Wyrrabalong National Park

Spring Walk in Wyrrabalong National Park by Colleen Keating

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In the bush I hear the trees
ferns, palms and moss
whispering their wisdom
renewing my being
healing my soul
– Colleen Keating

After winter

Still dark enough to note the morning star
she walks again the bush track. A few magpies
fossick in frosty grass for first feed. Swallows dart

among the insect motes off the dandelion spent heads
and fly back to perch on telegraph wires.
It is still cold. Apple-crisp and silver.

The clouds open as silk fans, their bone
displayed like veins of a feather. The magpies
sing now from branches above, and she thinks too

how their morning song is her Delphian oracle.
She walks the track that’s a bracelet of charms
taps a branch watching a spangle of diamond–

dew drops light the way while the early light captures
a scarred tree trunk hollowed black like Munch’s Scream.
A cockatoo perched above glints with the gold                                      

of a mohawk fiend, soon in flight it will have the air
of a Tiger Moth in a opal-tinted sky. She has always loved
the walks here, the brush turkey stepping from

its scratchy music of an old LP, the whipbird checking
on its mate from the high river gums, the wrens chirping
from the safety of undergrowth, yet today it is a rupture

of spring that sings a rhapsody of song: purple milkwort
ravishing attention, pink wax Eriostemon, wedding veil
showers of boronia and orange pea plants sitting

in their spiky foliage. There is joy in watching the earth
re-awaken, the inevitable journey out of a winter
segueing towards summer. Ahead she can see

why she came – a wild display of flannel flowers. Petals
still mostly closed – their green tips a rising choir ready to sing
an Alleluia chorus. Open petals like earth-bound stars have                                                

the velvety feel of a childhood dress and sparkle in the shifting
light. She loves those Banksia trees that shade the groves
flamboyant with rough bearded seed pods like sleepy-eyed owls

wisely peering down: with the zephyr of a breeze there’s
a shuffling sound as if feathers are being ruffled or a yellow
skirt swinging through dried grass. The sun now on the shoulder

beams into the canopy of green and she will walk back
her mind pianissimo as a gentle Brahms largo passage
alert to nature watching, her enlivened step. 

Colleen Keating

 

 

Flannel Flower Heaven by Colleen Keating

colleen Bush walks, Grandchildren, Hildegard of Bingen , , ,

Flannel Flower Heaven

   

Here’s me in Flannel Flower heaven. 

In Wyrrabalong National Park North . 

It is along  the Coast Walk from Crackneck Lookout to  the Trig Station. 

This is now a pilgrimage experience for me ( i will explain later)  

This pocket of  White Flannel Flowers  attracts many walkers each October. 

The walk includes wonderful ocean vistas and a few vegetation environ-changes

along the way. 

The show of flannel flowers begins slowly, and in the early stages can be easily missed . . . one here, one there,  and suddenly once you have seen these few you begin to see them everywhere.. . . .their presence, breath-taking. 

They clump gracefully together and move gently in the breeze. 

They cluster in masses growing from unobtrusive grey furry wavy leaves.

Stems grow  up and buds appear and then the flowers emerge and blossom.

Ten star petals velvety to the touch each with a delicate pointed tip, exposes a downy pin cushion centre conducive to  bees, butterflies, beetles to land for a feed.

Viewing these plants leaves me with a visceral sense of joy and satisfaction . 

I felt bewildered last year when I snuck along this track during lockdown  (in my 5 km permission radius) to find it had had a back burn, I guess to clear the bush  against fire for the houses further down the hill.  

Now I felt uplifted  this year, 2022, that I had returned with hope for this Flannel Flower Pilgrimage. 

This is not an illusory emotional response but a physiological one

triggered  by the sense in my brain of well being,   

given by the release of neuro-chemicals, endorphins and dopamine.

I wanted more.   I could not get enough.

Every corner I turned and I was not disappointed.

