I was also planning to see the Great Dripping Wall, but it’s closed off.

I’m not sure entirely sure why – I think they’ve been having some problems with flash floods and landslides.  But I got to Hands on Rock, at least.

Hands on Rock is a culturally significant site to the Wiradjuri people, and it was traditionally a place for women and children.  Like the name says, it consists of over 100 hand stencils, created by blowing a mix of ochre and water from the mouth over and around the hand.  No one’s quite sure how old they are, but it’s measured in ‘thousands of years’.

There was a helpful sign on the highway, instructing me to turn off onto a dirt track.  This was the ‘carpark’:

The path up to the rocks:

I didn’t get far before I found a tree across the path:

It was easily jumped, though, and I continued on.  At first, everything was eerily quiet:

 

But eventually, I heard some chirping, and spotted this yellow robin:

I took a video of it preening, because they always look so funny when they do that:

 

Though I’m sure if birds could see us showering, they’d think it was funny, too.  I also found a grey fantail – there’s a lot of birdsong in the background of this one:

 

Another tree across the path, though I think this one fell a while ago:

At this point, the dirt path changed into rocky steps:

And I found a spider!  Woohoo!  Check it out:

I took some video, too:

 

If I seem way too enthusiastic, that’s because I’m really proud I even spotted that thing.  I mean, it blends in pretty well, and it doesn’t even have the darting movements of a bird or lizard to draw my attention.

Speaking of lizards, this one was to the side of the path:

Don’t be fooled, that’s taken with a lot of zoom – it was actually a tiny little lizard on a twig.

By now, I could see the rock up ahead:

The sandstone cliff:

I could hear a lot of birds up here:

 

They had a boardwalk in front of the art site, in an effort to protect it:

Finally, what we’ve all been waiting for.  This is Hands on Rock:

Doesn’t look like much, does it?  Until you look closer:

Have a whole bunch of hands:

There were also stencils of emu tracks:

It was little eerie, standing in front of the outlines of all those hands, knowing that they’re thousands of years old.  I mean, the people who made them lived and died centuries ago, but we still have the outlines of their hands.  Freaky.

I stared at the hands for an embarrassingly long time before I re-traced my steps back to where I’d parked the car.  I heard something rustling on the way, and managed to film these buff-rumped thornbills:

 

I was also hearing some bizarre clicking as I walked – like the irregular ticking of a giant clock.  Eventually, I figured out it was these guys:

They were jumping around on dry leaves and grass, making a little ‘click’ sound each time they landed.  The one up there has only got one jumping leg, but it didn’t seem bothered, even if its jumps had a more diagonal slant than its buddies’.

Then it was back to Turtle Shell, for another chilly night.  Seriously, it’s the end of March and I’m already busting out the long sleeves as soon as the sun sets.