A wildflower walk

In glorious sunshine we set off for Cox Scrub, a conservation park on the Fleurieu Peninsula, 40kms  north east from home, hoping the wildflowers would be out after the recent rains and sunny weather we've had.  We were not disappointed.

Just near the car park at the start of the walk we came upon a swamp, redolent with the deep, throbbing croaks of frogs; according to the sign these were the eastern banjo frog.

As usual, I tried for some creative shots; if you're not into this, skip the next couple of photos.

The walk itself was along an easy narrow sandy track.

Wildflowers were blooming all around us in a profusion of rich reds, mauves, oranges, yellow and white. There was the ubiquitous wattle (which I adore), heaths, banksias, grass trees, bush peas, running postman, and many I could not identify.

We tried to get the definitive shot!

Here is what we came up with. The first three shots are Steve's. The rest are mine.

Beaked hakea

Lavender grevillea

A creative shot of shadow leaves.

There was a slight breeze blowing and the afternoon was magic. I especially enjoyed the stand of sugar gums. These are not indigenous to the park but were planted by the Cox family (who originally owned the land) for beekeeping.

Signs advised us to be on the lookout for the red-bellied black snake and the eastern brown snake, but all we saw were these bones.

We thoroughly enjoyed the walk until we came to the last interpretive sign at a T junction.

There was no sign indicating which way to go, and one of the two of us (and it wasn't Steve) had forgotten to bring the brochure with the map. We decided to turn left which was downhill, thinking that we had to end up at the swamp where we had begun the walk - and the swamp would be downhill. We walked on until, after about a kilometre we ended up at another T junction. Luckily we could see the road so made for that. We then realised we had gone in the entirely wrong direction. Another kilometre or more walking on the road verge and we finally heard the banjo frogs again and spotted our car sitting on the car park.

An inglorious end to what had been a lovely day. Climbing into the car I heard Steve mumble something. I couldn't quite catch what he said but I thought it may have been, 'Next time my darling I'll remind you to bring the map.' Or words to that effect!

The missing map