We return for another instalment of the suburbs of Ku Ring Gai Chase. For this one, I'm covering Ku Ring Gai Chase itself, which, similar to the Royal National Park from a few weeks ago, is both a national park and a suburb. This means I can enjoy some world class bushwalking and pretend I'm working.

And similar to the Royal National Park, Ku Ring Gai Chase is a huge park with trails, bushland, beaches, Aboriginal artefacts and stunning views. For this visit, I've just touched a tiny portion, but at the end of this post I'll share some more links if you want to check out this place for yourself.

Ku Ring Gai Chase

We start this post by leaving the small, bushy, and waterside suburb of Cottage Point. My visit to Ku Ring Gai Chase today was to head to a bushwalk down the Elvina Bay Trail to visit three suburbs with no road access.

To get to the trailhead involved some enjoyably winding roads,

a best attempt at some cliffside views,

and even a stop at the gorgeous Illawong Point.

Finally, we arrived at the Elvina Track carpark and trailhead. Onward.

Immediately, my bushwalk-buddy and I were enjoying ourselves, with the wide, sandy trail a welcome change from the classic gumtree-lined bush normally enjoyed in and around Sydney.

Soon, the first surprise of the suburb - an echidna nonchalantly waddling across the path.

After it went home,

we continued on.

We also met a goanna, but you'd have to be a Where's Wally champion to find it in this picture.

The Elvina Track does eventually narrow and more closely resemble the sort of bushwalk we're used to, with a rocky path,

foliage up the wazoo,

and the occasional wateriffic glimpses.

There was one concern, however, and that was how far down the water is from this path. That can only mean one thing - steep-arse hills. Not so much a problem now, it'll hurt on the way back.

Eventually, we hit the ground floor. This led us into the three remote suburbs of my previous post.

Now, Elvina Trail is a one-way trail, meaning that if you want to do it, you have to go back the way you came. There is, however, an alternate route back, with the promise of a waterfall, steep inclines, and wildflowers.

That took us out of these suburbs a different way than we came, taking this leafy path where pups are not allowed.

A short jaunt in this less-travelled direction,

revealed one hell of a gorgeous waterfall. The perfect spot to stop for a drink of water and a snack.

What we didn't realise is that this waterfall is actually a detour off of the circuit. After continuing in the same direction, getting lost in the bush, and finding ourselves once more, we realised we had to backtrack back into the "suburbia" of Elvina Bay to take another path back towards the car.

This situation wasn't helped by the faint path up.

But we soon had our bearings once more and were back on track. As expected, this track featured some calf-burning inclines,

but also a relaxing escape into what feels like the middle of nowhere.

There's even another detour you can take to the top-end of that waterfall, with a creek leading into some pools you can take a dip into.

After conquering the climb to return us to elevation, the path eventually returns into something similar to what we saw at the start of the walk, with sand and shrubs,

but also a stack of gorgeous wildflowers.

Continue another few hundred metres,

and you'll join back onto the path we started this adventure on.

With our eyes peeled for the spikey waddler, we headed back.

One thing we did miss on the way in, however, was this small path off the main route,

leading to an Aboriginal engraving site.

It can be a little hard to make out, but in this spot are some engravings by the Kuringai people who lived here prior to the European settlement of Australia.