Sept 13, 2025 Banksia Walking Track
We drove 22 miles east to the coastal town of Woodgate to visit some hiking venues. The short 3 mile ‘Banksia Walking Track’ took us in a loop through a wetland and into the dry, sandy banksia woodland. Banksia are a genus of Australian (all but one specie are endemic to Australia) flowering plants recognized by their flower spikes that become woody fruiting cone-like heads.
Some of the banksia trees were tall, some merely bushes, but none were in bloom. The ‘hairy’ woody cones and seed pods were prominent though.
Up close the closed seed pod ‘fruit’ looked like tightly shut clam shells! And they were about as hard as a clam shell!
We found one open with the dry paper-thin glossy golden seed covering looking like lips in the open pod.
Today we also saw our first 2 snakes! The highly venomous brown snake and the equally toxic red bellied black snake! Luckily we were in the car, driving down the road as they slithered across, not at the same time or same place, but the same road! Not my pictures either!! We now look down at the ground when we hike, looking for snakes, rather than looking up in the trees to spot koalas or birds!