Well, I’m back again with an entry that’s going to be small on written content, but massively self-indulgent with photos. The title ‘Wandering Steiglitz Historic Park’ is exactly what this post is about. Not really a listed walk, but more some strolling along tracks I hadn’t tackled in the park before.
There was one small problem though and it’s my common nemesis. Time. I’d spent way too long waxing my chest and getting my hair just right for hiking that I arrived late in the day with rain falling. It’s hard to generate walking mojo when it’s raining, plus I hadn’t brought a jacket, or a cover for the camera or the polarizer for my new Tamron lens. I know what you’re saying, ‘no polariser? Is he mental?’
Instead I did a short walk, which covered most of the ground that’s in previous entries within the blog, but as the photos came out alright I thought I’d upload them as an official photo post. Sounds great doesn’t it? I don’t have to think about what to write and I get to sit here drinking cups of tea whilst the pictures upload. How easy is this blogging business?
Oh yeah, there’s one thing though (extremely sombre voice at this moment. A bit like the sound Orson Welles would make from the bottom of a well). I’ve had some trauma with my Walkmeter app on the phone.
As anyone who’s read the blog will know, I thought I’d try a half-baked fitness campaign by taking up a challenge from another blogger. The aim is to walk 1000 miles in a year. Yeah, I know we use metric these days, but the originator is from the States and as you know, they think metric is some sort of communist conspiracy. Anyway, it was all going really well and since July I’d reached about 550 km. What’s that in miles? No idea.
You just know this isn’t going to end well, don’t you? Correct! I bought a new computer lately and the iPhone had a super duper update, which as a combo managed to reduce my history of strolling on the Walkmeter to roughly zero. Yep, the lot has gone, which to someone who’s mildly obsessive about such things, is a bit hard to take. This is how I felt when I realised what had happened.

All my mileage is gone.
So, whilst I’m on suicide watch, sit back and check out the zillion photos from Steiglitz. If you want, you could put off reading this post until late at night? It’ll be a sure fire cure for insomnia and beats counting sheep. Oh, I said, beats counting sheep, not beating off to sheep. A big difference.
I’ll be back shortly to see if you’re still awake.
Right. What’s going on here? Are you still awake? If you’re operating heavy machinery whilst reading this, then it might be best to stand up, as it’s hard to lapse into a coma when you’re on your feet. I don’t want the guilt of you nodding off and accidently jamming your head in a lathe.
I’ve been extremely lucky with echidna sightings lately. They’re tricky animals to see sometimes, but my last three walks have all turned up some spiky action. This one was entertaining, as he was first sighted with his nose buried in the ground, which left him with a dirt encrusted face for the photos.
After a bit of wandering around, he went on the defence, as I think I got too close, so he began to bury himself into the ground. Not exactly the nicest thing to accidently step on with bare feet, but as he began to vanish into the soil, I thought it best to leave him alone.
What else happened? Well, there was standard fare of the odd feather on the track and an interesting looking rosella, who appears to have a, ‘run over by a tyre posture.
Remember the bit at the start about not using a polariser? Well, I think I lied. I didn’t have one when I was walking around, but when I got back to the car, I found an old lens with the circular goodness attached. I couldn’t waste the sun, which had appeared at the end of the day and an easy target was the old Steiglitz Church.
All in all, I’d walked a leisurely 7 km, so you can see now why I’ve padded out this post with photos. It wasn’t a long enough walk to generate any writing content. Before wrapping things up, I’ve got one final thing to show you.
Steiglitz Cemetery sits sits beside the road on the drive into the park and I’ve always thought I should stop and have a look. The trouble is, when previous walks have been over, I’ve tended to just look at the cemetery from the car, as I pass by with my foot flat on the accelerator.
This time I had energy up my sleeve so a stop was in order. I’m not sure if I should have though, as it’s one of the more depressing places I’ve ever been. Even worse than my work place on a Monday morning.
There are a number of historic graves, but the more recent ones bothered me more. It seems to be filled with people who all died before 50 years of age. It was a little bit hard to take in and the only photos I have are a few of the historic graves.
In wrapping up this photo extravaganza, let’s have a look at a headstone, which confused me a little. I really think they should have given up on the name ‘Mary’ as it clearly was bringing bad luck.
