

After the fires - Govetts Leap

 

That was the Grose Valley down there.

After the fires - the Darling Causeway

Looking west, to Hartley Vale

After the fires - Mt Wilson

I didn't like the look of things as I drove in towards Mt Wilson. It's a beautiful but peculiarly isolated and fire-exposed little Blue Mountains village. And the bush all around was very burnt and black.











But miracles happen, or more to the point, the Rural Fire Service volunteers made one happen. Most of the place, including most - but not all - of the houses and the parks, were saved. The Fire Captain herself was one who lost her home.