This walk became the club's 2004 Christmas Party.
Unfortunately, there is no report but you can see a page of pictures (these were scanned in from the December 2004 Harking In).
The Cumberland State Forest is located at West Pennant Hills, Sydney. It is 40 hectares of native Australian forest and animal life, and offers a variety of community activities - walks, birdwatching, treasure hunts, bush tucker tastings, bush regeneration programs, and so on. About 25 people and 20 beagles joined our Sunday afternoon walk and sniff around some forest trails.
The weather was very pleasant - warm with a light breeze. Of course, the forest was very dry, given the current drought conditions in NSW. With the many high trees, the forest trails we walked along were very shady.
There are a variety of well-marked trails throughout the forest. All of them are easy grade and relatively short. We walked along three trails - the Forestry Trail, Sensory Trail, and Palm Gully Trail. All start from the main carpark and Information Centre. The Sensory Trail is a little different. It was designed especially for disabled people and has a guide rope for blind people. Signs during the walk point out interesting forest features, such as rough bark or hollow stumps. The walk used to have signs in braille but unfortunately these have been removed.
As we walked, there was plenty of sniffing from eager noses darting in every direction. Probably plenty of fox smells as foxes apparently proliferate around the north-western part of Sydney (some local councils have laying down fox baits - but not in the forest). We could hear lots of birds as we walked but I think these were ignored by the beagles. Hopefully everyone was pleasantly tired afterwards.
Looking forward to seeing everyone at the next walk. Watch out for more details about Sniffing Around Sydney 2003 walks in Harking In and on the Beagle Club web site.