I had a lovely hike in the bush with my friend Janet today.

Janet at the aboriginal engraving site, February 10, 2014

We saw many new plants and animals.

Eucalyptus and Angophora trees are gorgeous trees with soft bark reminding me of the Pacific Northwest native madrone. They grow tall and spreading in the crown like a black cottonwood.

Lot's of lovely new flowering shrubs I had never seen. This next one looks to me a bit like Scotch broom.

Some kind ofdainty fern growing on the ledge next to the trail where it gets moist in the rains.

Cool tree.  Conifer? — Cool tree. Conifer?

Looks like it's adapted for butterflies.  We have seen many butterflies, but no hummingbirds.  Are they here? — Looks like it's adapted for butterflies. We have seen many butterflies, but no hummingbirds. Are they here?

Well, that was about it for the naturalist this evening. There were some very cool rock formations too.

The colors are not justified here.  They were vibrant, rusty reds, oranges and browns. — The colors are not justified here. They were vibrant, rusty reds, oranges and browns.

This was a cave - respite in the bush...

Luckily we didn't see any snakes. We did however find there are a plethora of the tiniest ticks you ever saw (though I haven't seen many). We needed a small hand lens to see them and verify they weren't just small scratches. So Janet is soaking her hands in baking soda... I am typing away about our lovely adventure!

Today I also met with talented group of researchers at University of Technology Sydney. Stacey, Natalie, Tony and Peter. They were enormously helpful, providing insight into the seagrass species and locations as I had hoped. It was great to meet Tony and Peter who are preeminent experts in seagrass research and whose papers I have greatly enjoyed reading. I should have taken a picture... Nice folks.

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A bush walk

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