Water Tower

The sun going down behind a water tower near to home. Love the rustic feel that this pic has.

Beach Sunrise

I'm always in my happy place when walking on the beach. The best time of day has to be sunrise; particularly when it looks this good.

Cemetery

On a recent road trip to Mount Mulligan we stopped off to look at Thornborough Cemetery. I love the intricate design on this old headstone we found there.

Thornborough was an old mining town; which is now abandoned but it used to be known as the capital of Far North Queensland and was home to 1500 people and 22 hotels.

Thornborough is a town and locality in Shire of Mareeba in Queensland, Australia. It rose to prominence in the 1870s as a gold mining town in the Hodgkinson Minerals Area.

Today, there are very few buildings remaining in the town.

Wikipedia

Tranquility

A short drive from home there is a walk through the rainforest, which runs alongside a creek and finishes up at a beautiful waterfall called Tranquility. Its such a nice little part of the world, with some great wildlife. Here's a couple of pics from my last visit.

Sails Up!

 I took this last year on my birthday when hubby and I headed out for a day out sailing on the gorgeous Coral Sea. We hung out on a beautiful little island for a few hours, snorkeled and then headed back to dry land..sparking wine in hand. A fabulous day.

Beach Art

Ask anyone who knows me well and they'll tell you that I love beach-combing. I love the feeling that I get when I step onto a beach, total relaxation and calm. I love wandering for hours looking for shells, bits of driftwood, seeds, stones...anything interesting I can find.

I also love coming across some of the natural art that the ocean and the beach create. Below are some of my favourites.

Millaa Millaa Falls

This stunning waterfall is approximately 18m in height and is listed as a Queensland heritage site. It is now a very popular tourist stop and crowds converge here to swim in the cool pool below the falls. But that has not always been the case. 

The immediate area around the falls was used as a rest stop for the early horse and mule pack teams that travelled along the Palmerston track on their way to and from the Herberton mining field; used as a depot for the first land surveyors working in the area; a camp for workers on the Millaa Millaa railway, and as a quarry for road materials.

Wikipeda 

Natures Window

On a recent trip I spotted this fabulous tree in amongst the dry schlerophyll forest. Not only is it a visually stunning tree but it also provided a small window for me to capture my friend and his son examining termite mounds in the distance. Nature at its best.

Fern

A rainforest fern taken today whilst we were exploring Mount Lewis, I've always loved ferns, there's something incredibly aesthetically pleasing about them.

River Mouth

This tranquil view is the halfway point on my morning walk. The smoke in the distance is from the local sugar crushing mill which is going full pelt at this time of year as they harvest the sugar cane. Its a real struggle to get out of bed in the morning.

Beach Moods

Its been a while since I've posted. Not sure why. Just wasn't feeling inspired I guess. Well, that all changed this morning when I went for a walk on the beach. Usually we are blessed with clear blue, cloudless skies, and don't get me wrong, that makes us lucky. But it's a little boring isn't it? Well, this morning was a little different as you can see and it really made me stop and look. Beautiful.

Magnetic Termite Mounds

As soon as I set eyes on these termite mounds, thanks to David Attenborough I knew exactly what they were! I had first seen them on one of his documentaries a couple of years earlier and now here we were seeing them with our own eyes.

What I didn't realise at the time, was that we were at the most southerly point in Cape York where these particular termite mounds can be found. And the termites that build these particular mounds are named after the township we were just heading to "Laura". Amitermes laurensis are found on the Cape York Peninsula  in Far North Queensland AU and only north of Laura do they build magnetic mounds.

It is generally believed that the reason these mounds align to a north/south direction is so that the termites are able to protect themselves from the extreme heat. Other types of termites are able to retreat into the ground to keep cool, but in areas North of Laura, the termites cannot do this during the wet season for fear of drowning  so they have to find a way of surviving in the mound throughout the summer heat and rain.

River Bed

The diversity of the Australian landscape has always fascinated me. Looking at this photo you would be hard pressed to believe that we were an hour away from the Tropical Rainforest in the middle of the wet season!

This dried up river bed cuts a striking picture through the dry Eucalypt forest. (My favourite kind of Australian landscape).

Arse Rock

I was quite taken with this rock formation when we came across it at Finch Bay in Cooktown. We had this great walk through the bush from the Botanical Gardens (which unfortunately were very disappointing)  and we ended up at this secluded bay with white sand and turquoise waters.  When I turned around to look at where we had come from, there were these rocks. Now I don't know about you, but I only see one thing! Fabulous.

Poinciana

Isn't this tree magnificent? This is a Poiciana and is actually native to Madagascar, but we are fortunate enough to have lots of them here in Queensland. They flower at the start of the rainy season and is a sure sign summer is on it's way.

Sugar Wharf

I took this pic coming back into Port Douglas from a sunset cruise the other week. It was a beautiful calm night and the Wharf looked stunning at dusk.

Moon

We had the most beautiful clear night here last night and the start of a new moon, in fact after a little research I discovered that this is the Waxing Crescent Moon, the first phase of a new moon when you can see between 1 - 49% of the moon on the left hand side. I couldn't resist a pic as it was stunning.

Stripy Palm

I just love the detail on the trunk of this palm. I don't know what type of palm it is but I found it on our trip to Cooktown near the cemetery. I will work on trying to identify it, until then it is just to cool not to post!

Cooktown Sunset

We were fortunate enough to stay in the only accommodation that over looks the water in Cooktown. This also meant that every evening we had the best seats in the house for the sunset. It really was spectacular.

Mossman Gorge

Recently I paid a visit to one of my favourite local spots with my family. Unfortunately, what was once a beautiful natural rainforest area which could be accessed by anyone at any time, has now been turned into a money generating, tourist encouraging, over crowded monstrosity.

Much to my disgust the so called "Discovery Centre", does not educate, advise or provide the average Joe with any information about what they are about to see and experience, but does however exhibit some art (which is for sale), hosts a gift shop (with more stuff for sale), has a cafe (ditto) and of course numerous points of "sale" for bus tickets to get you down to the Gorge (as you are no longer able to take yourself!).

It really was quite horrific, even the bus ride was just that. No running commentary about where we were going, no introduction to the ancient rainforest and all it's beautiful secrets. NO...just herded onto the bus, given a ride to the Gorge with a dozen other people who we then had to spend the next 2 kms trying to distance ourself from so that we could actually enjoy the Gorge in all its splendour and in peace.

 But unfortunately that wasn't to be. We even walked past a group of young people who were fiddling with their iPad, incredulous that there was no internet reception!!! What?? No internet? In the oldest rainforest in the world. GOOD LORD! Sigh.

 Even the Boyd's Forest Dragons were conspicuous in their absence.

I was angry for a while. Now I'm just incredibly sad.

That was the last time I will ever be visiting Mossman Gorge.