Ride around Coolangatta Mountain and Seven Mile Beach orchids : October 3 2025

A clear blue sky day but still windy. Did enjoy not being woken by noises from the apartment above. My wife headed out shopping - that and the wind got me moving on the bike. The plan

Ride all the way around Coolangatta Mountain into the wind first and then walk a slice of Seven Mile Beach NP for orchids

It is a holiday weekend - the sections of no shoulder road were mostly safe bar one driver - dickhead

House for sale with Shoalhaven River views

Broughton Creek just up the way

Wind behind for all the hills home

One other cyclist on this loop

A bit further around the mountain. Finished the loop ride and then headed to one of my normal walking tracks in Seven Mile Beach NP - first violet for my granddaughter Violette

My FB memories from last year talked about a carnival of caladenias - maybe this year too. Yesterday was a good clue

First orchid of the day was a white form caladenia catenata - and the only one like it today

Right next to it was a budding one with pink undersides - both in frame

Now we go into exploring the differences - pink. No red bands. Green column. Yellow front tip both. Different tip colour on column

This one has more dumpy fingers - a few red bands and a slice of pink either side the calli

This one has pointy fingers - no red bands and that pink colour inside

And then we go dark pink

This one has pink edging on the labellum too. We do know that colour is not a good differentiator for orchid ID

Pointy fingers - remaining flower of a double header. The other flower has seeded already

An over the shoulder shot

One with some red and bands on the column

Deeper pink and no bands

I do check every flower to see the differences. That pays off here - an insect - looks like it is stuck - maybe busy

Side on view - looks firmly attached to the top of the column

Would be riss not taking a photo of a dyanella - hard work when it is windy

And the last one also has an insect. It is a dipper - we have a lot in the house. Looks like a mosquito but does not bite

Ride done - a bit shorter than the day before. Walk done - orchids found

Spent an hour doing garden stuff after that. Makes for a big steps day. Add in some more to walk to bowling club for a.few drinks and the club raffle. No wins there

Cooked macaroni cheese for dinner when we got back. Good cyclist food.
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Cycling, Daily Activity, Gardening, House Chores, Photowalking, Walking

Height 183.0 cm		Weight 90.0 kg		Body Fat %
Waist cm		Thighs cm		Chest cm