Bantry Bay Middle Harbour 22nd & 23rd July

Poor Peter! He has finally decided that it is time to change the authors name on this blog. The 'Brrrr' for the cold weather was the final straw. He did not want anyone to be under the illusion that he wrote stuff like that - definitely female.

Beautiful Bantry Bay! The wind has been sweeping across the hills here, but has had little impact upon us down here at water level in this picturesque spot. Approaching this bay from the south the buildings of the old munitions depot dominate the left bank. Some of these buildings have new roofs so it appears that they are to be renovated. This is an off limits area for landing. Opposite, and close to us on our courtesy mooring is a small public jetty and picnic area. I doubt many picnickers use it as access involves a very energetic walk down the hundreds of rocky steps and steep bush tracks, which takes about 30 minutes to climb down from the car park. The trek up had us both puffing and panting. We had tied Lily up to the jetty and checked that the wind was blowing her off and away from the oyster encrusted piles and rocks and that she would not get stuck under the jetty as the tide ebbed. The tide was not due in for a few hours so we decided she was safe for the time being. On arrival back at the jetty a couple of hours later - no sign of the dinghy. She was skulking right under the jetty out of sight and Peter had to scramble under the slippery, slimy, oyster covered piles to retrieve her. The wind direction indicated that the dinghy should still be blown off, but I guess eddies and tide were causing our recalcitrant dinghy to misbehave.

Today we piled in the dinghy, with our lunch, and motored around to Roseville Chase to a small beach where we could lift the dinghy out and not have to worry about oyster covered rocks. From here we followed tracks west in the Garigal National Park. The terrain was as usual very steep and sandstone cliffs dropped off from the walk track at dizzying heights. Mostly the track was about half way up the hill and the cliffs also rose vertically beside us sometimes thickly covered with ferns and gum trees and at other times the bush was more open affording panoramic views across Middle Harbour. We continued on under the Roseville Bridge and along the Lyre Bird track for a few kms where we sat on a rock and ate lunch overlooking Middle Harbour Creek.

 

 

 

Tomorrow is to be a jobs day. The Spit Bridge opens at 10.15am and we will go to the fuel jetty at Clontarf Marina and fill up with fuel and water. Then it is off to Manly to food shop ready for our trip to Broken Bay and Pittwater some 16nm north of Sydney Harbour. Greg and Leisha have invited us to dinner so we will do the washing and have the big clean up.