We met at Lees Road, armed with coats, hot drinks and an expectation that we would get wet, that was not to be, it was a delightful day out in almost perfect walking conditions.
As we popped out to view Anderson inlet a faint ray of sunshine brightened up the scene. With the tide just starting to ebb, there were a few patches of sand showing, notoriously shallow, the inlet or estuary can sometimes look like a massive sand bar.
I always love meandering through the coastal tea-tree, especially the section that forms a tunnel or arches. Today there was the added bonus of pink finger orchids lightly scattered throughout the whole walk. We did find a couple of patches of nodding greenhoods and cobra greenhoods, as well as some running postman.
The fungi on display at the moment in this area is a treat, with prolific examples for our eyes to feast on. I am no expert in this area, but think they were mostly “oyster things”. Fungi are the recyclers extraordinaire in the natural world, guess this area is pretty healthy.
Finding a mobile phone on the track provided us with momentary distraction. How do you answer a locked phone? Luckily, we were able to rendezvous with the owner.
Our morning tea stop was in a sheltered little nook on the beach looking over to Inverloch. From there we wandered on the shoreline of Point Smythe wishing we had some skills for identifying birds. A large flock of small, but unusual birds captured our interest, of course we had no idea what they were.
With a receding tide we were able to walk along the ocean beach towards Venus Bay, having solved the problems of the world we went up onto the dunes and enjoyed our lunch.
After that it was a case of Robyn and I just following Roz uphill and down dale, back to the cars, she could have taken us anywhere.
Many thanks Roz for a lovely walk.
Written by: Pat
Leader: Roz Spratt
Distance & Duration: 12kms - 4 hours
Grade: Medium
Attendees: Roz Spratt (Leader), Robyn Scott, Pat Williams