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Published: February 3rd 2009
Wombats Ahead
If only! Once again we were disappointed to find no wombats.Don’t you wish that sometimes you had just kept your mouth shut? There I am with the glossy tourist information brochures, perusing what is on offer in this new area for us to explore. More National Parks, reserves, restaurants, shopping, the ocean and oh, the Illawarra Fly Tree Top Walk. “That looks interesting” I said when we rolled into Shellharbour a few days ago. To which Andy’s response is, "we will do that then". So today is the day and after our morning ablutions and hanging our sleeping bags on the washing line to air out in this lovely ocean breeze, we set off.
So, The Illawarra Fly tree top walk is a 1½ Kilometre walk starting off at ground level then rising up on a steel gantry that generally is around 20 mtrs from the ground, and the view is spectacular.
At either end of the steel gantry are two lookouts, called the cantilever, which just hang over the tree line, I must say for Andy, who likes heights, they do sway a little, for me that is the scary bit, I do like solid ground under my feet. There are only 4 tree top ones in the
Wombat Burrow
Be careful not to destroy its habitat. Really we were there at the wrong time of day to see a wombat. world, and in a conversation that I had with my Mum I think they have done one of these in Costa Rica. The project costs $6.5 million and completed in March 2008.
Each stage of the walk is numbered and for the simpletons among you the numbers correspond with the facts detailed in the brochure.
The bit that is the most scariest is the Knights Tower that extends 45 metres up through the middle of the steel gantry, and above the tree line giving you a birds eye view of the Illawara escarpment right through to the Ocean. All though today is hot and the distant view is slightly hazy. You have to climb the spiral staircase to the top where there is a platform so that you can admire the view.
There were a few people waiting at the bottom of the spiral staircase for their partners that had climbed to the top, well today as scary as it was, I was not going to be one of them, heck, I have climbed Sydney Harbour Bridge so this should be easy as I made myself take each step slowly gripping the rail and only looking at
Caution Snakes
Did we see any? No! each stair. Don’t look through the gaps in the middle and don’t look into the distance otherwise you might realise where you are. Seriously though it was great and what a view, each anticipated step was worth it.
Clearly marked on the brochure is Wombat junction, where you can see the burrow of a Wombat, sadly for us though, no Wombat today. Although it has been said that if you sit in the café for long enough a wombat regularly wanders past. So we sat and had a drink and waited, no Wombat.
This walk was worth every cent of the $19.00 each that we paid. If you were too tired after the walk, you could take the shuttle cart back to the entrance. Of course Andy and I chose to walk back up.
As it was lunch time we drove into the Buddaroo National Park to find somewhere nice to eat our sandwiches that I had prepared earlier, I think we are getting fed up with cheese and ham sandwiches we need something different. However we went off to Nellie’s Glen and ate in the shady eucalypt forest in the peace and quiet. This interesting area
Tree Top Walk
This walk does take your breath away seems to have some history with the locals from we think around 150 years ago when they used to come and picnic and bathe in the pool of water down below the waterfall. Sadly today there is no water coming down the fall and the water looks quite dark, this maybe because of the type of rock in the area, however it could also be because it has not been freshened up with new rainfall. I am sure this will change in the winter, but inland they are suffering with a drought for the 8th year in a row, which is causing some serious problems for some farmers.
One fellow camper our new next door neighbour comes from spelt Wagga Wagga, pronounced Wogga Wogga told us that a friend of theirs has not made a profit for 8 years and the government is having to pay the interest on farmers loans just to keep them from going under. Fortunately some recent rainfall has refilled some of the dams, however probably not enough for the rest of the summer, so I am sure that the farmers live in hope.
They also told us that towing a Caravan in Australia
The Knights Tower
Caroline climbed this with fear and asked at every turn "are we there yet?" the weight of the caravan can not be heavier than the weight of the vehicle pulling it, or else it is breaking the law.
There is a heat wave here at the moment, I believe that is being reported on the news back in England. Our campsite however is very breezy so we are not suffering with quite the same temperatures. In a way this is a relief to the heat and humidity of the sunshine coast that we had become used to.
We then walked up to Warris Chair Lookout this was just a short 2 kilometre return walk back to the car park. Walking up however we both hear a noise and almost jump out of our skins, this is because we like to stay in the middle of the track just in case there is a snake just underneath some undergrowth on the side of the track. Of course any sudden movement because we are concentrating hard makes us jump. However Snakes have no ears so can’t here us talking they pick up the vibration of walkers through the ground and are generally shy creatures and hopefully disappear to safety before they are seen, this
is not always foolproof though so a keen eye is still necessary.
The Messingham Steps and Lookout is about 4 kilometres, however as we have done 2 short walks today we decided to skip this one, it does mention that many years ago the Owner of the local Sawmills, Mr Messingham, asked his workers to carve some steps out of the sandstone when they were on holidays these steps are still visible today.
We drive around the Buddaroo National Park for a while, it is warm but shady, a really pleasant dive, on the way back I see a brown blob in the shallow ditch by the side of the road and ask Andy to slow down, as we get closer it is a fairly Large Chocolate coloured Wallaby, that we think is a “Bennett’s” Wallaby but will need to do some research. We have parked the truck in the middle of the road not to get to close, and stay there of at least 5 minutes watching this gorgeous creature just grazing, another 4x4 eventually comes the other way and we reposition, then carry on watching, it eventually gets board of us and hops off.
Back
at our favourite WiFi spot we upload the blog for “Bad Boy” and the head back to camp,
we go through the rituals, tea, food etc and type up some of today’s blog called, Well your reading it, “On the Fly”.
Andy decides he wants to Skype his sister as it is his link to find out how his mum is, Mary, Andy’s mum is in a care home, not far from his sister who calls in to see Mary everyday. Unfortunately Mary doesn’t have her own PC and we have to arrange any Skype calls through Jane. Andy’s sister.
Caroline speaks to her mum and dad on Skype, then its time for bed, we flop in to bed exhausted for another day.
When we log on to AOL for our e-mails the news messaging service tells us of snow in the UK, and Hampshire as been hit really badly, we think of all our friends and families missing them.
Oh by the way on www.mytb.org/kangaroojack you can recommend our blog page and would be grateful if you did. We don’t win a fondue set but I believe it gives us a blog ranking.
Until tomorrow bloggers.
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Kaz
non-member comment
Canopy walks are amazing - have done several - remember the one in Taman Negara in Malaysia which is quite long - (supposed to be the oldest virgin rainforest in the world) - just an iron ladder with a bit of netting over it in places to walk on - and in some places a fat Canadian guy bouncing around infront making me feel a bit seasick - it is a beautiful experience. Would u believe - they even installed a short one at Kew Gardens last year in the summer. Have not read your blog for ages and doing all my catching up in one go - it's brill Kx