Digi Dave and myself headed back to Bola Creek in Royal National Park for another photography session. A bit of recent rain and cool conditions had brought out a lot of nice fungi.
Here is a selection – Hygrocybes, Coral fungi, Mycenas, Jelly Fungi – all nice. A lot more photos are on my website here with my attempt at identification (and thanks for help from Ray and Elma Kearney).
A lot of these fungi at Bola Creek are very beautiful! Continue reading
It was good to head out to the Baal Bone – Blue Rocks area for the June Long Weekend once more. This is a great area for high camps during cool weather – and it is nice to go for at least three days.
This is beautiful country and it should not be rushed through. There is a lot to see, a lot to explore and for me a lot to photograph.
Wendy had organised this walk, and she was joined by Martin and myself. Continue reading
I was interested to check out how some of the fungi I had seen a few days before was going. So I headed back to Lane Cove Bushland Park.
This time I intended to continue out from the bottom of the Park and follow the stream downstream to Sydney Harbour, and there join up with the Coastal Walk, walk around Greenwich Head and Manns Head and the to Gore Cove and up a track to finish at Wollstonecraft Station. Continue reading
Erik Halbert and Ross Ellis have written and produced a new book on The Grand Canyon at Blackheath. It is called “Doing the Grand Canyon Blackheath” and is published by The Sydney Speleological Society.
The authors are cavers, and the book is partly written from a caver’s perspective – talking about the various interesting caves found adjacent to the Grand Canyon Walking Track.
Another focus is the history of the canyon and its walking track. They have included reproductions of many old postcards showing parts of the canyon and identified where they were taken from. It is interesting to see a 100 year old postcard and then next to it a modern version of the same scene.
Canyoners will be interested in the old walking track that goes up the lower part of the canyon and ends at the Cathedral Cave – where the long swim is.
This small book, has been printed as a very limited edition and is available from the authors, the Sydney Speleological Society and from these selected Blue Mountains Bookshops – Lamdha Books in Wentworth Falls, Megalong Books in Leura and Gleebooks in Blackheath (and The NPWS Office in Blackheath from early July). If you are interested in this canyon – then this book is recommended. Click on the link below to see a pdf with more information about how to order it.
Doing the Grand Canyon Blackheath
You may also be interested in a much more detailed book on the canyon called – “The Grand Canyon Blackheath: The Complete Story” which the authors are currently preparing.
I returned to Lane Cove Bushland Park yesterday, without any high hopes of seeing much out. It has been quite dry for much of May.
Tiny springtails (hypogasturids) on this red coral fungi
As I walked into this small park – there did not seem to be much out. It was easy to find some long lived bracket fungi and some other dull fungi – but what this park is famous for is its colourful hygrocybes. Continue reading
Vivid is back and bigger than ever this year. One evening is certainly not enough time to see it all. I ventured into the city on two evenings and certainly did not see everything.
This year there seemed to be a lot more people out enjoying the festival. Also – there was a huge variety in the exhibits. Many of them seemed to be interactive as well, and there were a lot of Vivid volunteers around to look after the exhibits and explain how they worked to visitors. Continue reading
Last weekend was bush regeneration time. I went with a group of friends for a paddle along the Hawkesbury River from the Mooney Mooney boat-ramp where the Pacific Highway crosses the river to Gentlemans Halt near Spencer. Gentlemans Halt is in Maramara National Park.
The weekend was organised by the Willow Warriors, who provided the sea kayaks that we used. Continue reading
I went on a nice walk with Digi Dave and Kim to Palona Creek in Royal National Park. Palona Creek is a tributary of the Hacking River and is reached by a short walk along Lady Carrington Drive.
Hairy Fairy Club Fungi
When we reached the creek, we headed up a side track to the Palona Cave. The turn-off sign is marked “Limestone Cave”, but as far as I know this is wrong. The cave is not a limestone cave. Its about a ten minute walk to the cave from Lady Carrington Drive and when you arrive you can clearly see that it is in a sandstone cliff. The cave does have some speliothems however – some large columns and some very tiny stalactites. These are probably formed by evaporation rather than chemical means. Continue reading
Previously I had walked from Manly to Milsons Point and I had been along the coast from Bronte to Bondi Beach and from Bronte to La Perouse. I thought it would be a good time to do another section – from Milsons Point to South Head and then see how much more time I had for more.
My route followed the line marked on the map from the Walking Coastal Sydney Website. I had also downloaded an app that had the map on it – and this made it easy to stay on course – looking at my position on the map. Continue reading
This was a nice walk I did by myself through the Lane Cove National Park. This is a walk that is easy to do via public transport.
I started out at Thornleigh Station and walked a short way to Thorneigh Oval and then set off down the Great North Walk Track – down the valley. Continue reading
