Avon Valley National Park

Some photos from a recent trip to the Avon Valley National Park about 40km inland from Perth. Wild flower season (Spring) at the moment and the place was absolutely beautiful.

This is the flower from some plant I have no idea what it is - very pretty though.

A few rusty things attached to a rusting thing! Not idea what it was in its past life, but the rusty stuff was cool.

This is the leaf (one of three) from a very small plant which grows low to the ground. Amazing that the little plant even survives in the rocky, non-water holding ground it grows in.

Absolutely LOVE gum nuts and will never have enough photos of them!

And a new kangaroo paw - not fully out yet, but very beautiful none the less.

A frond (maybe the right word). Beautiful (said that a lot of times)!

More flowers - this is some type of ground cover plant. Very cool.

This is the sap from an eucalypt - very dark red (looks like blood).

Some beautiful bark from gum trees.

Various Photos

Some photos from all over the place - been meaning to upload them for ages. Hope you like them. Is always an adventure to take photos and share them with other people that may not have seen the same things as me. Enjoy!

The rainforest in Mossman Gorge (far north Queensland) - part of the heritage listed Daintree Rainforest in far north Queensland.

Some lovely eucalypt flowers from Western Australia. I love gum nuts, gum blossoms and gum leaves - have millions of them all through the house!

Lovely little daises from the West Australian bush.

Sand. Always beautiful when there are lots of colours. Look also at the excellent sparkly bits! This is from Horseshoe Bay at Bowen in far north Queensland.

Some groovy wattle in Western Australia that is on long sticks instead of the little yellow pom poms I usually associate with wattle.

A kangaroo paw (this one is in the Kings Park Botanic Garden in Perth). I have only seen them in the wild once (on the road to Nannup about 3 and a half hours south of Perth).

This is from a palm tree in the Daintree Rainforest (world heritage area in far north Queensland).

Oh, Horseshoe Bay. This one is on Magnetic Island (off Townsville). Very pretty.

More leaves. These were spiny and hard and VERY beautiful. Love the light and shadow on them - they are quite boring in real life, but the silvery foliage makes them look a million dollars!

This is from Tubo Lodge, on Lake Kutubu in the highlands in Papua New Guinea. I can never remember the name of the plant. Loved the variegated leaves.

Lowly palm frond. It had fallen off (as they do) and was laying on the ground in the bush at Minyon Falls, northern New South Wales. Very beautiful colours and contrast.

These two pictures are from another Horseshoe Bay, this one at Bowen in far north Queensland. It is just one of the Horseshoe Bays in the world, but it is the most beautiful one I have seen so far.

I love pictures of leaves and bark so there are lots of these in my collection! This is bark from a eucalypt somewhere - can't even remember where any more, but it is still very beautiful.

Who doesn't love frangipanis? This is taken at mum and dad's place. I cheated a bit - it's not actually on the tree, but...

More leaves - from some sort of leafy thing! Love the different colours!

February 2008

Hmmm... long time since last post. Have done a bit more sightseeing in WA since last post, been home for Christmas and just come back from the Nannup Music Festival (Labour Day long weekend).
Christmas was all of us together at home again (not likely to happen again the future though I can imagine). It rained for 8 days straight which made us all very sick of each other. We played table tennis, went ten pin bowling, argued, shouted and (some of us - not me) sang along to the Songstar X-box game! :)
Nannup Music Festival was full of people with a totally different outlook on life to me - is interesting to see people who live in their cars and sell little hand-made trinkets and imported clothing from India for a living. Not sure how they survive with fuel and food prices the way they are. Lots of great musicians too (many of them poor and struggling no doubt). Favourite was a visiting group from Quebec called Genticorum who played Quebecois-style music - a mixture of folk music (including Irish reel style music). They played guitar (including bass), fiddle, feet, wooden flute and jaw harp and they were absolutely fantastic. They have a whole heap of new Australian fans I expect. Way too many smokers around though and spent all day Sunday with a roaring headache :(.
Spent the Australia Day long weekend down in the Stirling Range National Park. Very beautiful place. We camped at the Stirling Range Retreat and the picture attached is of the view from my tent door! We climbed Bluff Knoll which is the highest point in the Range. The geology of the range is very interesting and going along with two geologists meant we have a myriad of books and texts about the place (which we lugged to the top for some light reading with the beautiful view in the background). Took us about 2 and a half hours to walk the 3.2km to the top (like walking up a huge long set of very varied stairs).
Went offshore for work at the beginning of December. Was really fun - spent two days on a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility about 15 minutes by helicopter from Barrow Island. The facility is essentially an oil tanker with the things usually on an offshore platform all attached to the deck.
That's all for the moment folks. See photos in next blog.