Thursday, 6 July 2023

Alum Cliffs - 4th July 2023

 Today's walk was to be at Wielangta, but the wet conditions that prevented us from doing that walk last week still persist.  Therefore it was decided to do the Alum Cliffs instead.

Chris is today's leader ..  10 people set off under cloudy skies from our start at Kingston Beach.




 Browns River Bridge with Mt Wellington in the background


Once over the bridge we make our way to the Alum Cliffs Track and continue towards Taroona

Nice view of the Browns River estuary

Stopping to admire the view from the cliff tops




Today we have planned a deviation from our usual walk by going up Bonnet Hill

Here we leave the Alum Cliffs track as we make our way towards Channel Highway


At the top of the ascent we need a breather

 An striking house built on the Channel Highway

Over the highway and onto the Bonnet Hill track passing the site of the old Probation Station






At the top

 

A good place for morning tea


After morning tea we pass through the Brickworks on our way back to the Alum Cliff Track









More views from the track



Looking north we see Taroona Beach in the distance which is the turn around spot of today's walk and where we plan to have lunch


As we approach the Shot Tower we have the most difficult section of the walk which due to the steep ascent and decent has been nicknamed 'The Luge'.



Time for a break at the top


Shot Tower



On our way to the beach we go by this elaborate Cubby House



Lunch

Clearly the men have been dispatched to their own table!!



After lunch we begin to head back



Back to 'The Luge" .. UGH!!!





Sea Eagles

On our trip to Taroona we met a lady who told us about a pair of sea eagles so on the way home it was decided to see if we could spot them.  We left the main track and started exploring .. we were very pleased to finally see them perched high in a tree by the ocean



 Making our way back to the main track


An old piece of farm equipment

 This photo brought back some memories .. H.V. McKay was a large factory whose main initial product was the 'Sunshine Harvester' .. it was eventually sold to Massey Ferguson and in its prime occupied a site of over 76 acres in Sunshine (about 3 kms where I lived in Melbourne.)  Dad got a job there as the Manager in charge of their Metal Cutting Shop .. 420 men working 3 shifts who cut up all the metal for their various farm machines (rolls, strips and sheets of steel in all different shapes and sizes).  In the late 1960's they ran into financial difficulties and eventually MF closed the site mainly due to the cyclical nature of farmers buying farm equipment (good years everyone wants one bad years no one does),  Today there is barely any indication that a factory existed.

A 'Shelf Fungus'

A very smooth Browns River looking towards Mt Wellington

 


This innovative Dog Library was spotted walking back along the beach to the car park 







10 walkers covered about 15kms on a good day for walking 

Click on this link to download a GPX file of today's walk


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