Snake Island

I always thought that Snake Island in Mooney Mooney Creek with Cheero Point pointing to it like a finger would make a great photo.  To get the right angle though is a little bit tricky. Possibly the best viewpoint for this would be from Jolls Bridge on the M1 expressway, but stopping there would be foolhardy. 

Wandering down one of the powerline firetrails and then heading off along a ridge over Cheero Point did give me some nice photos.

The Hawkesbury Railway Bridge 

Looking back at Jolls Bridge on the M1 

White-eared Honeyeater 

Rainbow Lorikeet 

Lapstone Zig Zag

Lapstone Zig Zag was the original railway built to the Blue Mountains. After driving down Mitchells Pass where I stopped for a coffee at Lennox Bridge, I parked at the bottom and walked up the old railway/road and across the knapsack Gully viaduct and through the railway cuttings of the Zig Zag railway. With a bit of toing and froing and crossing underneath the expressway to Lapstone  was 5klm all up.

After crossing the Knapsack Gully Viaduct there are tracks down into the gully to get better views of the bridge.

Then a steep climb up to Siding Lookout for views over the viaduct and across the Cumberland Plain of greater Sydney. 

Through the railway cuttings 

Old Lucasville Station siding 

Rhodes to Cabarita Loop

At Brays Bay Reserve  the Kokoda Memorial Trail starts and winds its way along the mangroves through to Concord Hospital.

The memorial wall at the Rose Garden near Concord Hospital. 

The Thomas Walker Convalescent hospital on the point behind Concord Hospital is now home to Rivendell, a adolescent mental health facility. 

Looking across to kissing Point from Rivendell 

After walking around the point and across to Yaralla, we walked down to Concord West for lunch at a cafe and for my son to catch the train home to get ready for his evening shift.

I then walked back and through Yaralla, which is now the Dame Edith Walker Memorial Hospital

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=5045176

Majors Bay. 

Then walked on to Mortlake and Wangal Centenary Bushland Reserve.  

I planned to cross the river on the Mortlake car ferry. However the ferry only runs in peak hour and next  crossing wasnt till 2.45pm. I then  walked around Breakfast Point past the huge residential development and parklands.

Looking west up the Parramatta River from Breakfast Point 

And on to Cabarita where I caught the Rivercat up the river and across to Kissing Point. 

Breakfast point from the ferry 

 From KissingPoint it was on to Meadowbank  

Skyfish 

looking back (east) to Kissing Point 

The Ryde bridge over the Parramatta River at Meadowbank. 

If you can have skyfish then you must have a skyboat to catch them. 

Then back over the old railway bridge to Rhodes for the train home after 16klm of walking.

The rail bridge across to Rhodes was designed  by John Whitton and built in 1886 . Without realising the link, I had the day before walked at Lapstone  and crossed the Knapsack Viaduct which was also designed by John Whitton and constructed 1863-1867.