Royal National Park

I didn't mean to take a hiatus on blogging. Honestly. I even missed out on May's DB challenge (which everyone did such a fantastic job on btw!). But you'll see why in a sec...

Instead of labouring over joconde and mousse layers like a good Daring Baker should, I went on a camping trip instead to the Royal National Park. In winter. Amazing feat for a tropical-blooded person like me (yeah the moment it hovers around 20 deg celsius, I start reaching for a sweater).

Well and a fabulous time I had! Imagine enjoying a beautiful smoked salmon roll, perched on a stone cliff, soaking the sun from the cloudless sky and watching barrels of seawater form and crash in front of you.

Btw this salmon roll that Wendy whipped up was so yummy, we bought a pack of lebanese bread, a bag of mixed salads, smoked salmon slices and a chunky olive dip and had that for lunch everyday in uni. Easy peasy but so satisfying.

The coastal trail in Royal National Park is absolutely breathtaking. The landscape keeps changing - from tall trees with skinny trunks to short bushlands to spiny heather. And we had company too. Foxes, little birdies which go "Hoy!", a cute little bush rat and even a black snake with a red-belly which I didn't get to see cos I was right at the back dotted our trail.

Mind you, it wasn't all that easy. In all the hike was 26km long and consisted of soft, sandy trails that worked every inch of your calf muscles, maneuvering around slippery rocks and trying, arduous climbs that had us huffin' & puffin' and legs feeling like jello. Each time we crossed a hill, a glance back at all that ground covered leaves you a feeling of satisfaction like no other.

It's definitely time to brush up this blog a bit! Even though I haven't been taking photos or writing, I've been steadily building on my repetoire of recipes - deliriously full-flavoured coconutty rice with fried shallots, coffee-braised beef with orange rind, chewy oatmeal cookies, olive oil lemon cake, pillowy-light ricotta pancakes and a lovely, dense rum-soaked date and walnut cake that I brought along for the hike but was finished in one sitting (we really should have rationed that).

Til the next post! Ta!