Return to Royal National Park

This week I decided to return to Royal National Park (remember Figure Eight Pool?). The park is really, really big and so it's hard to see it all in a day. I still haven't succeeded. Part of the problem is that it takes about 1.5 hours to get there and so another 1.5 hours to return. Last week I didn't have the kind of time I wanted, unfortunately. I was at the park only about 1.5 hours before heading home! Three hours in a car is no fun, but I went anyway.

This time I wanted to see an area called Curracurrang (1). I had seen in a guide book that there were nice rocks and beach there. I never made it! Ran out of time! I did make it to Providential Point and could see some big cliffs there. But I get ahead of myself...

I am amazed at how poorly Australia marks its parks and trails. I haven't really seen a place that is well posted. Visitors sort of have to stumble around and find their way. It would be kind of fun if I were with someone. By myself, it feels a bit scary.

When I finally arrived at the car park, I first wandered over to some falls (2). These rocks sit high up and have interesting "scars." The deep grooves were made by the water. Walking out onto the rocks you then come across the Pacific and a nice looking beach (3) to your right. But there aren't any signs to tell you how to get to the beach! At first, I thought you had to climb down the rocks, but then I did see signs warning folks that they are slippery and you shouldn't do that. Finally I back tracked and discoverd the sign and some trail heads.

The trails are not great. If you are not sure footed or have trouble climbing, you'd probably not want to go. They're all pretty uneven and rocky. But how you'd miss out on the views (3-4)! Here is a shot of the palm tree (5) and you can see what a day it was! (We'd had rain all day the day before so I was soaking in the sunshine! And look at the color of the water (6). It is incredibly blue and green. Almost electric colored!

On the trail to the point, I found this water dragon (7-8). I think he looks like one of the candidates for president in our last election…I'll let you decide which! He just sat there and let me take his picture. I like these lizards. They're cool!

The top is not far up. It took about 5-10 minutes of walking to get there. On the left side you can see the bay you just had to pass to get to the top in all it's glory (9). And here are some panoramics I took with my cell phone at the point (10-11) to give you an idea of the exciting view. To the left is the award winning shot (12-13). I met some Americans up there visiting from Ohio, believe it or not! And then it was go back.

But I was still itching to go farther. So I said to myself I could go for another 30 minutes or so. (Any longer and the traffic would have been horrible…by the way, it was horrible anyway!) Here is the trail up the next section (14). I couldn't really tell how far Curracurrang was, but I thought about going out that way and see how far I could get. These are what they call kangaroo paws (15). They were in bloom and were a starnge lilac color. The ones I had seen before were more rosy. I'm not sure my camera captured the hue.

Again I finally got to the look out point and great views all around (16-20). Lots of cliffs to climb atop. Photo 19 is the panoramic shot of the top. You can walk on out to the edge. (And over, if you were a bird!) This gives you a sense of the unevenness of the rocks at the top, so watch your step (21)! And these photos I took for my geologist friend Jen (22-23); I loved the color of the stones and can only imagine what a geologist would see looking at these.

On the way back, I found another lizard: a goanna (24). Br. Louis says that you don't want to get near them as they have sharp talons, climb trees and sometimes climb people, thinking they are trees! I am not sure I believe Louis as he also told me a story about checking the bed for orange fuzzy caterpillars when I first arrived! This lizard sort of fled when I approached.

Finally, last Sunday, St. Peter visited our Youth Group to share about the Last Supper (25-26). I couldn't make it, as I had some stuff to do, but I hear it went over very well. Why the Last Supper? We have Lebanese youth and their mom makes nice humus! It was a good excuse to eat some great Middle Eastern food!