Whale Rock

 

On a walk the other day in the upper Lane Cove National Park, we called in on Whale Rock for our lunch break. A fabulously whale-like rock it is too.

 

 

(Photo courtesy Richard Milnes)

 

 

While one of my bushwalkers posed beneath the whale's watchful eye, another went exploring, with a view to climbing into the belly of the beast!

And there she is. That's a new trick to me!

South Turramurra 2074

I pushed the button on my randomised suburb chooser device today, and up popped South Turramurra. And it's not a bad place for a visit either.

It must be one of Sydney's most liveable suburbs in fact.



There's a very pleasant little shopping strip. There are parks and pockets of carefully protected woodland habitat.

There's St Andrews Uniting Church, home of STEP (South Turramurra Environment Protection). As well as producing a multitude of extremely professional books and maps, and holding frequent excellent educational events, STEP was largely responsible for preventing much of the neighbouring bushland from becoming motorway corridors and housing estates. More here:  STEP

South Turramurra has an average income nearly twice the national average, and a median house price of approximately $1.7 million.

The Lane Cove National Park forms the southern boundary of the suburb. I strolled down there with a view to getting some pictures of the bush and of the Great North Walk, which passes by there. But what's this? It's closed today for a hazard reduction burn.




A very pleasant lady from National Parks was guarding the park entrance, and happily explained all about the fire and where I couldn't go.

I posed her for a photo, asking her to look a bit fierce. "I can't do fierce", she said!

Upper Lane Cove River ramble

Back home in Sydney now for a while, and I've been getting out into the bush a fair bit. Sydney's great in that there are a vast number of terrific little bushwalks to be had without even leaving the metropolitan area.

The Lane Cove National Park is a case in point. A few weeks ago I took part in a rogaine, which went by the name of  'Lane Cove Rivergaine'. (A rogaine is sort of competitive treasure hunt for bushwalkers.) I thought I knew all the tracks around this park, but the map supplied by the organisers showed lots that were new to me, and by utilising a few of them, my team excelled itself and achieved a very respectable score.

So I went back to the scene last Sunday, this time with a group of regular bushwalkers in tow, and we did a nice little circuit walk, starting and finishing at Thornleigh station. We had morning tea at City View Lookout, with, as you'd expect, a good view of the city's CBD, 20km away.














When I went back again today to get more photos, the view was somewhat obscured by fog or smog or the Southerly Buster that was on its way.

We also watched some sulphur-crested cockatoos feeding their young in a nest within a fine old angophora tree. And we posed for pictures at Whale Rock, which is of course, a very whale-like rock!