Farewell to Warrawong, Part 2: hike the whole site in pictures

In the second part of our tribute, "A Farewell to Warrawong," we've put together a hike around the whole sanctuary, choosing images from several visits over several years. (See Part One here.)

The images are displayed smaller on this page than usual, because there's a lot of them, but if you'd care to see them at larger size, they're almost all uploaded at 1200 pixels wide. (Sorry about the download lag as you load up this page. There is no way, seriously, to do justice to the concept of a "Warrawong walk-around" without a lot of pictures. Bear with us -- we believe you'll enjoy this post; and if you have fond memories of Warrawong, and miss it, you might enjoy this bit of nostalgia even more.)

The map, at left, is a scan from the last brochure produced by the sanctuary. The Bilby Cafe is at bottom left, and the hike takes us clockwise around the whole property, via the grass lands, the swamp, the lake, the rainforest, tall forest, the ruin (marked with the red icon) and the scrub lands.

So, saddle up your hiking shoes, and here we go:

Enter Warrawong under the arch, from the car park (ie., parking lot)...

Into the Bilby Cafe, and on through the big glass doors to the deck...

Outside the cafe is an "artificial" pond which itself is a habitat for this...

Murray River turtle.

Before you leave the deck, take a moment to actually read the information boards that tell the story of Warrawong, and give you a little info about the grass lands area you're about to hike.

The deck passes over that artificial pond, those turtles...

Follow the deck, pass under the arch...

Down the steps: see the grass lands immediately below.

"Raindrops keep falling on my lens..." This visit, it rained!

Kangaroos at the Warrawong grass lands, sunny day...

Kangaroos at their ease, soaking up some rays...

A roo lives the good life at Warrawong.

As you leave the grass lands, you're heading down to the lowest point on the property -- the swamp. It's planted in with reeds and water lilies ... you'd expect to see swamp hens, all manner of ducks, black swans, and this is the only place on mainland south australia where platypus nest!

Heading from the grass lands down to the swamp...

Look back -- look up -- at the Bilby Cafe and reception center.

Heading for the lowest point on the property...

A chain of ponds, paradise for ducks and frogs...

...with the big lake at the bottom of the hill.

The "swamp" is actually rather picturesque...

...reeds, lilly pads, wild ducks and black swans...

Take a moment to read the information board. Platypus, too!

From the wetlands, you'll follow the trails and boardwalks to your left. As you leave behind the swamp, you're headed for the wooded lake, known as Black Lake. It's a riot of flowering native shrubs, in season, and you can see geese, koalas, bandicoots, as well as some Very Tall Trees!

Heading down to the lake...

Black Lake, from the boardwalk.

A habitat for waterbirds, amphibians and turtles...

Cape Barren geese at Warrawong.

Black Lake in springtime ... ker-chooo!

Black Lake, Warrawong at its loveliest...

Late spring in native Australian bushland...

The tall trees region. Watch out for koalas.

Passing on from the tall trees region, you head left and down again. In fact, you're following a board walk into a gully. On a hot day, the air temperature drops ... it's also humid, and you pick up the scents not of a eucalypt forest, but of a rainforest. The bottom of the gully is stunningly humid, with carpets of moss; the boardwalk is lined by tree ferns, in the top of which sleep Aussie possums...

...and in this last image, you can see that you've actually begun to climb back up, out of the rainforest gully, and back into the Australian scrub land that's common to regions with lesser rainfall. You're at the lowest point in Warrawong as you begin the climb, and it's a little test of the legs. You don't have to be an athlete, but a few muscles definitely help. Also, this is one of the areas that's inaccessible to wheelchairs, which was always a pity. Climbing out, you're rewarded at the top:

It's marked on the Warrawong map as "the ruin..."

Cape Barren geese, dining on dandelion flowers, by the ruin...

...and from the ruin, you see the trail winding off into what's called the scrub land, on the map. The scrub is very close to the kind of native bushland you see in the national parks, and at places like Jupiter Creek. Before European settlement, the clearing of the Adelaide Plains area (for the city), and the deforestation of vast swathes of the hills (for gold mining, among other things), such forest would have been virtually coast to coast -- note that old growth, or original growth, would be much denser than the scrub you see here:

On the scrub land trail, you'd often see wild kangaroos and bandicoots ... real wild kangaroos, as clearly distinct from the laid-back, drowsy, human-friendly critters in the grass lands. Up here, the roos are flighty, nervous, ready to race off into the woods at the hint of human presence --

...and as you leave behind the scrub land, you find yourself back at the "top" of Warawong Sanctuary, on a short path leading past the cabins and right back to the Bilby Cafe:

Follow the trail right back to the Bilby Cafe. Tea, anyone --?

For years, Warrawong Sanctuary was one of our favorite places in the Adelaide Hills. We were so sad to learn that it was closing (see the reasons in the first part of this two-part feature), and ... here is our "Farewell to Warrawong," which we'll probably come back to often as visitors to our own blog, to jog the memory. The images were captured in all seasons, in all weathers, but there was one constant: Warrawong Sanctuary was beautiful, tranquil, and unique.