Almost counterintuitively (for an ex-Brit, anyway) winter is a time of flowering for many native plant species.  Sue and Marchelle went on a walk last week, which even though very close to Blaxland/Mount Riverview was through some beautiful country with lovely flowers.

This is the lookout which they walked to, with views over the Nepean region.

– “The Nepean Lakes.”

Below are some of the beautiful flows/shrubs/bushes which they found.

I must admit to not thinking of the spring flowers in Australia, but this is the equivalent, I believe, and very beautiful, too.

Another lovely walk, and very local to us.  This map shows the location of Blue Pool, in Glenbrook Gorge.

When this was taken (a “screenshot” off my iPhone), we were where the arrow marks, a little below and to the left of the centre, at the Blue Pool.  As you can see, and the crow (or Currawong) flies, this is only about two kilometres from our house, which is about where the second “o” of Glenbrook is placed on the map.

It is a lovely walk down through the bush-covered slopes of the Gorge.

Here are a couple of pictures of the Blue Pool, taken from the northern side where we came down.

The water is very still, with great reflections to be seen in the water.

As is true up and down the gorge, there are amazing rock formations created by wind and water eroding the sandstone, here are a couple of examples seen by just this small stretch of river.

Anyway, it was a lovely walk, straight out of our front door!

Reflections, in the Blue Pool.

As ever, with any image double-click to enlarge.

There are several areas with Blue Gum forests but this one is a pleasant walk from Winmalee.  It’s best done mid-week, though, Marchelle tells me.  Otherwise you apparently have to spend much time dodging mountain bike riders.

The trail is wide and relatively flat, with some extraordinary trees:

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Although the route can be kept relatively level, we walked up to a lookout over the Grose Valley.

Another local walk – this one with no driving at all.  We just walked from our front door down through the village to the start of this walk.  Down to Glenbrook Creek, then along the creek to Duck Hole.

This is our recent walk to the creek with friends Chris and Greg.  The descent was quite difficult in parts, as we didn’t seem to follow any clear and well-used route, although such routes are available – we must just like a challenge!  The valley has been cut deep into the rock by the creek, and the amount water at times is clearly immense: after the recent flooding rain (a couple of months ago) the water must have been at least 5m above its current level, as shown by knots of twigs around the branches quite high up in the trees – knots clearly made by twigs carried down on the floodwater.

The erosion of rock in the creek is astounding, as can be seen in this picture – at first Sue and Greg were completely unaware of the gap beneath them.

The rock is cut away even under Sue, not seen so well in my picture.

Why it’s called Duck Hole is obscure, but there are many such pools along this section of the creek.

More pictures of Duck Hole:

To carry on the theme of walks relatively local to us (meaning within a short drive to the start), Sue and I went on a walk with our friend Marchelle (who has lived in this area all of her life, and consequently knows much about the surrounding country and the walks available).  

This walk was from Blackheath, about an hour’s drive up the Blue Mountains main road) out to a rock formation called Hanging Rock.  

This involved a largely flat walk along a fire trail, to Baltzer Lookout, then a descent to view the Hanging Rock itself.  The cliff faces are sheer and unguarded – apart from an occasional warning sign.

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We DIDN’T go out to pose on the tip of Hanging Rock itself, although it is certainly possible to do so.  The whole rock formation is actually a stand-alone rock mass, separated from the main cliff formation with a very deep fissure only about 30cm wide at the top, but clearly going over 10 metres down.  Not for the faint-hearted to cross, even before you get to the overhanging formation itself …

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