A walk in this Wyrraablong National Park with its Spotted Gums, its few old river Gums (one i take my grandchildren to, for it has the most generous arms for climbing and holding little kiddies,)   for the its banksias, Acacias and wattles and for its Flannel Flowers this week

is one of the places, 

special places for Michael and I, 

that encourages ‘Forest breathing:’  the Western term

for what Japanese call ‘shinrin yoku’. 

This is the practice of  walking and being mindful of the surroundings, letting your senses take in the sights, sounds, smells ,tastes and feel of the forest and bushland.

The health and well-being benefits of ‘forest bathing’ are well documented. There are good research  articles about this.  Today  walking here, reminding each other to be aware is enough, to be very present . The small white nodding heads of the flowers seem to be speaking to us.

They take us out of ourselves and for an uplifting and refreshing time,

we are with them in the world of nature.  

Of course we do not need this marvellous stand of Flannel Flowers or even a forest or the bush to  find ourselves immersed in ‘forest breathing’. 

The mystic and Abbess, Hildegard of Bingen said as far back as the 12th century,  that nature and the green colour in our eyes is very healing.  She was speaking well before modern medicine and she found this way for women who came to her for help. She would say to those feeling depressed, feeling down, feeling overwhelmed:

“Go out into nature ,  find the green: into a park, a paddock, even to a tree  . . .
Feast your eyes on the green, the thousand shades of green.

for its healing powers.  and now japanese Doctors even prescibe a wlk in a forest for healing and for well being. 

(The story for those who have read to the end of this.. . )

My mother loved the sea: my father preferred the hills and bush and so they bought a weekender near both, as the saying goes ‘where the forest meets the sea’.

When Mum went off with the family to the beach it turns out my quiet Dad would put our dog, Skipper in the car and drive to Kincumber Mountain.

He told me once that was his favourite place. 

My father  died  suddenly one day while mowing the lawn and he died young. It was a tragedy in our family life. 

Later as healing of loss and grief progressed I decided to visit Kincumber Mountain to help me find something. . . maybe lost . . . I knew not what. . . 

It was a late spring balmy evening,  I got out of the car and found myself immersed in a forest of flannel flowers and my father was there  .  . .we were there together .  His presence filled me mayup for the lostness in spirit we were talking.   it was  i understand an out of mind experience. It might have been a second, a minute or an hour . I do not know but we walked together. Michael came later and took a photo of me in those wild flannel flowers  nearly as tall as me and I seem lost in them and in that photo I feel my father is there. 

When I started my healing business  ‘Touchstone’ that flannel flower photo was one of my motivating photos . . .maybe about the mystery, or the more then . . but it stayed on my self all the years of my work inspiring me.)

Many years later when I was facilitating a retreat, over lunch with a friend who was Artist-in-Residence and one who understood these things, I shared my Flannel Flower experience with my father.  He listened with joy  and understanding . . .and I felt heard.

  He arrived the next day with  a framed painting of his, saying:

I have always wanted a good home for this painting and I now know where it belongs. He presented one of his signature paintings of flannel flowers.

 It was an amazing generous gift I have always treasured.

So this is the explanation why Flannel Flowers are my spiritual flower. 

PS. I have never gone back to Kincumber Mountain. I never wanted to spoil that moment and today I don’t need to go there.  But this walk along the Coast track is a beautiful reminder.

 

Pay attention: spring is peeping in. by Colleen Keating

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Paying attention

With a smile I capture a rainbow bouquet–
for spring is peeping-in along the bush track *
but in my excitement to capture colour
maybe some might be classified weeds 
and that makes me laugh
and reminds me of Mary Olivers ponderings
it doesnt matter
as long as you are paying attention
to the world around you
and have the attitude of gratitude
to carry you forth.

 

 

 

The poem by Mary Oliver:

Praying

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

— Mary Oliver, Thirst

Pay attention, then patch a few words  together.

