During the walk we saw huge trees, this is one tree (ficus) with many parts and columns.
We saw many other amazing root systems
not to mention birds. This is a Lord Howe Island currawong waiting for Ron to extract a grub from a rotten tree truck with his axe.
and we encountered a woodhen, saved from extinction in the 1980s.
The woodhen is a rail and this smaller red stripped rail joined us for lunch at our cottage, they are are numerous and tame
In the afternoon, we wandered down in the direction of the airport.
As we left the cottage, we met the 'meals on wheels' service calling in to feed the resident elderly cow. Ginny our host has a cow, horse and some chickens roaming about with the rails in a field in front of our cottage. The cow and the horse are good friends and go about together. Bill, Ginny's husband goes off collecting grass with a strimmer each day to feed the cow.
The airstrip comes right out to the coast. The sky was clearing, promising a good day to come.
This is the view of Mount Gower on the right and Mount Lidgbird from the sea end of the runway. This was the first time that we had seen their tops. They are about 800 metres high.
On our way back, we encountered this shy kingfisher. The kingfishers like sitting on posts around the airstrip so are easy to spot but are difficult to get close to. They are bigger than the English kingfishers but not as big as a kookaburra.
Back at the cottage, we had aperos with our fellow guests in the second cottage, Gabrielle and Gavin who had arrived on the same flight as us and who live in the Blue Mountains, close to Sydney. We all got on very well and have several things in common. Their daughter lives in Brittany and so they know the French culture well.
Pat and John on tour