Pickering Brook Bushwalk

Rain was forecast and it came all day in short, sharp showers. We were constantly putting on our rain jackets and taking them off again. I was keen to try out my new hiking sandals in wet conditions. The latest thinking in Camino circles is that sandals are better than boots because they are lighter (and less effort to move) and they also allow the feet to breathe and stay cooler. Nobody says anything about walking through muddy puddles and having wet socks all day! My test was incomplete: although it rained on and off all day, my socks didn't get wet and there were no really sodden areas of the track.

There were lots of wildflowers and flowering shrubs out, all doing well in the rain. This one was my favourite:

Kunzia

Kunzia bush

The walk was about 13 kms on bush tracks, not hard but as usual I was tired in the last hour when for some reason the leaders increase the pace!

Macrozamia cones: they are poisonous, but the aborigines knew how
to treat them to make them edible

the seeds when produced are the size of a large raw date and occur in considerable quantity. The seed is surrounded by a thin shell containing a nut-like interior and is obviously an excellent food source, but these ancient plants have developed defences against being eaten and are highly poisonous as early explorers and settlers quickly discovered, when they doubled up in pain after eating them, some even dying. However aborigines over thousands of years of occupation discovered ways to neutralise them by roasting, leaching and aging, etc (don’t try this at home), so to them it became an important food source. With their fire-stick land management, it is quite likely they farmed these plants by burning regularly to encourage flowering.

(From the Esperance website mentioned in the previous post)

One of the many species of bacon and egg plants

Start and end of the walk; blue leschenaultias everywhere.