* Along  the north arm of Wyrrabalong NP  bush  track

 

 

 

A new Hike in the Wyrrabalong National Park by Colleen Keating

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It was going to be a short walk in the Wyrrabablong National Park this afternoon, the air so clear and fresh after the many squalls of rain we have experienced in the past week the leaves of the trees and palms and ferns sparkling in the mild autumn sunlight . The sight reminds me of TS Eliot description of thee leaves like children  clapping hands with joy.  The perfect day for a walk. The plan was to walk along the Red Gum Trail to the Swamp Track which I usually walk on a dry path frolicing along to the song of the frogs  on both side in amidst the ferns and palms and towering wonderful Red Gums. However the swamp track had become real  and explained why it is called the Swamp Trackand we learnt that about half way along as it became impassable. And we had to turn back!

reflection

acoss our track

water flows

into  our world

upside down

So we turned back and decided to do the full track Red Gum Trail joined into the Lilly Pilly Track and then wound back by the bushy Burrawang Track.  Michael did well even though we had not planned to walk that far. We had two pleasant sit downs  on lookout platforms over the Lake.

   

 

Sydney red gums have beautiful bark, which changes colour and texture as it is shed. They have twisted and winding branches, strange looking growths and protuberances and wonderful creamy yellow blossoms when in flower. The unusal shapes especially where the trunks and branches ‘flow’ over obstacles and around obstacles.  They have excellent old growth cavities and hollows for birds and squirrel gliders to shelter.

Besides the Red Gums the Burrawangs and Banksias were spectacular fresh and green after the rain.

 

                           

 

After our hike we settled at Canton beach for a cup of tea from our thermos and we watched a spectacular sunset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Days of February: one day at a time by Colleen Keating

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Life as we know it
changed this past week
yet the nankeen kestrel
hovered above us
just as before

 

 

Each day is beautiful and precious
even amidst these cloudy times
some days of heavy metallic sky
some days of grey straggling fog
with the horizon lost

nature tells us
it will turn for it has many sides
a stretched-out horizon
wider then our dreams
is still there

Today the clouds give us
feathers and angels and flying kites
all uplifting  light and full of joy

 

so different to the metaphoric clouds
that hang thickly over us
pounding at our hearts
fogging our minds
suffogating our bodies

 

lapping waves
our footprints disappear
we do not look back

 

Our second day 

 


out walking
nothing has changed
trees still stand as mystics
their whisperings
pointing the way

Some signpost along the way

 

And from the Sensory Gardens Just now

Lockdown Walk No 4 – A track less worn by Colleen Keating

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A track less worn

in  Wyrrabalong country
where the forest meets the sea
the hidden way winds along the headland
its overgrown track thick with the banksia‘s
and gums a May Gibbs world
of scrawly characters
as old man banksia stares down
to terrify snugglepot and cuddlepie

in this xerlerphyll remnant of forest
grass trees with their thick
green grug-like head of hair
act guard of honour
sway around us as we file
singularly through this other worldly place.

wattles and a few winter wildflowers
catch our attention
eucalypts  spotted gums  scribbles
river red gums and underfoot
leaf litter absorbs our steps
as if we are not there

and the ocean
with its shots of blue
like projected slides
each a new view through the trees
calls – breathe me  . . .my healing air is yours

its glide  roll  crash then gentle lap
a breathed rhythm of in and out
the space between
a silent tension between life and death

and twice we clamber out
to a headland lookout
and watch the waves perform

the only other sound
wrens butcher birds
distant magpies and
the erratic scratch
of brush turkeys

I felt a lightness of being
walking this quiet way
the air fresh
aromas of salty sea, eucalypt
acacia and a woody balm

They say to argue on the side
of happiness
and even though back in reality the news
is full of fragmentation and distress
here for this time is beauty
to feed the soul
and I eat and drink every piece of nature
on the menu.

