Rifle Range Road - 27 October 2026

The weather has settled and today is forecast to be a warm 17 degrees in mostly sunshine with a wind of up to 30kms - good walking weather.

 Chris kindly volunteered to lead today's walk.

Getting ready to go

 We head off along Rifle Range Road towards Gorringes Beach along  which we walk in a southerly direction.

 

A short distance along we pass this tree stubbornly trying to resist erosion - I wonder how much long it can succeed for.

 

 And its time for morning tea on the beach

 At the Mortimer Bay sign we leave the beach and follow the trail around the coastal reserve

 

Deciding where to have lunch - the consensus was to go up the hill a bit further and sit in the sun

 

 King of the castle - Yong sits on his throne

 The great view we all got while eating lunch

 Continuing after lunch

 

Some curious natives

 We're now well into our journey back to our cars when we come across this bench and its time for some group photos

 

Wise men and woman 

 More of the group

 

Mendelt wants a snooze but Chris is determined to keep him awake

 We continue for a short distance and then head back to the beach where the wind was considerable stronger than this morning 

 

We took the first opportunity to leave Gorringes Beach and  continue along a more sheltered track

 Fancy Gates

 A feature of this walk in the past has been the number and variety of native orchids on display and we were hoping for a repeat performance today.  Unfortunately the only one we saw had already flowered

 Recognising our distress at not seeing any orchids on our walk today a wag in the group (shall remain nameless) sent me this photo and said I should declare it a rare "Eastern Shore Orchid" which only flowers once every century

 A Yellow-banded Day-moth (Eutrichopidia latinus). This is an unusual moth as it is active in the daytime

 These were spotted during our lunch break - they are katydid eggs. Female katydids glue their eggs firmly onto plant stems or leaf edges

For those who don't know (me included) below is a picutre of a katydid

 

 A remarkable amount of sap flowing out of this tree

 

Today 18 walkers covered a relaxing 11 kms during the hike over flat seaside terrain.

Thanks to Chris for  his photos

 

  

Sand River Gorge - 20 Oct 2026

We are walking into Sand River Gorge near Buckland that is normally a rock climbing area.

 

After a short drive from Buckland we come to the carpark area.

 

The forecast for today is possible showers and storms but the weather looks quite good as we set off. 

The track leads down to the base of the Sand River Gorge.

We stop for morning tea under these imposing cliffs.

Looking for the way across the river.

 

After a short search through the scrub on the other side we climb the hill towards the cliff face that we can see.

As we did not come across the track we climbed straight up the hill until we met the track near the cliff face much to the groups relief. 

A growth on a downed tree.

Checking where we had come.

A number of the group were of the view that this shute would take us to the plateau top after a bit of a scramble.

Half the group decided to wait for the rest and have lunch while an exploration of the top was undertaken. 

The view back to to remainder of the group.

 

We did obtain a small view through the trees to the valley below that we had driven along to get here but there was no clear plateau up that climb.

 

Returning to the lunch spot.

The remainder of the group settling in for lunch.

Lunch over and its more walking.

We now follow the base of the cliff to the climbing walls.

There are plenty of climbing marked out along the wall.

Now starting the descent to the creek on the way back to the cars.

Our leader checking we are on the right track at the bottom of the descent.

We cross the creek and follow it til it meets up with Sand River.

Its amazing to see how tree roots hold onto the large rocks even when the tree has fallen over.

Some well advanced fungi.

We have emerged from the creekbed and are now heading up the hill to the cars.

Ron was fascinated that the brickies had been here and laid down a support for this huge rock.

A couple of flora examples as we neared the cars.

 

We had 11 walkers who cover approximately 5.5 kms in approx 4.5 hours climbing up and down about 200 meters.

 A good day walk and the weather held out and was sunny the whole day. 

 Thanks for the photos from Michael, Ron, Mutha  and Jannis.