I have been told there is a track through the bushland below historic Roto House. This being a grey and bleak day, the beach does not appeal for a walk, so I aim to find that track.
I don’t, but through a deliberate gap in a netting fence I do stumble on to a patch of soggy forest.
It seems to have become a repository for the drains of the surrounding houses and for rubbish from trespassers.
It is still interesting bush, with features like this Bird’s Nest fern, the epiphytic Asplenium nidus, very low to the ground.
But it is hard to negotiate the muddy bits. And I know I’m not supposed to be here.
I retrace my steps, try the next ‘No through road’ street and find I am at the edge of the Roto House grounds.
A path skirts the lawn and scattered trees that border the wilder part, which today is alive with birdsong.
The tree trunks and tops are beautiful. The koala hospital is nearby, so I keep hoping to see a wild one in these trees, but no luck.
There are patches of colour along the way, from these fungi and from wattle that is starting to bedeck many roadsides.
There is even a strangler fig, familiar to me from my many walks though Wingham Brush. This one also houses another Bird’s Nest fern.
I am going to poke more closely around Roto House…