Lockdown Walk No 3 Crackneck Lookout to Shelley Beach by Colleen Keating

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Crackneck Lookout to Shelley Beach 

 

Whenever we  are out walking especially in the areas of beauty around our place on the Central Coast we pay tribute to the Awabakal and Darkinjung peoples and this makes us a little more aware  that we walk on sacred ground  and reminds us to pay attention and just ask and thank our entry into a place .   this of course is only a small section of the national Park which clings to the narrow line right along the coast. For us there are three main walks :

1    Crackneck  Lookout to Shelley Beach  and picked up at end  (north)  Ocean

2    Crackneck Lookout to the Trig station and back  (south)  Ocean

3    Magenta  ( lake side) to Canton Beach  north  (Lake )

Winter is  the perfect time for stepping out into our local Wyrrabalong National Park (gazetted in 1991) has the best of all worlds , the wonderful Australian Bush with its Red Gums, Blackbutts and Spotted Gums and  Scribbly Eucalyptus,  the lingering of wattle and other Acacias, Hakea, Myrtles,  Banksia  and the  promise of the odd siren of a red Waratah . (Good to know where they are so you won’t miss the October bloom.) This is backgrounded by the coastal bird life with the iconic crack of the Whip Bird and the spectacular glimpses of the blue reminding us we are walking in a rare piece of land where the bush meets the sea.

Michael gave the walking a miss today but drove me to Crackneck Lookout where we joined with many watching the wide blue sea for the whales travelling north. Excitement each time there was a blow of spray or the break of the water and a silver streak of a tail appeared. Of course they are very distant  and only those with binoculars and one woman I spoke to with a highly magnified camera. (So interesting as she is a poet and writes haiku and uses her photography and poetry together. 

Michael left me to walk down to Shelley Beach and he drove down set up the picnic and read his Kindle. The path has been newly upgraded.  In a way I preferred the old ramble of a track. And I was distressed at some damage along the sides where they haven’t worried about Grass trees and flannel flower plants and other small planting I have been aware of in the past. No doubt next time I come nature will have overcome the damage and be back to it s beauty. The blue glimpses and lookouts give a lovely touch to the walk as it clings to the coast as far as safely possible.

 

 Brush Turkeys    There was activity with the brush turkeys sometimes called scrub turkeys or bush turkeys. I observed three hens grouped and a bit lost, you could say. I walked on and saw the male rooster cocky as ever coming down off his huge mound of leaf litter, twigs and dirt, which I presume he built although who knows??? but just along the way he met a few more cocks all up tight . Were they fighting over the same mound I am not sure but they flew at each other and chased each other. They all landed on a tree and stalked each other trying to win the battle to be the main cock  . . so funny.  I was caught in this wonderful display.

One stalked the other not knowing he was looking down on him from on high. It was a marvellous bush experience to watch. Not having any understanding but still fascinating. The photos demonstrate some of the activity. Of course the noise as they clashed and fought cannot be captured.   Bush energy at its best.

Yes I know some of my friends shoo these scrub turkeys away and dislike the way they wreck their gardens  but they have wonderful things going for them for us to be aware of .

1. They are the most ancient member of their family dating back  30 million years so that should humble us. 2. They have a hard beginning because their parents don’t care for them after they are born . . .they have to defend for themselves 3. they make compost in the name of love as they rack the garden  into a mound so the heat can build up inside for the eggs and to attract the female for firstly they are built by the male to attract a mate.  And then the eggs follow.No wonder there was such a frenzy going on during my walk. 

Walking Quiet Ways No 1 Central Coast by Colleen Keating

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First Tentative Steps out of Lockdown 

  1.   Crackneck Headland to Shelly Beach

Monday 1st June  was the first day it was legal to drive and stay away from your place of shelter.

As soon as we could, after that we tentatively set out. I say tentatively as we had not been out much at all and we had to watch the traffic and the increased  movement about. We also didn’t feel easy about buying takeaway food even coffee. I must say I have envied the young ones sitting on blankets in the sun enjoying boxes of crispy salty sea food and others sitting up to served food in the alfresco places I pass.

On our way to our beach retreat we stopped at the Crackneck Headland to do our first whale watching  and as I faced the sea it just took my breath away. It was a gorgeous day admittedly and many people sitting watching . There was a hush  all around.

