While some walked to the top of Mt Beattie, with a few companions I strolled along the track to TV Hill, so named because Clyde Clayton ran his TV aerial from there. An excerpt from one of fellow passenger Rob’s photos shows his television set which stands permanently in a corner of Win and Clyde’s home.

Serena was one of the party who summited Mt Beattie. During her climb she was able to look down onto the TV Hill track, as shown in her following photo.

Clearly spring had arrived in the south west after a long and cold and unforgiving winter; the proliferation of flowering plants presented glorious ‘meadows’ of colour.

I had hoped to identify many flowers using my photos but, regrettably, the focus and the detail is insufficient. The best I can do is provide a small unnamed selection from the dozens of my photos of native flowers.

The gentle track gradually rose as it undulated across the landscape. Bird song and wind interjected the silence. Stepped over fat wombat skats on the track from time to time.

Mt Rugby was a known fixed point which helped everyone orient and understand their position in this environment.

Below, almost hidden in the trees, I could see a little of the rooftop of Win and Clyde’s home.

The Celery Top Islands, with the Windeward Bound before them, dotted across one side of the Bathurst Harbour.

I realise my photos look more to the land and the floral display than to the watery expanses visible in all directions.

I did record Melaleuca Inlet to the south; a ribbon of water along which we expected to travel on the morrow.

I am grateful for my slow wanders on these hills and openness to be thoughtful about the plants I was seeing, albeit without any information source.