It was a chilly start at the Fish Creek Park to car pool for the trip to the Prom. Upon arrival we were welcomed by one of the Prom’s resident emus, however, we had no time to stop for pleasantries for there was a walk to be done.
The Lilly Pilly circuit track to Mt Bishop wound up through the forest canopy until it opened out onto a large slab of granite that looks across to Mt Oberon. Impressive though the view was, this was not the place to linger, as the summit was just around the corner. There the view was even more dramatic, opening out across a panorama of calm sea and granite islands over 300 metres below. We noticed the recent, rather severe, controlled burn that had exposed the dunes directly below us. This, we were advised by Sue (who had read about it recently) was intended to kill off the tea tree that had over-run the area, thus hoping for a more diverse vegetation to sprout.
From the summit we headed back down to continue the circuit on the Lilly Pilly track. Some walkers opted out at the junction to the car park; thereby we “lost” ten percent of our group, which Frithjof felt may well cast aspersions upon his walk leader prowess. However, the rest of us followed him on regardless. The track continued down into the rainforest gully, where a board walk wove through and around the swamp vegetation. There were many fallen trees, some incredibly large and quite a few showing the effect of fire along their charred, hollow trunks. All now rotting down adding to the regeneration of the rain forest ecosystem and shrouded in the mosses, fungi, lichens and ferns that inhabit the floor of the gully.
After the walk the remaining trekkers drove on to Tidal River for lunch.
Thank you to Gayle for organising the walk, it was unfortunate that she could not attend. Thanks to Frithjof, we were not leaderless.
Written by: Ellen Porter
Attendees: 14
Distance: 10.7 kms
Difficulty: Easy
Duration: 3 hours