For my weekly walk with Bob, we had originally planned to head up to the Blue Mountains (as we often do), but with an adverse weather forecast, and the bad weather coming to the mountains earlier, we decided instead to visit Royal National Park. Looking at the rain radar on the way, this seemed to be a wise choice.
Two weeks earlier, I had been on a walk with Bob where we had found some interesting Aboriginal art sites. This time we intended to look for some more.
We first set off along a ridge towards an open rocky area that I had spotted on air photos. I was hopeful that they may have some rock engravings. It was not a difficult walk to get to the rocky area.
The open area was quite extensive, and we looked around carefully but could not spot any engravings.
The wild flowers were excellent. Here are some Flannel Flowers –
There were also a few Flying Duck Orchids (Caleana major) –
On the way out we saw this Grey Shrike-thrush –
And there were a lot of Fringe Lillies –
And some nice Boronia.
The second area we looked offered the possibility of some cave art. We found this large overhang. It was clearly an occupation cave, with a large midden.
We think there was also some faint and very indistinct ochre art –
And Bob found a stone tool. It was quartz, a non-local rock, and it had a sharp edge.
The last part of our walk was along part of the Coastal Track, that I had not visited before. It was however an area that I was keen to see, and it had been recommended recently in a comment by Molly to this post. So we set off for The Balconies. By now it was raining, but the cliffs have many small overhangs for refuge -and we found one for our lunch break.
We first visited an old stone house perched high on the cliff.
I had spotted this on a photograph I had taken a few years earlier from the north. I don’t know its history. Was it a depression era dwelling like the ones on the cliffs near Cape Solander? Or perhaps built as a shelter by local fishermen? it was certainly interesting to visit.
We then walked back a bit and inland to pick up the old track to the Cobblers.
This took us to a section of great coastal walking. Most of the walking was along the open tops of the cliffs. Sometimes, we had to head inland on an old track through scrubby bits.
At the Cobblers, a small inlet, we found another old stone house. This one was much more modest.
At one section, I spotted a Sea Eagle cruising along. We later saw it perched on the cliff, but as we approached it took off and continued on its way.
We only had to back track at one point where we found this spectacular ledge did not connect up.
Before we reached Shelly Beach, we followed a track that headed inland a short distance and join up with the track from Shelly Beach back to the carpark at the offical start of the Coastal Track. This last part of the walk is a bit of a plod along a sandy track.