Tackling the Bobbin Head Trail


Sunday dawned dull and grey.  A perfect morning to watch the TdeF.  

The Tour de France stage was in the mountains and the riders had to climb three of them. These guys are supreme athletes especially the climbers who go up these steep inclines at speeds only I have ever dreamed about.  The longest climb so far has been 17kms with gradients up to 15% or perhaps even more.  Often at the end of them some of the riders have to be helped off their bikes. 

Bev had wanted to take me walking on one of the many trails in this part of the upper North Shore.  One trail we have cycled past is called the Bobbin Head trail which takes one down to Bobbin Head.  Neither of us had any idea what it would be like, although Bev thought it would be through the bush.  

We drove to the North Turramurra shopping centre and stopped for a cup of coffee.  We chose a café that neither of us had been to before as we figured the coffee might be nice.  The coffee was very ordinary but they did have some nice sweet things which we availed ourselves of.  The customer service was shocking.  

Then it was down to the beginning of the trail.  It turned out to be a wide road which is perhaps used as a fire break.  The initial couple of kilometres were quite flat.  About a kilometre along the way we came upon a small sign saying a place of cultural significance was nearby.  We found a little path and discovered rock engravings that had been done by aborigines in the distant past.  The information said that there were several forms to be found but  we didn't see any of them.  


Soon after then roadway started descending then it was series of switch backs before the trail stopped and we were clambering down a formed track which largely consisted of rocks.  I really do not like descending.  Finally we were at Bobbin Head where we stopped for another coffee and a bite to eat.  There was another route called the Sphinx track back to North Turramurra so we started along it but found it was very wet and while I would have been OK Bev would have got very wet feet.  So we retraced our steps to where the track joined the Bobbin Head track.  

Clambering over rocks

When we arrived back at North Turramurra Bev decided that we should check out the Spinx which was the name of the other track we were going to try walking.  She was not so sure about how far away it was and running out of time we drove down to it.  Actually it wasn't far at all.

The Spinx was carved by a Digger Private Wallace who had been gassed in WW1 and was living nearby care facility in 1922.  He carved the Spinx at about 1/8th the size of the Great Sphinx out of sandstone rock as a memorial to his fellow soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force.  As you will see in the picture he even made some little Pyramids.  

The Sphinx



That evening we went with friends to a very nice dinner at a Thai Restaurant in West Pymble. 

Looking down the switch backs to the Bobbin Head inlet

The white road was hard on the eyes

Looking at a tree


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Annandale - Inner West Sydney

Image
 It was a cool start to what was to be a beautiful day.  A friend of mine had suggested that I might like to meet a friend of hers who lived in Sydney.  I thought it would be nice to do and made contact. We had arranged to meet in Brook Street which is in the inner west of Sydney in a place called Annandale.  I was not at all familiar with the area so it was a new adventure.  Central Station Concourse The instructions were get to Central (Railway Station) and take Bus 470 direction Lilydale.  What could be difficult.  It was an early start so I was on a full train with office workers heading to the CBD.  Alighting from the train I found a sign that directed me to go, on what turned out to be a long walk to the bus station. The route took me under the railway lines in a series of tunnels.  Despite the long walk it was interesting as there were lots of interesting murals. The tunnels seemed new and I suspect were part of the upgrade to the stat...
Read more

Orange Grove Market

Image
After watching the Tour de France we went to the Balmain area to a market we had made acquaintance with a few months ago called Orange Grove Market.  It is held at a local primary school with the same name.  I think it is almost as good as the Eveleigh Farmers Market.   We were able to get some good quality vegetables at a very reasonable price.  There was a nice fromager who had an interesting range of cheeses.  We got a comté to celebrate the TdeF passing through the Jura where this cheese is made.  The other cheese was a blue from Gippsland in Victoria.  We were impressed with the flavour and is the best blue cheese that I have had from Australia.  There were of course a number of food stalls and being lunch time we availed ourselves of some of the goodies.  I had some very nice dumplings and Bev a serving of Gozleme.    The previous night I had made a Lamb and Guiness Pie of which there was sufficient to feed an army. ...
Read more