a
Bright blue skies and a sun that soon warmed up made ideal conditions for walking this section of the Harbour to the Hawkesbury trail. Beginning with quite a stretch of street walking, comfortably covered as we caught up on all the news, we were pleased to have this out of the way when we reached the Phillip Ave to Kitchener Rd fire trail. This fire trail is through a delightful bit of bush with some very old trees. Our first creek crossing had just enough water in it for Kas to baptise her new boots. After some more street walking, we entered the Upper Cambourne track, pleased to know that we were on bush tracks for the remainder of the walk. It wasn’t long before we arrived at the Cascades for a pleasant morning tea.
On the Upper Cambourne track Morning tea at the Cascades
For the rest of the day, we followed the edge of the water, initially along Middle Harbour Creek Trail. This remote-feeling trail is on often sandy track, with ferns and bush very close on one side and the creek close on the other. The creek consisted of a series of still, dark pools linked by small cascades. There were plenty of boulders to scale or navigate, and tree roots to watch out for. The first stepping stones looked too good to ignore, so despite not needing to cross the water there, we paused to pose for a photo.
On the Middle Harbour track....... ..........and a view from it
The baptismal creek crossing Posing on the stepping stones
After this, the track became a little less challenging, the bush taller and less dense and the creek started to widen out until we found the second set of stepping stone which we used to cross the creek and join the Lyrebird Trail.
On the Lyrebird track Lyrebird track where it reaches Middle Harbour
The track here was often high above the water. We took advantage of this to have lunch on a rock platform overlooking the bush and creek.
Middle Harbour at lunchtime
Continuing on after lunch, we stayed up high and found some early Boronia and some wattle, bright gold in the sunlight.
Some of the colour we saw
A short descent took us to the firetrail along the edge of the water which we followed back to Davidson Park. Then came the scariest part of the day, walking along the Roseville Bridge as the cars, buses and trucks thundered closely past at great speed (or so it seemed). We managed to cross the road safely by doing a long walk half way up the hill, then back down the hill, under the bridge and up the hill again to the bus stop. Back to Chatswood by bus, where a number of walkers had coffee before going their separate ways.
Some pictorial highlights - ferns, forest, tidal waterways, flourishing mangroves
Our route shown by fine red line.
Walkers: Celia and Wendy C (leaders), Leah, Dae, Kas, Barbara R, Nick S, Deidre, Cleona and Peter T.
Words: Wendy C
Photos: Deidre (5,6 ); Barbara ( 3,9,10); Wendy C ( 7,8,11,12); Peter T (1,2,4,13-20 ).