The Sun shall be blotted from the sky!

[orthodoc]

Great pics, Zen, thank you for sharing! I have to admit, the organic free range bacon looks
Even though I don't eat much of that these days, I could be tempted. The parks and swimming spots? Definitely tempted!! Although I'm afraid I'd be a softy and feed the wallabies.

[footfootfoot]

Well it's pork at any rate. I've not seen bacon like that. On closer inspection I see the tell tale stripes of yummy fat.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Like Canadian bacon.

[Trilby]

OH, that pool of water with the huge boulders is absolutely lovely (though I thinks I see a croc lurking there) and the waterfall is Goddess showing off.

what a lovely country.

[Trilby]

PS: that rocky pool? That I want in my backyard?

It's better than the fjords. And THOSE won an award.

[ZenGum]

So for today's episode...

I planned to spend two nights in Cairns, but it was stiflingly hot and humid (build up to wet season), and I'd got the shopping and washing all done in one day, so I shot through to a national park on the Atherton Tablelands, the mountains inland from Cairns.

As I got near the campsite, there was an intense thunderstorm, but I sheltered under a roof and met a few old friends, not from the Eclipse festival but from another festival down South I attend regularly.

Turns out that stupid pre-registration system is only being introduced, and you can still just turn up and register on site. Whatever. A tad over $5 a night.

Here is my small hiking tent, which I use for short term camps or carry-in camps.



This is about 20 metres from the swimming hole, which was this.



Nice clear cool water, about five feet deep, with a gravelly bed. Niiiiice.

I did some hiking, but the mountains around here are a bit hard to photograph. I did a hike up Turtle Head mountain, and the view was like this.



Those clouds spilling over that nearby mountain had me concerned, since the wind was coming from that direction, and there had been an afternoon storm the day before, so I didn't tarry but kept moving to lower ground. I was back at camp when there was some light rain, but that was all.

Somewhere around here I went to another waterfall, where this was the upstream pool:



It was 32 degrees and humid. OF COURSE I swam here.

[ZenGum]

There was a bit of wildlife about, but mostly invertebrates.

Infi, look away NOW.

There are plenty of ground-dwelling ants, but some have figured a better way to beat the seasonal flooding: live in trees. So they build nests like this.



Meanwhile, the termites go above ground level, in their fortified bunkers. These can reach five or six feet in height.



This crittur came to visit my tent, but I was cool with that.



I was slightly less cool with this visit, though.



Aww, it's just a harmless little huntsman. And it's missing a leg.

Still, I got out the other side of the tent.

[ZenGum]

The vegetation is sometimes interesting.

Here are some fairly common Australian dry-climate type trees, with their light-coloured trunks and random branching.



In the wet forests, there are enormous creeper vines.
These are shiny because they're just above a popular boardwalk and pretty much everyone has a bit of a swing.



Slightly odder are these yaccas, or grass trees. We used to call these blackboys, but that's not the done thing, anymore.



And these are, I think, cycads. Perhaps Ali can confirm.

[Trilby]

Stunning!

esp. love the swimming pool/gravel bed.


but I still think I see a croc....there's a ripple in the water....see it?

[ZenGum]

Oh, yeah, I did take two tents.

I guess I need to relax more, eh?

[zippyt]

Zen i just read thru this thread ( Busy work etc,,,)
This looks like an EPIC Trip !!!

[xoxoxoBruce]

Looks to me like that spot is about as far from the equator as Belize, or Montserrat, for North American reference. And it's early summer, only a couple weeks from the longest day of the year. No wonder it's hot.

[Sundae]

Zen that is all wonderful - thank you.

I've probably seen more of the Australian countryside than your average Dwellar, purely through having rellies there, not anything to boast of, but it's such a diverse place. Oz isn't somewhere on my bucket list, despite this, but I love the idea of extremely long journeys. I'd like to do it by train especially, as I think Bill Bryson did. No huntsmen in his bunk as far as I remember.

But back to the crepe
Looks good, but were all the ingredients on the outside?
And if so, is that normal? In Europe we usually wrap them inside.
That egg looks bloody good though, full and runny. And I spose it makes it easier for me to pick the cherry tomatoes off...

[Griff]

What a fantastic area!

[glatt]

You've got me itching for a road trip.