35
Categories: life, bushwalking-hiking
Date: 29 March 2012 05:41:59
No, not an attempt to get more people searching for numbers to find my blog: the age I turned today.
I had a simple but delicious breakfast at a café at Glenbrook, a town at the start of the Blue Mountains if you are approaching from the east; the mountains are named for the blue tinge the mountains take when seen from afar. The Wikipedia article states:
...the tinge is now believed to be caused by mie scattering which occurs when incoming ultraviolet radiation is scattered by particles within the atmosphere creating a blue-greyish colour to any distant objects, including mountains and clouds. Volatile terpenoids emitted in large quantities by the abundant eucalyptus trees in the Blue Mountains may cause mie scattering and thus the blue haze for which the mountains were named.
While I had heard the eucalyptus explanation, I must say that "mie scattering" and "volatile terpenoids" seem a bit too much for an ageing 35 year old. :) The Wikipedia article also mentions some early belief by Europeans that there were dragons which is far more interesting to me: though I am not sure if that is a cheeky edit.
On the way back I took the scenic route, passing through (for Australia) the early-settled suburb of Mulgoa and and did a shorter bushwalk [~ 5 kms return] up -- and it was a little up; glad to walk downhill mostly on the way back! -- to the Riley Mountain lookout (200° views...with bush stretching as far as the eye can see...), and back to the Rock Lookout which is a short walk from the carpark (full photoset here). Beautiful weather today and amazing views from cliffs looking over the Nepean River. The sounds of the Australian Bellbird (sound clip on that page) accompanied my walk in parts, as did I am afraid a few too many spider webs (many I did not see until I walked into them, resulting in some form of strange dance as I brushed cobwebs, and any spiders, away...), and the beautiful trees of the Australian bush, and that unique smell the bush has, all made it a wonderful walk. The water in the Nepean is still rather brown, a sign I think of all the mud and extra water flowing through after very heavy rainfalls and floods. And as I looked over the river, and swatted away flies so my attention wasn't 100% sadly, I had some time to read sections from The Lenten Spring and the The Arena in the quiet (sound-wise; not fly-wise!) surrounds of the bush.
Last week I did another short bushwalk across Little Mountain next to Bents Basin [we're not fans of apostrophes here :) ], a deep waterhole along the Nepean River and a popular spot for swimming and picnics (full photoset here). No swimming though that day, even if I wanted to: as above, due to heavy rainfall and floods, the Nepean was brown and very fast flowing, and still a metre higher than it usually is as I was told by a Parks and Wildlife officer. It did get so high recently that it covered the picnic tables closest to Bents Basin. While walking through the Gulguer Nature Reserve on Little Mountain, 10-15 butterflies accompanied me which was nice. I am not sure what type they are, native or introduced: they looked like Silky Hairstreak (but the locations there do not match exactly with where I was...): wings black or brown on top with yellow-orange patches, and greyish on the underside. Sadly, a trainee helicopter and his instructor died in a crash on Little Mountain on June 20, 2003; there are two small and simple memorials just off the path. I also stopped by to look at the Catholic and Anglican churches; the Anglican one looking the older and is now a private dwelling I believe due to population decrease in Greendale.
We have a beautiful country here, blessed by God indeed (even if I wish Noah had the left the spiders, flies and mosquitos off the ark :) ); and on my birthday I could not think of a better way to spend it than bushwalking through some beautiful land.