Bushwalking the Royal National Park

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We are constantly impressed with the amount of parks, beaches, and "bushwalks" that are easily accesbile from Sydney. This particular hike was in the Royal National Park which is about an hour train ride south of Sydney. Similar to our Blue Mountain walk, we hopped on the train in the morning and rode to the town of Waterfall. Once off the train, all we had to do was walk across the street, and we were at one of the Park's trailheads.

We took a section of the trail that led north through the Park to the Uloola Falls. After the falls we kept heading north and west on our way back from the train. The lanscape here was much drier than in the Blue Mountians, and looked much more like what we expected from the Australian countryside. We (Matt) found a fair amount of critters along the way, including a little lizard, some beetles and bugs, and a few far off noises that we swore were Kangaroos (but maybe that was just wishful thinking). The area looked like it had recently been through a fire, and all along the path were 'Banksia' trees, which are fast growing trees with big orange-yellow bottle-brush looking flowers. Apparently, the seed pods only release their seeds when they reach temperatures created by a fire, so they are one of the first things to grow back.

It was a 15K hike and took us most of the day, but the trail conveniently ended right back at the main road and next to the Engadine train station, just 2 stops north of where we had originally started. A long day of hiking, but well worth the sore feet.

Enjoy the pictures!

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Comments

[Jeff and Christie Wooton]

Hello!
Hello from the Wootons!!!! We enjoyed the hike pictures!! Hope you both are doing well, we miss ya, and hope to visit that beautiful place sometime!!

[Quentin]

Hello from your French cousin !
I'm following your adventures in Australia on your blog. Nice pictures, amazing landscapes, beautiful nature. Keep on making us dreaming. Bises, Quentin.