Ron’s Walk

We had to do some shopping again in the morning, with the highlights of the morning being the transfer of money between accounts by telephone from a public phone box on the island and our bums being too saw to ride the bikes so we walked everywhere.

The afternoon we went on “Ron’s Ramble”. Ron is a very likable well spoken 61 year old who had black and white hair and a very swarthy look. He had a significant knowledge of geography, some good understanding of botany and the homeopathic use of plant life. For good measure he had a great knowledge of birds and a good knowledge of photography also.

His walk took three hours; it started at the hospital and wandered up Boulars Avenue and Andersons road. It continued up through the palm forest and onto “Clear Place”. We rested on the cliff tops at “Clear Place”, while watching the Turns and the Masked Boobies play around the cliffs. Far to the south you could see “Bulls Pyramid”, which is the tallest single

Morton Bay Fig in the Valley of the Shadows

rock structure in the world. Much of the time during the walk was spent looking at the fauna, tasting and smelling them and talking about what the plants were used for. At one point on the cliffs Ron stopped and stood on the edge of the cliffs, he called in two birds, who swooped from the below us in the cliffs to take food he brought for them. We later found that Ron often would call in birds in this manner.

From “Clear Place” we walked up to the “Valley of Shadows”, and through the palm forest that is home to 20,000 to 30,000 Mutton Birds (Fleshy-footed shearwater, Puffinus carneipes). We stared at the Morton Bay Fig, Lord Howe style, its spreading root system quite amazing; one of these trees covered almost an acre of land.

The walk was very entertaining and fun. I enjoyed it immensely, Al took photos and we seemed to get on really quite well with Ron.