Go-anna-ing to Ku-Ring-Gai again

On a beautiful spring day (look mom, no jackets!), we headed north to Ku-Ring-Gai Chase again to check out the West End, which is really on the east end of the park. We took the Loop to Resolute Beach, which started off almost immediately with this sighting of our first goanna in the wild. I think a goanna is the same as an iguana, but I'm no herpetologist. Charlie spotted this one on the side of the path. Maybe the warm weather brought them out, but they were in abundance today.

This little cutey is about 6 feet long way up in the tree.

No pasty white skin for this guy (you can just make out the tail disappearing over the rock):

For an action shot, here's the tongue of one and the reaction of his admirers.


Finally, this poor soul ended up in the picnic areas being harassed by wild turkey, a big black and white bird and 3 Conlin kids.
Along the way we found a few small beaches and pretty views. The Aussies were out for the weekend on the beach, enjoying themselves at 10:30AM with some Aussie brews, and they started an impromptu cricket game with a piece of driftwood and a tennis ball. Charlie joined in and bowled a ball in a way that made everyone very happy.
This is a peninsula you could see from most of the walk. Home and Away, an Australian show I haven't heard of, is filmed there in a town called Palm Beach.
Our drive home over the coathanger (our first time driving - other times we've taken the tunnel under the harbor, which is cool to think about, but not great views :-) )...tomorrow it will be filled with thousands of runners for the Sydney Marathon and the Bridge Run (9K) for others.