So on the weekend we decided to go for a bush walk in the Royal National Park in the lovely summer weather. Yeah Right. Well I suppose that atleast the weather wasn’t stinking hot, but it was cloudy and overcast, which did make for nice walking weather, the views we just not as spectacular.

We took the walk to Kangaroo Creek, a pretty spot half way to Heathcote from Audley. Th picture below shows a pretty reflection on the water in Kangaroo creek, the water from which flows into the Port Hacking River.

On the walk we discovered thse ants, they were milking a substance from another bug, I am not sure what it is but probalby a tpe of scale?

This picture shows the last of the NSW’s Christmas Bush, actually in the bush. It would have been absolutely stunning a few weeks ago as we saw the calyx from flowers on lots of other bushes.

You know ow I like flowers So here are a couple more of those “crazy” grevillia’s for you


So whilst I was walking back, looking at the flowers I turned the corner and OMG a HUGE (ok not that big) snake and it hissed at me, I may or may not have yelped. I did however stand still, which is something that you should always do if you encouter a snake in the Australian bush. Most of them are more scared of us than we are of them (except perhaps a taipan ). The snake was easily identifiable as a Red Bellied black snake for obvious reasons and wasn’t it a beauty!


As a precaution we were sure to stamp our feet really loudly to hopefully scare anymore basking snakes on the way home.
After all that excitment we were more than ready for our picnic dinner, this was on the lower side of the causeway at Audley.

We had a simple yet extremly yummy dinner of Lamb and Mint Sausages from AC Butchery (c/o Fratelli Fresh). They were panfried in the cast iron skillet and a 1/2 cup of redwine was poured over them and reduced for the last quarter of their cooking to make a nice jus.

We also had some red wine, crusty bread, potato and mint salad and a tomato and chickpea salad. The potato salad was made from homegrown kipflers which had previously sprouted in my cupboard.

On the way out of the park the rain started to drip from the sky, a perfect end to the day.

Potato and Mint Salad
Boil enough chat or baby potatoes whole for the number of people you are serving. When they are cooked dress them in a good vinegrette and when cool add a big handful of chopped mint. EZ

This entry was posted on Monday, January 16th, 2006 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Recipes, Sydney. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.