Swimwear in various applications!

Initially, I couldn't come up with an obscure title!  but as I went through the images a theme sort of emerged.

We began the day with a walk along Peterson's Creek.  At Frawley's Pool we stopped to look across the Creek for tree-kangaroos.  This led us to discover a low level bridge to the far side.  Thus we could get in to the Mobi forest where the marsupials lurk.  They were not lurking where we could spot them today.

However this basalt boulder field was lurking.  Clear evidence of the volcanic nature of the area.

We found that Nature had blocked the path with this rather magnificent spider.

 There is an outbreak of red Grevilleas towards the Northern end of the Creek Track,  I suspect they are planted, but could still be natives, which are rather more spectacular up here.

 Getting back to Yungaburra I decided it was time to photograph a few things around the village.  A sign at an arty centre.

 We have noticed a couple of instances of X^N swimwear strapped to various things.  In this case the curves of the tree form a very good backdrop!

After a pause at home we left the small dog and headed off to Mount Hypipamee NP to try to track down a Golden Bowerbird.  I tried taking a shortcut to avoid the main street of Atherton which didn't really work as not all roads are on the map.  We ended up being held for 10+ minutes by these road works.  After about 5 minutes the lollypop man came for a chat.  He was quite reasonable, but it was still a pain.

At one point we dived into the forest to look for the bower and found these fungi instead: note the second, darker, equally unidentified, species in the background.

Another cauliferous tree, Yellow Mahogany (Dysoxylum parasiticum), was flowering beside the track to the Crater itself.  The specific name reflects an incorrect belief that the tree was a parasite.

We took a diversion to Dinner Falls, where backpackers were disporting themselves, in a more or less (mainly less) clothed fashion.

The guy in this image had a camera with him.  I hope it wasn't recording the squeals emitted by the females!

Epiphytes were also available.

This is the Crater itself.  It's 58m down to the water which is in turn 73m deep.

As we went back, Frances got a nice snap of the Barron River above the Falls.

During our walk I spotted a Mountain Thornbill.  Surely as close as it gets to a small brown bird.  However it was a lifer and thus Bird of the Day.

We went back more or less on the main road, including a stop at the Gallo Dairy Centre.  A very pleasnt counter person served us with tasters of cheese of which several varieties were acquired along with a very good ice-cream and 4 chocolates (at $2 a go).

Once home, while sitting on the patio we were visited by a small colourful fly.  It turns out to be part of the mosquito grouping within Diptera (ie flies) and probably Plecia sp.

I include this shot as it shows the halteres rather well.  (The lollypop shape above the leg.)

Some noise then erupted which appeared to be a pair of Bar-shouldered Doves having a battle.  Then matters advanced and it was apparent they were continuing the species!

• Bird of the day: Mountain Thornbill.  No flocks of particular interest.
• Vegetation of the day:  Yellow Mahogany
• Memorable moment:  Pool full of nubiles at Dinner Falls.
• Comment of the day: "I have to take cash before handing over."  A very apologetic lady at the Yungaburra Visitors Centre when I wanted to buy a shirt and found I had left my wallet at home.
• Pie of the day:  Second half of the large market item.  Still good.
• Troppo moment of the day. Being held up for 10 minutes while the CFMEU manouevered a pipe 

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Murwillumbah, the town that parking forgot!

This morning’s pleasant sight was mist in the valley.  It was pretty dense up the Tweed Valley past Mt Warning but pleasantly patchy out on the flood plain.

We decided that today was the day to go and explore Murwillumbah, starting off with an alleged Egret nest site just out of town.  Before getting to town we found a bunch of Royal Spoonbills dining in a ditch beside a cane field. 

That is more than was at the Egret nest site (to be fair the Tweed bird guide did say they nested in Spring, not mid-Winter).

We then went to the Visitors Centre to see what they had in the way of walks around the town.  The short answer was very little: it was almost as though there are the beaches to the East and National Parks everywhere else and no history in the town itself.  The people at the centre were extremely helpful and gave me some stuff, and suggested that Nobby’s Creek Rd would be a good place to go for a walk with a dog because it had very little traffic. 

Before doing that I needed to access the internet so we headed to the library.  Nowhere to park there.  There was a street next door with a car park off it: all spots reserved for Shire employees.  Various other streets were tried and no sensible parking was on offer.   After about 15 minutes searching I found a tightish spot on the main drag and parked there.  Frances went for a wander avec chienne while I checked who was trying to contact me (and the rainfall for last week).  In the course of this stroll she noted a sign on a gate “Warning Security dogs on duty.  The remains of trespassers will be buried”.

So we then needed nutrients (a pie and an apple turnover in my case) which required a park in the CBD.  I presume all the shop workers park out front of their places of employment because we drove right along the street before we found a spot.  Possibly this isn’t bad, but I have grown used to there being parking lots around to which one is directed.

Having got enough calories to feed a village in a developing country we headed off to Nobbys Creek Rd.  It was an interesting road through pasture, with some remnants of forest here and there.  The little traffic was a relative term: compared to the Pacific Highway (or the New Jersey Turnpike) it had little traffic.  Compared to Widgiewa Rd, Carwoola it was 4 times as busy as when all the slaves are heading to work or dropping the kids off at the school bus stop.  (Looking later at a topo map of the area it emerged that rather than 2.5 km long, as implied by a sign at the start, the road was about 10km long with about 100 homes along it.  No wonder it was busier than expected.)  However we did find some good birds: a flock of 20+ Topknot Pigeons (the first I have seen for about 20 years) and a Little Shrike-thrush (my second ever).

After this stroll we went back to our abode where I went exploring the garden and surrounding rainforest.  Herewith a few images (nothing is named because I really don't know what they are, other than very pleasant to look at.

One item that was recognisable was the biggest cane toad I have ever seen.  Not quite the size of a football as some were reputed to be before inbreeding got to them, but still about 2x the size of yesterday's specimens.  The strip of tape was >15cm long.

One issue with walking around in rainforest is that some of the vegetation is rather unfriendly.  After looking at plants like those in the next two images, and thinking about Mr Weissmuller swinging from vine to vine, I have concluded that "Tarzan" is actually a Bantu word word meaning 'person with no skin on hands'.