Upper Lane Cove National Park - City View Lookout

 

Upper Lane Cove National Park - all burned out!

 

There were a lot of hazard-reduction burns around Sydney over the last couple of weeks. A lot of smoke too. One of them was in the upper Lane Cove National Park, rather closer to home than I'd realised. Here are some pictures from my stroll through the area this morning. 

Back to Castle Hill Heritage Park

 

Looking better and better, and ably delivering its history lessons too. Of early agriculture and the early colonial settlement. Of the 1804 convict rebellion (also known as the second battle of Vinegar Hill - the first one, in Ireland, was what caused the Irish rebels to be sent here in the first place). And then the lessons of the lunatic asylum that was later put here.

More here from my 2020 lockdown explorations: 2020 post

Exercise parks of Lockdown 2 - No.87: Arcadia Oval

 

Exercise parks of Lockdown 2 - No.86: Hayes Park, Galston

 

It's just next door to the Galston Recreation Reserve, and it's home to these two fine sports clubs.

 

 

 

A nice big space to run around too.

Exercise parks of Lockdown 2 - No.85: Galston Recreation Reserve

 

Another fine discovery!

Further explorations up Cockle Creek

I ventured into deepest unexplored bush country this morning. Or that's what it felt like. There were hints of disused walking tracks. There were no other humans to be glimpsed, but a large wallaby hopped past at one stage.

Yet the M1 motorway was just above and to my east, and the suburbs of Wahroonga and Asquith were a couple of hundred metres away to either side. What a discovery!

 

 

 

 

I'd entered this secret world by way of an opening in the bush at the end of Stokes Aveue, Asquith, and I exited with the help of a fortuitously placed footbridge which led to a track up to King Road, Hornsby.

 

 

 

 

I think the footbridge is there to service the mysterious 'Chemical Dosing Unit' which is located near there. I feel the need to research this more, but suspect it's more to do with removing nasties from the creek than with adding them.

Exercise parks of Lockdown 2 - No.84: Montview Park & Oval

 

Newly discovered Montview Park in Hornsby Heights has a few things going for it. It's big and uncrowded, and it's got a few peripheral features, like children's playground, netball and basketball courts, and a fine looking little BMX bike track. A generally nice feng shui about it, I thought.

White-tailed house spider

Another visitor today: this white-tailed house spider. Probably a long term resident, actually. They're pretty common.

They have a painful bite, and are often accused of causing necrotising arachnidism, a nasty skin condition. Scientific studies seem to be divided over whether this is actually the case though.

I didn't take the chance. I escorted her safely out to  a far corner of the garden.

Your lunch is my lunch!

 

 

We foolishly made friends with a local kookaburra recently. Even though he stole our lunch two days running.

He's named 'Spider', for complex reasons. And he was back today, eyeing off our birthday cake, no less.

And would you believe it, birthday girl actually gave him a piece!

 

 

 

Grab it while you can

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He went thataway!

Ku-ring-gai Chase NP's undiscovered bits #3: Cockle Creek & its tunnel

It's a few hundred metres south of the Banksy tunnel, which carries Golf Course Creek. (See: Banksy Tunnel) This one carries Cockle Creek, as well as the odd adventurous bushwalker commuting between Wahroonga and Asquith.

It's accessed from near Mills Park in Asquith, or from a side track off the Gibberagong Track near its North Wahroonga start.

Exercise parks of Lockdown 2 - No.77: Campbell Park

Campbell Park, West Pennant Hills, home of the Cherrybrook and West Pennant Hills Lions Football Club. Or that's what it said on the sign anyway.

Today it was the home of a few exercisers, a rather stressed-looking meditator, and the usual quota of naughty inactive bench-sitters. A pretty standard sort of suburban park, but still a nice place to be on a day like today.

Ku-ring-gai Chase NP's undiscovered bits #2: Chase Trail and Banksy Tunnel

Another track near the Mt Colah entrance to the national park is the Chase Trail. Some way along the Chase Trail, there's a smaller, but seemingly well trafficked tributary track, pictured left. I checked it out, and after a while found my way to the Banksy M1 Motorway tunnel.

This tunnel is for the creek I call Golf Course Creek. It joins Cockle Creek just down the hill a bit.

A couple of years ago I walked an excellent circuit walk, which incorporated both this tunnel and the Cockle Creek one. See: 2019 two-tunnel circuit

Ku-ring-gai Chase NP's undiscovered bits #1: Deadmans & Myall Trails

 

Above: Deadmans

Left: Myall

They're both quite short and not especially noteworthy, but made for a very pleasant Covid lockdown stroll location yesterday. And what a great time of the year to be out there! They're near the Mt Colah entrance booth on Ku-ring-gai Chase Rd.

Lockdown parks of Castle Hill

I checked out a string of pleasant little reserves today. We started in Pioneer Place Reserve, then down past First Farm Reserve, through James Greenwood Reserve, to Spain Reserve. We followed the upper reaches of Castle Hill Creek.

 

 

 

 

 

It's all very leafy green scenic, and all new to me, yet again! We were close to Castle Hill's more famous Heritage Park, site of that historic 1804 convict rebellion. See: Heritage Park visit April 2020  I'll revisit that one soon, I suspect.

Suddenly the parks (and the streets) were much quieter than they have been. With the epidemic escalation and the significant tightening of the lockdown restrictions, the Castle Hillians must be seriously staying at home. It's probably helped by massive confusion about all the rule changes. I suspect a lot of people have no idea what they can and can't do, and don't want to risk a $5000 fine.

Crosslands Reserve - luxury lockdown location likely to lose legality

It's always a nice spot, but today it excelled itself. The car park was full as ever, but the lockdown exercisers must have been largely out exercising genuinely along the Great North Walk, rather than participating in enormous picnics and barbecues, like you usually see here on weekends. So the wide open spaces were indeed wide open, and it was yet another beautiful sunny day.

The Covid outbreak broke through to new records today, and the rules got changed once again. As from 5pm the whole state is finally locked down. 

What the new exercise/travel excuse rules mean for Crosslands type expeditions here in Greater Sydney is still a bit unclear to me. In the northern suburbs you used to be able to travel up to 10km for your exercise excuse, but this has become 5km. Except that, on most interpretations, you could go a lot further if you stayed in your local government area (if it happened to be a big one that is, like Hornsby!)  I'm yet to work out if the local LGA loophole still applies. Premier Gladys and her cronies rarely say anything clear and definitive during their public appearances.*  Except that there are $5000 fines involved! And the relevant section of the NSW Health website seems to be snowed under, so I can't seem to clarify the point.

* Actually they also say very clearly that they are in no way to blame for the emergency. It's the people who do the wrong thing, it's the virus that got virulent, it's the health advice they followed, it's the vaccines that didn't come, etc etc. Definitely nothing to do with a government that waited 10 days too long to do anything much, and then did far too little for several weeks. If you take your health advice from business 'leaders', you'll be led to a very bad place, in every respect, business included.

Lindfield's secret village greens

 

 

 

Well hidden away in a south-western pocket of Lindfield is St Crispins Green. You need to study your Google Maps pretty carefully to find this one. Nobody else seemed to have just yet.

But the jewel in Lindfield's crown could be the nearby Jinkers Green. Some locals have discovered this one, but I suspect they're all sworn to secrecy when they move into the area.

Lindfield's right royal Queen Elizabeth Reserve

 

 

 

A slight disappointment this one, despite its grandiose name. There are tennis courts and a playground, and a nice shady treed area. But the main grassy rectangle turned out to be pretty much just another dog park.