Merry Christmas to all... and to all a few pics :)

Though it's hard to feel like it's Christmas while exploring the Tablelands of Oz in a tee shirt, it was most certainly a very fine day and at the end of a 12 mile hike and I'd like to share a few pics with everyone.

From top to bottom:

Pic 1) This is a view from Dr. Doug's ranch. It's quite a bit different from the tropical environment here at home, yet it's only a hour away. They call it the Tablelands beacuse it's a lot like one of our mesas back home... only bigger. And it takes a deep eastward drop through the rainforest down to the Coral Sea where I live.

Pic 2) A pic of Scrubby Creek - it borders Doug's ranch and is a tributary to the Barron River.

Pic 3) A twisted tree encountered on our hike that made me think of LOTR and Ewoks.

Pic 4 & 5) These are pics of a chimney vent crater from a once active volcano now named Mount Hyppamee. It's filled with water and the green surface you see is a type of pond weed that covers the top inch of the surface. They've only explored the depths of this chimney to ~ 100 meters and if Chip were here, I can only imagine him doubling that :)

Pic 6-9) Some pics of Dinner Falls. I'm not sure how it got it's name, but if you ask me - all you have to do is look at the pic with the three seperate falls... the swell on the left is a spoon, straight down in the middle is a knife, and on the right is a fork. Just one man's opinion.

Pic 10) This is called Bromfield Swamp and it's one of the lower points of the Tablelands that was once an active volcano (do we see a theme developing here?). I only learned today that North Queensland is a volcanic environment with many lakes and depressions that are remnants of activity eons ago. And here I was thinking I needed to worry about the snakes :)

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.