Bonny Hills

We do see some bonny hills as we look north from the Black Head ocean pool.  Here is a close up of one of them:  South Brother Mountain, just south of Laurieton. Laurieton is also close to Middle Brother and North Brother mountains. Also, there is actually a place called Bonny Hills, north of Laurieton. We went there today.

You may know that David lived at Laurieton for a couple of years in his former life (before we met).  He and Marilyn had a health food shop there.  David was a chef at the time and had his own restaurant attached to the Laurieton Hotel. Another reason that trips up to this area are nostalgic for him - this is where Lindsey was born 30 years ago.

But today's visit was to do some heath walking - given that it's Spring. Chris Borough had spotted this little area while driving near Bonny Hills, between the highway and the sea. It has been regenerating after a burn perhaps 3 or 4 years ago and a closer look was called for.

It was dense and healthy and diverse and wild.  A real treat. No paths, except for little tracks made by critters.

Let me see if I can get the names right. I won't attempt to name the species, but this (above) is a boronia.

This is pimelea - rice flower

This yellow splash of flower can be seen from 10 metres away - a hibbertia

Marjory ventured in to the scrub a little distance

This glorious blue-purple is patersonia fragilis, a kind of native iris.  There were vibrant clumps of them iridescing beside the road, the colour leaping out at you.

This extraordinary bark belongs to persoonia (aka geebung).  I tried to grow one once. It had a brief life in our Canberra garden. I guess gee it went bung.

Pretty sure this is isopogon.  I did well to spot it at ground level while I was struggling to find an exit pathway back to the car, after David and Chris had long deserted the scene. Later I spotted the same one in the Bonny Hills plant nursery - $11.90, kerching.

Flannel flowers. Big, bruising stroppy thrusting ones

This is (was?) a termite nest, high up in a banksia. Tracks all up the trunk and along the branches. No echidna to trouble you up here.

And still in the territory of pests and parasites, this is a botanical rarity: a mangrove mistletoe that has colonised a banksia - a long time ago judging from the size of the parasitic stems which are intertwined and overgrown by banksia bark. Chris got quite excited by this find.

After the heath walk there was time for a little (skinny) swim at Grant's Beach nearby. No photos.

This picnic area at Bonny Hills was about the most perfect tucker spot you could wish for. The plant to the left of the table is the appropriately named tuckeroo.

Tomorrow I'm back to work.  Enough of this relaxing.