30 March 2011 - Lane Cove National Park, Sydney, NSW

This morning we woke to a glorious blue day; that is blue skies and sunshine. We agreed that this was an excellent day for a drive tour, so with picnic lunch packed and sunscreen applied, we set on out of camp soon after nine o’clock.

We headed for Palm Beach on the north tip of the Hawkesbury River’s south head, via Mona Vale on up Barrenjoey Road. The heads have that same name; Barrenjoey. The lighthouse which also shares that name and the park surrounding invites visitors on one hand, and then sends them away with parking metres just everywhere, charging $4 an hour. Imagine heading out to the beach for a surf or a swim, or to one of the charming café’s on the waterfront and being faced with a parking meter!  We stopped on the Pittwater side of the peninsula for a coffee from the thermos and kept one eye out for a parking ranger.

We then drove down the ocean side pausing at Palm Beach; Chris recognised the place where he and his fellow backpacker traveller, Stan, spent their first night in Sydney nearly forty years ago after having driven up from Melbourne. This area has many fine and elegant mansions, their residents not likely favouring vagrants on the foreshore then or now.

The road soon rejoined the one we had already travelled, so we crossed over to the Pittwater side and followed the shore as far as the streets would allow. Here they are very steep and narrow, deliberately so to keep tourists out, I am sure. A wonderful area overlooking this lovely inlet which inspires much sailing of the yachts waiting moored in the many marinas.

Further around we entered the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park; that will be $11 please to take your vehicle in for the day. This was not surprising; we had encountered it before, however we still find it peculiar. The road up the Lambert Peninsula to the Western Head is better than all the roads we had travelled all day. That probably explains why so many cyclists were out and about.

 We did a couple of short walks, about four and a half kilometres in all, each taking us to wonderful view points overlooking Broken Bay, the inlet called Cowan Waters to the east, the islands, and the sea coast up to Woywoy and toward The Entrance.

While having our lunch we were visited by a very large goanna, although short of the average adult length of two metres. I have now overcome my ridiculous fear of these creatures, which stems from a story heard nearly thirty five years ago in Vanuatu. Then, our receptionist was a woman from NSW named Toni, who had grown up on a farm with her two sisters. She recounted a time when the three of them were walking back from the school bus stop and were bailed up by a very large goanna. The story remained with me for all these years, the goanna growing in size, and creating a good reason why one would not want to live in this land of monsters. Ridiculous of course, but we are all allowed our little quirks.

In the afternoon we travelled further on around Cowan Waters, across to the inlet called Coal & Candle Creek where we discovered more wonderful marinas tucked into the amazingly sheltered corners at Akuna Bay. Then out of the park back into city scapes, and north again up to Bobbin Head which is still in the same National Park. We came down to the shore here and were thoroughly delighted to find expansive parks beside the water, and stretching up river along mangrove walks. Alas the clouds were gathering and we could hear thunder in the distance. We decided that the weather was a bit dodgy to consider another walk, and drove on up to the Kalkari Discovery Centre, still in the park and spent the passing of the storm safely inside watching a lovely 3-D slide show of the park.

By now it was approaching four, and we decided we should head home before the onslaught of the work traffic. This we did with the invaluable assistance of Tomtom, in time to relax with a coffee and the newspaper before starting dinner preparation.