A visit to Eden

 Today (30 March) the Footmobiles visited Eden for a few walks. The first was the start of the Bundian Way, a track used by indigenous people to get from Twofold Bay to Kosciuszko.  

Here is the route we followed:

The odd little flick NW near Cocora was due to a sign leading Frances and I that way, and us trudging along - both thinking I don't remember this grass on the way out!

At Quarantine Bay the Darters were full of interest.  The first 3 images are of a mature female.

A male Darter was perched near the Pelicans, seeming oblivious to the guano.  This will be a good site for a phosphate mine in a few millenia.

A few of the Pelicans.

The view across Twofold Bay from a lookout just before Quarantine Bay.

Apart from confirming that the steps on the way back were a pain in the everything, there were
a couple of interesting sightings.  The first of these was seeing an Azure Kingfisher in a small creek we crossed on a very flashy bridge.  The second was seeing these fruit of Pittosporum revolutum.  Thanks to folk from iNaturalist.com for identifying this.

This is a wider shot to show the leaves more clearly,

The track has a few boards telling the story of the walk.

A modest (~300) colony of fruit bats were close to the water.  They were quite a useful landmark in suggesting that we had misguidely followed a sign, leading to the spike shown in the map above.

After a lunch pause we went to the look out at the far end of the town.  Despite having been to Eden many times I don't think we had ever been here.  The main lookout is very good, but going a little left leads to the Maritime memorial (see below) and then to a Reserve by the Marine Rescue station.  We had an interesting chat with one of the staff who was just going on duty.  Apparently they deal with problems every couple of days (mainly boats going out with issues such as flat batteries, breaking down etc).  Here is the view North ... 

.... and South East.  This  should be an excellent whale watching site in season.

On the tip of the peninsula opposite is Boyd's Tower a relic of one of the more 'colourful' characters of Eden's past!  The boat was the second trawler we saw returning to port: as one of the group said, it looked fine in a flat sea but the idea of being on a boat like that miles out to sea on a rough day was appalling.

The chip mill across the bay was chipping!

This is the Maritime Memorial, honouring all the folk from Eden lost at sea,  Very well done with little plaques for the unfortunates sailors and fishermen.