Last week Bob and myself had walked around the Manly Dam circuit track. I suggested that it would be logical to do the Narrabeen Lagoon walk next. It is a walk I had never done.
I met Bob at Gordon Station, and he drove to Narrabeen and parked in a back street just north of the Lagoon. We were soon on our way.
We followed a good path in an anticlockwise direction around the Lagoon.
In a few places, the path turned into a boardwalk –
At Deep Creek, we left the main track and headed up the creek to a sporting field.
This are seemed quite good for bird life.
A short distance upstream, we noticed a rock covered with engravings next to the track. The engraving seemed to be in German, and there were swastikas. We wondered what they meant. Later, Bob did bit of research and found the area was used by Nazis just before World War II. They had a hut and other buildings nearby. This YouTube video was made explaining what was going on.
We followed a bridge over the creek and then another track that took us back to the Lagoon.
This part of Deep Creek has a lot of nice trees.
Back at the Lagoon, we continued on our way.
At the head of the Lagoon is Middle Creek Reserve. A nice picnic area.
Then we crossed over the Jim Somerville Bridge.
The late Jim Somerville had been a prominent conservationist, active in the Colong Committee. But he was also active in local issues near where he lived on the Northern Beaches, and had been an important advocate for a walking track open to the public around Narrabeen Lagoon.
At one spot we saw a lot of Black Swans –
We wondered about this engraving.
We stopped at a large park for lunch, on the south side of the Lagoon. Then soon reached the built up area near Pittwater Road.
And one more bridge to cross – over the Lagoon and back to Bob’s car.
Bob wanted to look at the outlet of the Lagoon as he had heard the council had recently closed it. While we were heading out, we saw some Osprey flying overhead. Here is one of three –
And, indeed, the outlet had been closed –
I expect this is only temporary – and done for environmental reasons.
After that we had a look at Warriewood wetlands and Irrawong Reserve.
The walk around Narrabeen Lagoon – being around 8 km and very flat is quite easy and recommended.