Royal National Park, Sydney
Royal National Park, south of Sydney
Our holiday in New South Wales
September 2007
After our ten days in Sydney staying with our son, we headed south on our way to our national capital, Canberra. On the morning after leaving Sydney we took a slight detour into Royal National Park, about an hour’s drive south of the CBD. We’d visited this lovely park on a number of other occasions, the most recent was in the year 2000. We had morning tea at the spot shown in the photo above. After this short break we went for a walk along Lady Carrington Drive (see photo below). This track is open to walkers and cyclists. It is an excellent walking track and a good way to see the local flora and fauna.
Royal National Park, south of Sydney
A lunch break to remember
Our holiday in New South Wales
September 2007
Weddin Mountains National Park
From Forbes we travelled south towards Grenfell. We didn’t go all the way into the town but turned off a few kilometres short of the town. We took the road into the nearby Weddin Mountains National Park. We had visited this park on our trip through this region three years ago and remembered that we’d enjoyed the experience.
Weddin Mountains National Park
We arrived a little late for lunch but we survived the extended wait. In the picnic and camping area the rangers have set up picnic tables, toilets, barbecues and some walking trails through the park. It is a pleasant spot to spend an hour or two or even several days camping. The bird life is quite good too. After lunch we had a chat to a man camping there for several nights.
Hideaway cave of bushranger Ben Hall
A feature of the park is the location of the hideaway of bushranger Ben Hall. The cave can be easily seen from the picnic ground. There is also a walking trail to the cave. We didn’t go on any walks through the park as we were running a little late at this stage. Despite the lateness of the hour, however, we just had to stop on the way out.
The trees bordering the exit road burst into bird song as we were leaving, so I just had to stop. I saw or heard many Brown Songlarks singing loudly, a White-winged Triller joined in the fun along with a Grey Fantail, a Rufous Whistler, Noisy Miners, Apostlebirds and several male Red-capped Robins hassling each other. All the time a majestic Wedge-tail Eagle soared overhead and the local White-winged Choughs joined in the chorus of birdsong. Meanwhile my wife was getting excited over the plants flowering near the roadside, including the native orchids shown in the photo below.
It was a lunch break to remember.
Weddin Mountains National Park - native orchids
A new town, a new park and a new bird
Cocoparra National Park, central New South Wales
Our holiday in New South Wales
September 2007
Our destination on day two of our holiday was Lake Cargelligo. The quickest way would have been to go from Hay straight to Rankins Springs, but we had travelled that route several time before. We’d never been to Griffith so we took a slightly longer route. This route also took us past the Cocoparra National Park which we had missed on our previous trips in this area.
We stopped briefly in Griffith to refuel. The size of this large rural centre surprised me. It has a population of over 24,000 and looked interesting enough for a return visit in the future. With the Cocoparra NP only 25km to the NE it would be good to be based there for a few days. After refueling we headed out towards the national park. We had an enforced stop for five minutes at a red stop light in the middle of nowhere. Roadworks can do that to you.
On arrival at the Cocoparra National Park for the very first time we stopped to survey the map at the entrance and then we chose Jack’s Creek picnic ground. Unfortunately we only had time to visit one spot in the park. As we drove into the picnic area we were immediately greeted by a family of White-winged Choughs, a group of noisy Apostlebirds and a Peaceful Dove calling somewhere nearby. The Choughs were feeding young in a nest in the car park. The Apostlebirds objected to our visit and the Striated Pardalotes just kept on their incessant calling in the tree above.
Cocoparra National Park, central New South Wales
We went for a walk along a walking trail for about an hour. This took us through a rocky gully with sandstone rocks being the feature. There were enough plants flowering to keep my wife happy and enough birds singing and flying around to keep me happy. I was delighted to see a Speckled Warbler for the very first time. It is always good to add a new species to my life list (a list of all the birds I’ve ever seen).
After our walk we had afternoon tea and then headed off towards our destination for the night.
Wildflowers at Cocoparra National Park
Wildflowers of Geebung National Park, NSW
Orchid flower
Several years ago on a holiday in New South Wales we spent several days exploring the area around Parkes. One of the places we headed for was the Geebung National Park north east of the city.
Wildflower in Geebung NP NSW
Our interests complement each other; I go to places like national parks to look at the birds, my wife looks at the plants and flowers. I usually have my head up while she has her head down. Both of us also keen wildflower photographers. This trip, however, was before I had my Canon Powershot digital camera. The photos on this post were taken with our old Kodak digital camera. This old camera is still a very good camera and my wife continues to use it frequently.
Orchid flowers
All photos can be enlarged by clicking on the photo.
Wildflowers in Geebung NP NSW
To see more of my photos of birds, flowers, scenery and much more visit my family photo gallery here.
Wildflower in Geebung NP NSW
Lunch at Salt Creek, South Australia
A salt lake, Coorong National Park, South Australia
On our way home from our recent holiday in Robe, South Australia we stopped at Salt Creek. We took a short diversion road from the main highway and drove into the Coorong National Park. We stopped at a small picnic ground there so we could sit down at a picnic table in the scrub. While we were there I took a short five minute stroll along the walking trail shown in the photo. This is one of many walking tracks in this national park. We have often talked of camping here for a few days and doing some of the walks.
Walking trail, Coorong National Park.