Bob and myself were keen to head back to an area we visited two weeks before, where we had looked at a number of Aboriginal sites in the Northern Blue Mountains. On this trip, we went back to the same area and visited some more interesting sites.
As usual on these trips, we started by walking along a fire road. On the way we saw a few orchids –
Spotted Sun Orchid – Thelymitra ixioides
Caladenia alata
Our first site was a rock platform with some Aboriginal sharpening grooves.
This Pimela sp. was the most abundant of the wildflowers –
Caladenia carnea
Bladderwort – Ultricularia sp.
Daisies –
Spotted Sun Orchid – Thelymitra ixioides
The fire road was a bit overgrown on sections where it passed through shale lenses.
Caladenia catenata
we left the fire road and followed a ridge down to a small creek. On the way down, on a rock platform we came across this engraving of a Kangaroo.
We then inspected four overhangs along a quite rugged creek. The first overhang contained some charcoal drawings –
And some hand stencils (use the slider to see a “stretched version” of the photo that helps to emphasise the faint art – performed on a mobile phone using iDStretch app) –
There was also some nice erosion features –
One part of the cave had some more art. This looks like a dingo –
And this could be a bandicoot –
There seems to be human figure on the left of some animal –
The second cave we looked at had some faint charcoal art. This could be four flying foxes –
The third cave was a bit tricky to reach, being on a higher level, and had a few panels with charcoal drawings.
The fourth cave we looked at had more charcoal art. It was also a likely occupation cave as it was sheltered with a flat floor and close to water.
It had quite a few charcoal drawings – mainly of human figures we thought. They were all faint and the iDStretch software was useful.
We had lunch near this cave, and then set off back to Bob’s car. On the way, we saw this nice Lace Monitor –
