The weather forecast was not the best, so instead of canyoning, Bob and myself decided to do a walk on West Head in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park to look for Aboriginal sites.
We found most of the Aboriginal sites we were hoping to see. Many are well known and marked on maps.
We started from the picnic area above the West Head Lookout.
A Brush Turkey came over to say hello while were getting ready.
The first site we visited was a small overhang with a gallery of quite faint red ochre hand stencils. The iDStretch app made a lot of these a lot clearer.
We then headed back to the main fire road, through nice woodland.
We looked on some roc platforms for engravings.
Christmas Bells – Blandfordia nobilis
This engraving looks like a shield –
In the distance we could see Barrenjoey –
Fish engraving –
Eel engraving –
Hyacinth Orchid
We next looked at the large occupation cave. We could see shell remains on the floor.
The track took us down to a small bay.
We wondered if this was a large eel engraving –
Some old graffiti –
On the way up to the West Head Lookout we passed some WWII defence structures –
And now at the lookout – great views of Barrenjoey –
And Lion Island and Box Head –
Part of the WWII funicular – used to take down munitions to lower gun emplacements.
Some more orchids –
Bonnet Orchid – Cryptostylis erecta
Large Tongue Orchid – Cryptostylis subulata
Fish engravings –
Mundoes (Footprint engravings) –
This engraving of a small male figure was very hard to discern –
More fish engravings –
Another Mundoe –
More large engravings of spirit figures and whales –
This was a very good activity for a wet day. It was incredible to see such a wide range of art.