IN THE WYRRABALONG NATIONAL PARK
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 pondering and remember the words of Robert Frost –
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.