Jerusalem Bay

This week we reached a high of 74 on Thursday. So I called a friend who'd taken off work and went for a hike at Jerusalem Bay. (Misnamed Bethlehem Lake in my last blog!)

Basically you park at Cowan Station, a train stop, and hike across this bridge (1) that stretches across the "motorway" (Aussie for highway). Then, we crossed over the train tracks. As the trains were passing, and we watched them go by, we missed this huge sign on the right (2). We walked for about 20 minutes wondering where to go to get to the trailhead! We had to call a friend who'd taken the bushwalk to get directions!

Turning around we headed on the rough and rugged trail (3-4). As you can see, if you are prone to falling, this hike, like most hikes here in Australia, is not for you. Lots of tree roots and boulders to climb over. (Little ones would love this!) The entire hike was basically downhill, through the eucalyptus woods, towards the water and the bay. Along the way, we came across a stream. Here's a strange rocky hole that might become a future blow hole in about 2 million years (5).

Close to the end, the stream gets wider. The low tide or dry weather or both, allowed us to walk along the exposed riverbed (6-8). Very wet with strange discoveries. The saturated sand felt like an alien landscape. More like something out of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series: very spongey. The trees along the shore (9) shoot out their roots (10) that I suspect these eventually become new plants. They were spikey and felt a bit like asparagus spears. Holes in the sand have occupants, too, such as this little crab (11) so don't poke around!

I love the way the sky reflects in the puddles of water (12-15). I think the blue and the brown look pretty together. Here was some other kinds of terrain (16). It looked salty and/or crusty, but I didn't walk on it so I really don't know. And some parting shots of the riverbed (17-18).

Spring is around the corner for us and flowers are starting to sprout (19-23) and lined the path. These little yellow ones are only about three inches in length, but they cover the bushes (20-21). They look like short pipe cleaners. This fellow is a pink variation of the grevelia (22) and here is a bottlebrush (23) just starting to open. In a few weeks, these will be fully in bloom and covering tons of bushes in Kellyville.

At last, after about a 40-minute hike, we came to Jerusalem Bay (24-26)! Isn't it beautiful. I love that lone palm tree making a stand! It looked very much like something from Treasure Island! On the return, we came across a trio of these black cockatoos (I think). I'm told they are endangered (27). I do know they make a lot of noise!