Sydney Park

Sydney Park is actually in St Peters. It's a fairly large park, and I've been dropping in on it now and then since it was created nearly 20 years ago.

For a while it was all rather open and barren, but when I visited today it was looking rather good.

On its southern edge you get to see the enormous construction site that is part of the WestConnex motorway project. WestConnex is the nation's biggest infrastructure project, involving many billions of our taxpayer dollars. Private interests will reap the benefits of this investment for many decades to come. Yet despite its massive scale, its basic function has never been satisfactorily defined!

Where's Daniel?

Off to explore Daniels Ridge the other day, in the Wollemi wilderness in the Gardens of Stone area north of Lithgow.

It was named after Edward Daniels, a bushwalker who had pioneered the route and led walks for the National Parks Association. But for us, our trip was inspired by our own Daniel bushwalker, who in the event couldn't make it. He was there in spirit anyway.

As ever the views were excellent, and the remoteness inspiring.






You look down on creeks and canyons (with names like 'Heart Attack').

If we'd started a bit earlier we would have gone on to the northern end of the ridge and attempted the climb down through the cliffs via the heart attack-inducing Daniels Pass.

 Or maybe we wouldn't have.











Maybe next time!

The Upper Grose - where no-one goes!

And now I know why!

Our attempted traverse of 5km of the wild upper reaches of the Blue Mountains' Grose River the other day was probably doomed from the outset. We probably should have started at daybreak, and should have done it when there were a few more hours of evening daylight on offer.




In the end we had a very close call with a possibly very uncomfortable benighting. And it was one of the most arduous day walks any of us remember doing. Progress down the river was slow and difficult. The rocks were super-slippery, and massive boulders and frequent waterfalls made exhausting bush excursions necessary. No trace was found of the legendary Engineers Track, which was once there, and would have assisted greatly.









With three hours of daylight remaining, and more than half of the river section still to do, a heroic decision was made to gamble on finding a shortcut out of the place. Elder statesman Harold told us of the historic mine site up above, just at the bottom of the cliff line, and with a good walking track out through the cliffs above. We just needed to make it there by 6pm nightfall.

That's when it got really interesting! The scramble up through the bush was horrendous. Really steep, riddled with monstrous thorny 'lawyer vines' trying to cut us to bits, and it took about two hours to get up to the cliffs. Then we progressed along the relatively level last few hundred metres, knowing that at any moment we could encounter impassable ledges that would stop us in our tracks.

Indeed there were some last minute obstacles that had us doubting there would be a happy ending to this adventure. Amazingly, at 6:00pm sharp, there was the mine, and our deliverance!



We walked out along the track by torchlight, and compared our scratched limbs over fish and chips at Blackheath.

Picture 5 courtesy of Meiha Cheung

And then there were four!

It was finally the big day: the 10th annual bushwalkers' 42km Marathon Walk.

I thought it was going to  be a record turnout at first. The scenic and relatively flat course produced 12 enrollments. We were walking from Circular Quay to Maroubra, via South Head and Harbourside and coastal tracks. Lots of public transport around, easy food and drink availability, interesting sights galore.

Come Sunday morning there were seven starters. Five others had become suddenly unwell, or decided hard pavement walking just wasn't for them. It was a fabulous day for walking. A break in the rains we'd been having, clear blue skies, and beautifully cool.

We took lunch in a shady spot at South Head. You can see North Head in the background of the top picture.

Soon we were at the Gap, and the anchor of the wreck, the Dunbar.

Still seven of us as we arrive at the two-thirds mark: Bondi Beach. A lot of buses pass by Bondi Beach.

And sure enough there's only four of us after that.

Unusually, it's still daylight as we arrive at the destination beach: Maroubra.



All a bit too easy really!





Photo credits to unknown kind tourists for some images

Grey Huntsman

You'll know by now that I love my creepy crawlies. This one came visiting recently. He's a Huntsman Spider. There are quite a few species of these, all big, beautiful, and completely friendly. I think this one is a Grey Huntsman (Isopeda vasta).