The Grose Valley (pronounced “Gross”) runs west from the Hawkesbury area (actually the river runs down to there) but we walked west up the valley last Wednesday.

It was a beautiful Spring day.  Clear blue skies, and by the end of our walk it had reached nearly 30 degrees.  Almost no clouds – just enough for the pictures.

Not really like walking in Europe, though – the vegetation is so different.  Many “Grass Trees” (aka “Black Boys” in less politically-correct times).  These are black stumps about 20cm across with a shock of long thin green leaves coming from the top.  After fires they shoot out a tall stick upwards to produce seeds and spread them to the wind – after fires so that the ground has fertile ash to receive the seeds.  They are very slow-growing, and a specimen a metre high could be a hundred years old, apparently.  There are several in the pictures, and at times we were following a path pushing through clumps of these unusual plants.

The river was at a low level, but there were signs that when it is in flood, as it has been recently, the water level can rise several metres.  On the other hand, it is now just beautiful clear water in gentle flow past sandbanks and down minor rapids.  It was lovely just sitting back drinking coffee and eating cheese and biscuits, listening to the rapids and the birds tweeting (and an occasional squawk from a cockatoo).