Normal service will be resumed in the next entry, which is a mild fiasco of a day trip. Ben became acquainted with an ancient curse called, ‘Hanging Rock bang your head shock’.
that last grave is just awful. 4 kids who all died in infancy 🙁 those poor people. I will never bitch about the ridiculous length of time I have to wait to see our family doctor again. I'm looking forward to the Hanging Rock fiasco, its my stomping ground 🙂
What a lovely echidna – but you made him all shy!
Love the blue skies in your church photos; doesn't look like you need the polariser …
Eloise, it's terrible isn't it! It's a bit like my Hopetoun Cemetery entry a few weeks back. Lots of children in this cemetery, but what was disturbing was all the recent younger people! There was a father and a 2 year old daughter etc. I was guessing something like a car accidents could cause that. Plenty of people in their mid 40's as well. Now, that's a worry!
The Hanging Rock entry is guaranteed bizarro 🙂
Hi Oanh, this echidna was great and it was amazing to see how deep he went into the ground. If I continued to make noise I reckon he would have vanished. With him walking around I had the lens at 270mm so I was keeping my distance, but he still took off after sniffing around for a minute or so.
Haha…when back at the car I got an old lens out with a polarizer on it for the church photos. It's interesting though that the first photo in the blog is without polarizer, so you're right, I didn't really need one for this day 🙂
Great post Greg. I have seen heaps of echidnas in my part of the world over the last few week. As i was taking photos of one on the side of the road at Bermagui on Saturday a lovely local lady informed that it would be really tasty if chose to eat it!
I do enjoy reading your posts – they always make me laugh (although perhaps that isn't a good thing if you're not actually meaning for it to be funny!). Any-hoo, the photos are great and I loved the spiky animal and the way it manages to bury itself. I'd love to come across some bizarre animals on my walks – most are overweight, approaching elderly, men with no shirts on (never come across any with no trousers on yet though!).
Andrea
Mate, do echidnas just stroll down your main street down there as well? Really impressed.
The Multiple Marys were indeed a shock. It is sobering to wonder how people handled the strong possibility of early death in that era. I mean, did they just take it their stride, relatively speaking? They must have been hardened to tragedy, but it still would have taken a toll.
I was drinking a cup of tea as I read this, you would have approved. It doesn't do the job adrenalin-wise, but I need it to start me off with the morning's blogs etc, before I head up the road for the harder stuff…
Looking forward to the Hanging Rock stories, will keep my pan pipes next to the Macbook!
Hi Pini, thanks for the nice comment about the post! I've just had a bit of echidna luck lately as I can go months without seeing any.
I'm not sure about eating one though? I mean, the spikes would go through the bread if you were trying to have one in a sandwich wouldn't it?
Hi Andrea, don't worry, there is meant to be some sort of humour thrown in! It can be hit and miss though as it depends on how my brain is feeling at the time of writing.
The vision of the 'animals' you see on your walks is kind of frightening. Nothing worse than seeing a bloke packing a big set of 'man cans' with his shirt off. There should be a law against it or at least an agreement that they can be assaulted without any repercussions 🙂
Goat, you crazy tea drinker you! I couldn't operate as a human without a coffee in the morning once. Even now if I feel a blinding headache coming on I go for the coffee. I find the taste too harsh compared to how I remember it though, but for medicinal purposes it's okay!
Yeah, sorry about the echidnas. I'm aware of your 'non-sighting' record. Then again I can't say I've been bombarded by owls in daylight, so you've got one up on me! How is your inner owl going? Have you tuned in yet?! If anyone else is reading this it looks like an in-joke so I'll give a link to what we're talking about! http://thegoatthatwrote.net/2011/10/22/crossing-over-to-the-spinifex-coast/
Those graves can be shocking can't they? It's that whole thing about childhood was something just to survive rather than relaxing and having good times. If you made through it there was a chance of a long life like the parents on that gravestone! I could be wildly wrong, but wasn't that one of the reasons for having a big family years ago because of child mortality? Have six and at least four should make it? This is wild guessing on my part, so no flaming if I'm wrong! I'm sure they used to call those people years ago 'stoic', instead of drained and burnt out?
Hanging Rock was a weird day in keeping with its reputation! Fire up the pipes!
Echidnas, leaves, feathers, lichen, grass trees, birds, water ripples, headstones and blue skies… love it. I don’t mind a gorgeous photo overdose of that kind! That’s my kind of walk. 🙂