There and Back Again... a non-Hobbit's Tale

Hi Everyone!

As you can see, I made it back safe and sound from my overnight excursion into the wilds of Australia to post some new pics for ya'll to see.

From top to bottom:

1) First stop was Saturday morning - a 2 hour drive into the tablelands to visit the Yungaburra Market. It's just like a flea market back home and it was a ball - very nostalgic, friendly, oodles of stuff (I did most of my X-mas shopping there :), and I even had 3 sno cones.

2) After the market, it was another 90 minute drive to camp overnight at the Koombooloomba Dam - a manmade lake high up in the tablelands and surrounded by rainforest. Unfortunately, that was all too true since it rained most of the time we were there and we spent the night under a large tarp playing Texas Hold 'em (I lost all my fake money at least 3 times :). But at least the tents were dry, so sleeping was easy with all the night sounds orchestrating in the background.

3) A pic of our campsite. Not much to brag about, but we weren't exactly roughing it.

4) Yowsa! A close encounter with a Golden Orb Weaver spider - and don't worry arachnaphobes, the spider isn't poisonous and my friend's hand is actually on the other side of the web the spider is standing on. There's only about an inch between the two, so the size scale is accurate enough - quite a big bugger, ay?

5) On my way home, I stopped to take a pic of Tully Gorge... a pic that doesn't do it justice, but it makes an impression anyway.

6) A vista pic of the valley I'm to drive through on my way home. In the middle of the pic, you can see a downpour of rain that ambushed me an hour later. Like Forrest Gump woulda said... "It was big ole fat rain" and visiblitiy was down to about 30 feet at the worst of it. Guess the wet season has finally arrived!

Well, that's about it for now. Haven't decided if I'm going on a diving or driving vacay next week, but you can count on plenty of more pictures. And no worries Terri... if I do make it diving, I'll be sure to get some underwater pics of the reef life :)

Bye for now. Cheers!

Matt