Robot Claw

Finally I walked the entire Fernleigh track from Adamstown to Jewells! It was long and hot but I managed to finish the ~20 km trip (including from my parents place to the start of the track) in a little over 3 hours.

A couple of notables I saw on the trip:

This walk, which diverts from the track just beyond Burwood Road near Kahibah, leads all the way to Sydney! Although I love walking, I’m not one for multi-day hikes. That said, I’d love to walk to Sydney from Newcastle!

If you’re looking for spiders, walk Fernleigh. I must have seen about eight-hundred zillion this morning and this guy is a nice example. He’s a Saint Andrew’s Cross spider, and measured about 6 cm in length. I saw some spectacularly big webs this morning as well, spanning the entire width of the path (ie. meters). I can only imagine the size of the orb weavers who created them (in one night!)

This was an ironic find. Many, many years ago I was walking (with a few friends of mine) on the old rail line that has now been turned into the Fernleigh Track. We came across a tiny old shack that contained a single chair and a wooden box. In the box was a collection of very old – but well preserved – magazines (I can remember some Playboys, Family Circles and some train magazines) and some unopened – and also very old – tinned vegetables. It was a bit creepy because we wondered who put it there and why, and also how long it had been there, presumably forgotten. So we just put it all back and left.

Cut forward ~20 years and imagine my surprise when I found the shack again on the track about five minutes north of Whitebridge! As you can see it was very overgrown, so I didn’t explore. But it certainly brought back memories of that strange find many years ago.

Dad was to meet me in Redhead for the final leg of the walk to Jewells. I got there early though so strolled down to the beach. It was very, VERY hot (easily over 30, with no breeze) and I couldn’t believe the amount of people out sunbathing. It was all I could do to stand out in the sun just to take a few photos.

Also near Redhead I found this on the track:

Oh the memories! That’s a used firework, probably brought home illegally by someone who holidayed in another state. I could (and one day, will) do an entire entry on the fun Bernard and I had with fireworks in our youths. Before they were banned in our state 🙂

I had seen and heard countless birds along the way, including kookaburra, cockatoos, whip-birds and bellbirds (common between Whitebridge and Redhead) but down in the north Belmont wetlands dad and I were treated to a fine performance of bellbird song:

After we finished the track we bussed to Charlestown for some lunch and quick shopping. Both of us were pretty tired by now, so I debated the madness of getting off the bus home on Beaumont Street for one last look at the used bookstores. How fortuitous I did though, for I was able to get two more gamebooks I didn’t have, that were – the attendant told me – just sold to the store yesterday!

Two last shots:

Pretty mannequins! Why do I always take photos of mannequins? In this case I like how they are all different…

Yesterday I bought my parents Scrabble. The new version includes an incredibly complete rulebook, that contains advanced rules (“Don’t think about using the X unless you can make at least 30 points…”) and a dictionary of all legal 2-letter words. Fun stuff, but this next shot shows what can happen to a game when such a dictionary is available:

Tomorrow I shall bid my parents goodbye and take an early train to Sydney. I’ll have 2.5 days left to amuse myself. Hopefully I shall make them productive!

This path is part of the walk from Adam’s to the local shops:

A gaggle of rosella’s lives in and around the trees here, and they always cry at me when I walk past as if I am intruding. Here are a few of them on the roof of one of the apartment complexes (there are at least 7 in this photo… can you see them all?):

This morning they were less worried about me, and more worried about this guy:

See how his mouth is open? He was eating something, or rather trying. It was hard to tell exactly what it was, but it was obvious it was giving him trouble. Then he just sort of spat it on the ground and flew away. I went up and was surprised by what I saw. Here’s what the kookaburra failed to swallow:

Today, dear friends, was a day for the races. So off we headed to Royal Randwick to bet some money on the fillies.

There were 8 races in total today, and each of us bet on every one. Being a scrooge, I bet only $0.50 each way on one horse per race, with Adam betting ten times that. I ended up with two horses placing, and Adam had 2 wins and 2 places. My net loss was therefore $6.10 on $8 total bet, and Adam had a net win of $3.50 on $80 total bet.

Obviously his betting skills far exceeded mine 🙂

And what does a man do with a healthy $3.50 profit? Adam bought this:

This is a $4.50 ice-cream so legendary it actually comes in a box! A mixture of normal and white chocolate, delicately shaped like a moebius strip of deliciousness, Adam’s five word review is “Small treat in good package.”

As for me, well I would realize a bit later that I have actually eaten the same dinner every one of the five nights since I arrived. That meal is pictured here:

Given the caloric input I am experiencing, It’s a good thing I can still get this on my pedometer: