Another day, another idyllic swimming hole 😊 September is a great month to visit the tropics. Not too hot, not too wet, not too many mosquitos. No tribulation at all, in fact.
cape tribulation
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the blue hole
We’re in tropical Far North Queensland, in a national diversity hotspot. Buttress roots, wait-a-while, butterflies, and fan palms abound. Also, gorgeous swimming holes. And crocodiles, though we haven’t seen any of them yet (phew!) But we did find a peppermint stick insect today, so that was really cool!
My son is showing us all his favourite spots. So much beauty to be found here.
wendy’s secret garden
Wendy Whiteley’s secret garden has been on my to-visit list for years. It was just as magical as I’d expected.
trichosurus vulpecula
Common brushtail possums are the Australian marsupials most often seen by city dwellers, as they can thrive in a wide range of natural and human-modified environments. They are inventive and determined foragers with a liking for kitchen raids, fruit trees, and vegetable gardens, as our Wollongong friends well know!
This baby was in the temporary care of our wildlife rescuer friend when we stayed with her the other night. Pretty darn cute.
bradleys head
We made it to Sydney! We paid a late afternoon visit to Bradleys Head, a headland protruding from the north shore of beautiful Sydney Harbour. It’s part of the local national park. I sketched while K took photos, then we headed to Eastwood to spend the night with friends.
drawing room rocks
We planned to climb Didthul, but the access road was closed. So we opted for the (easier) hike further north — Drawing Room Rocks. Spectacular!
malarus cyaneus
A pair of curious superb fairywrens kept me company at Bingi Bingi Point.
The superb fairywren was named ‘Australian Bird of the Year’ for 2021, after a survey conducted by Birdlife Australia saw the species narrowly defeat the tawny frogmouth.
moruya
A couple of sea lions were relaxing on the river banks while the humans wandered amongst the stalls of Moruya Country Market on Saturday morning.
tathra
The south coast of New South Wales, and its hinterland, are spectacular. Beaches, rivers, lakes, mountains and forests, many undeveloped. We see beauty everywhere we look.
merimbula
We’ve made it to the coast, after some dirt-roading through Burra, a visit to Snowy Hydro Discovery Center in Cooma, and a bit of a cruise around Bega. There are lots of motels in Merimbula, but we thought it fun to test our memories and find the one we’d stayed in seven years ago. Back then, there was Tagetes lemmonii growing outside the rooms, which reminded us of home.
It’s good to be back by the ocean; we’ll be wending our way up the coast to Sydney over the next several days.
