A cool wet day day was forecast for the Blue Mountains, so canyoning plans were put on hold, and we Bob and myself decided to do another walk looking for Aboriginal art sites in the Blue Mountains. Doug was able to join us.
Some of the sites, both Bob and myself had seen before. But, for rock engravings we had an advantage this trip – the rock engravings were much easier to discern when the rock is wet.
The forecast turned out to be quite accurate. We had light drizzle most of the day. And as a lot of our walk was along fire roads – this was not too bad.
Views were not as good as they could be however.
Our first site was a rock platform with a number of sharpening grooves.
Then we continued along the fire road.
We ventured off the fire road at some places looking for engravings.
One rock platform that we had visited before had quite a few engravings. We also inspected the artworks on the way back – as the light was quite different making some engravings stand out more.
Here is an emu footprint –
And a kangaroo footprint –
On a different platform, we were not sure if this circular shape was an engraving or a natural feature. It does look like it might have been chipped out.
A rather wet Fringe Lily –
The main site we were looking for was a small overhang with red ochre hand stencils. With a bit of effort, we located it –
The main wall of the cave had dozens of hand stencils – many overlapping.
Here are some parts of the cave showing the enhancing iDStretch software –
We then headed back to the fire road.
Bob and myself had visited the next cave a few times before. It is very impressive with charcoal artworks and some sharpening grooves.
The cave was also a good refuge for lunch out of the drizzle.
I mentioned above that we revisited one of the engraving sites on the way back. The engravings were a bit clearer I think –
This could be an echidna –
Perhaps a mundoe (footprint) –
There are three fish shape engravings here –
Another footprint – perhaps an emu –
And then we walked back to Bob’s car. This turned out to be a good activity for the weather we had.
