Beginning of Winter 2012

Diary 2 Minutes

Here in Australia the month of June is the beginning of winter. With sunshine during the day the winter can be quite pleasant. However yesterday it was totally overcast and showers were forecast. Early in the morning Peter and I walked up to the newsagent to get the paper for the weekend. I mentioned to Peter I would like to walk a bit in clean fresh mountain air. I suggested to drive up to the highlands. Even if there was no sunshine it would be great to walk for a bit up there. Peter hesitated to agree. Then he came up with a compromise. He suggested to drive up to Wollongong’s Mt Keira. I happily agreed, that yes we could go there for a walk.

One of the tracks up there turned out to be a bit difficult for me. Peter frequently had to help me out along rocky steps. His strong hands gave me support. At one stage he drifted off a bit to take pictures of some wild flowers. I looked around. Suddenly I noticed a huge stick in the bush. It looked like some one had dropped it there for it didn’t seem to fit in the surroundings. I picked it up. It looked to me to be suitable as a walking stick, even though it was a bit long. It was easy to grab. I was very pleased with its very strong white wood. When Peter saw me with it, he wanted to take a picture straight away. Then he said he would like to put it on Facebook.

Uta with walking stick. It
reminds Peter of ‘Rübezahl’s Stick’

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When we arrived at the top of Mt Keira we noticed that the restaurant/kiosk  up there had changed owners again and was still closed. It didn’t look to us as though it was going to be opened some time soon even though a sign told us it was going to be under new management in mid 2012.

It didn’t look to us as though the kiosk would be reopened some time soon

As I said the sky was overcast but it didn’t rain yet. We took some pictures from the lookout. It’s difficult on these photos to make out where the ocean is and where the sky takes over. There were some boats on the water but you can hardly see them in the photo.

This is a view to Lake Illawarra

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We decided we would negotiate one of the walking tracks to another outlook. When we arrived at this outlook we found out it was closed off because of danger!

Look at all the rocks!

Here comes Rübezahl woman!

Some bush flowers by the waysideWe were looking for these sculptures. After a while we actually did find them! How our day progressed, I’m going to show in another blog. I might publish it in a few hours. So, please, look out for it!