 

The sea was vast. Vaster then I ever remembered it . . . spread out in its immensity with a sheer silken surface .  It was alive as its moved and wrinkled as if someone, maybe the goddess of the sea was moving under its cover . . .the horizon dividing the sea and sky like a fine line separating the two shades of blue.  As I looked out, the sea claimed even more, its aliveness as the waves  caterpillar across the ocean, pursuing each other, perpetually.  That sense of feel-good ran right through my body  like electricity. I guess it is the feel-good hormone running sparking my blood.   I felt alive invigorated.  The ocean renews me. 

Someone said whales were there but far out and I know Michael  and I can’t see that now but what joy to know the whales were there . It added to the sense of  amazement of this ocean like a goddess in all its presence  and not changed in our months of lock down and my absence.

Yes it makes me feel small, insignificant but as I become smaller my awe becomes greater.  It gives me all the meaning I need in life to see this . . well it is the meaning in a way.  and that makes me feel grand with meaning. 

From this came the idea i have the ocean in my heart  and so I had to write  a poem about it .

We decided I would walk from the Lookout to  meet Michael at Shelley Beach. The walk was about an hour  and goes through  Wyrrabalong National Park which it is more a coastal corridor  with some wonderful glimpses of the sea and some good stands of Banksia and Red  Gums and Palms. I have written it up before, but this time I felt it has been neglected and people have walked heavily thru it  and it is damaged. No rubbish but there its not the graceful respect we need in our precious forests.

Bush Walk: Wyrrabalong National Park North

colleen General , , ,

Whenever we  are out walking especially in the areas of beauty around our place on the Central Coast we pay tribute to the Awabakal and Darkinjung peoples and this makes us a little more aware  that we walk on sacred ground  and reminds us to pay attention and just ask and thank our entry into a place .

Spring is for stepping out and our local Wyrrabalong National Park

( gazetted in 1991) has the best of all worlds , the wonderful Australian Bush with its Red Gums and  Scribbly Eucalyptus,  the lingering of wattle and other Acacias, Hakea, Myrtles,  Banksia  and the odd siren of a red Waratah. This is  backgrounded by the coastal bird life with the iconic crack of the Whip Bird and the spectacular glimpses of the blue remind ing us we are walking in a rare piece of land where the bush meets the sea in our walk today as it curls around Tuggerah Lake 

We parked our car at a small car park off the road not far  along from Magenta. The first sign told us fox poison was laid . . . I felt sad after the wonderfully wild fox we saw in the past few days in the settling pond off Ibis Road.  But then if they are taking the birds and wild life maybe it has to be done. It reminds me of another walk I do  at Normanhurst in Sydney  where  signs appeared that they had laid baits against the rabbits . ( that saddened me too as I loved their little furry ears popping up and watching me as I walked. But I think the rabbits had the last laugh as they moved down onto the grass near the railway line and I travelled past they were hopping about everywhere. 

 The Burrawang Walking Track was the beginning and we walked taking in the fresh, unwithered air and breathing deeply to find an inner calm. 

Very quickly a divide in the road with  an unsigned choice . 

It had us standing and pondering Robert Frost’s Poem

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same, . . . 

The trees were amazing (as the photos show) but no photo can do justice to the awe  and magestry of the tree all with their own characters and the ferns protected by the higher canopy  were full of veriditas as Hildegard would say.

When we came to the signed junction  Red Gum Trail or Lilly Pilly Loop Trail .We chose the Lilly Pilly track which took us to a Tuggerah Lake Lookout. We took this track as time and energy seemed to prefer the loop. and left the Red Gum Trail for another day . Even so we saw some wonderful Red Gums.

There was a deep quietness and I think made even more so as our footprints were cushioned by the sandy track and it gave a great sense of wellbeing with the trees and ferns and lake.

. There was a deep quietness and I think made even more so as our footprints were cushioned by the sandy track and it gave a great sense of wellbeing with the trees and ferns and lake.