Spring holidays 2017, part 1

Family camping trip over the spring school holidays! Having previously camped in what is parochially called the "South Coast" (in New South Wales Sydney is the navel of the world, so it does not matter that the coast is on the east of the landmass) and visited the New England area further north we decided to go for the area just north of Sydney this time.

Today, however, we only made it as far as the south of Sydney, taking it slow and seeing things on the way. The main attraction here is Royal National Park, which my wife had seen fifteen years ago but my daughter and I have now seen for the first time.

The above is the view from Bald Hill lookout, as we were coming into Royal National Park from the south, via Wollongong.

We also saw some tall sklerophyll forests, but like most of south-eastern Australia this area has seen too little rain this year, and much of the vegetation was too dry. The heath looked much better. This species is Isopogon anemonifolius (Proteaceae).

Another Proteaceae, we think it is probably Grevillea oleoides given its very long and slender flowers and likewise long and slender leaves.

Again we are not entirely sure, but this may be Lasiopetalum parvifolium (Sterculiaceae); the field guide is not entirely clear but it looks as if the other species of that genus that are in the area and have similar leaves may differ in having hairs also on the inside of the sepals. It is a small shrub that I photographed in a very dark spot using the tripod.

And this is where we got out of Royal National Park, Bungoona lookout at its northern end.

As we are going camping I will presumably not be able to post anything else until Friday at the earliest, but then I hope to be able to upload a bunch more plant and landscape photographs.