Beaches and forests

Staying so close to a beach I just had to make the effort to get at least one sunrise over the sea. Back home I am surrounded by tall trees so although I do see colour in the sky it is short lived and unsuited to a photograph. This was my opportunity!

It was cold! Further south they are having snow and blizzards and the chill reached up to us this morning! Brrr! However I resisted the urge to snuggle down into the bedclothes and dressed in warm fleece and waterproof jacket to sheild from the wind I lugged my heavy tripod and my trusty Nikon across the sand dunes to the beach. The dune ground cover didn't offer an interesting foreground interest so I had to let the sky take centre stage. What looked as though it would be a spectacular display turned out to be a disappointment with clouds racing in and denying me a sight of the sun rising. However I did get quite a few pretty shots, thanks to my 200mm lens.

It was great to return to a hot shower and breakfast! An invigorating start to the day!

On the way out for our day's exploration, we stopped briefly to take a couple of pictures of the smallest Post Office in NSW. It looks as if one of the veranda railings has been broken and temporary plastic fencing put up to stop customers falling off !

This is the Empire Vale post Office on the Richmond River a few kilometers from Wardell. Empire Vale is a tiny little town – a “blink and you'll miss it” town. Colin and I drive through Empire Vale every day either on the way out or on the way back to the caravan park when we choose not to use the ferry across the river.

Our car trip took us first to Evans Head where we first visited a small sandy bay that even on this cool morning attracted a couple of young boys who, when we were leaving, were splashing happily in the waters edge.

Driving up the hill above this beach we were able to look down on the attractive coastline. Evans Head is a very popular (quiet) holiday destination. I can see why.

On the way to see another holiday destination I took a turn into what was signed as Shark Bay Picnic Grounds and when we left the car we were surprised to hear the sound of many young children. We did not intrude on the groups of children and their teachers but it appeared that an entire school was being conducted here in on the lawns of the picnic area or on the beach and the subject was evidently Aboriginal culture. One group was playing rhythm sticks and chanting and another group were busy painting on sheets of paper spread on the ground using sticks and fingers, The Aboriginal flag was suspended between the branches of one of the low trees.

When we arrived in Iluka, Colin and I walked into the Heritage Listed Rainforest which is right against the beach. Voluteers have spent many hours removing domestic plants from the rainforest that had threatened to smother everything. Asparagus fern is one of those plants – it spreads rapidly and has wicked thorns on it too.

As we drove in to the town of Iluka we drove through patches of rainforest, eucalypt forest and maleluca forest, it was amazing how the pattern of trees kept changing. I could not understand why the little patch of rainforest that was in the township should have been heritage listed and not the forest on the drive in to the town (that did not appear to be filled with feral plants). There must be a reason.

Iluka has a fishing fleet of trawlers and after taking a couple of pictures I amused myself by trying to catch a shot of the terns as they dived for fish in the adjacent yacht harbour. I only caught the splash!

AJ

To the woods!

When we first arrived in Ballina township we called into the Information Office – most large towns have such a place, it is where travellers can get information about the town and district and even learn where to stay, where to eat and any special events that might be happening during the time of their stay. The helpful young lady who rushed to our assistance gave us quite a lot of help and insisted that we should visit Victoria Park. Apparantly, before the timbermen, who were chasing the red cedar, had destroyed most of the natural rainforest, a tiny parcel of 8 hectares had been secured from devastation as a reminder of what the country once was. Both Colin and I are nature lovers so this was definitely on our “to visit” list. Actually, it was not just the timbermen who destroyed the natural bush, the government did too – they sold much of the tree covered land where the cedar had been taken, for people to farm - on condition that they cleared it of bush.

We had Victoria Park to ourselves. A timber boardwalk has been created to take you through the small patch of rainforest without touching the ground.

The reserve is actually larger than the 8 hectares of rainforest, and regeneration in the area surrounding that remnant of forest will increase its size in time. Large rainforest trees often have what is known as “buttress roots” They are very shallow penetrating which means that in ultra strong winds the massive trees will topple over and cause a domino effect with their fall, forcing over other trees.

At last I managed to get a photograph of myself! I had to set the camera up and work out how to get into the shot and persuaded Colin to press the button. For some reason we had to have three tries before he actually managed to press the button firmly enough for the shot to be taken! No, I was not inside the rainforest where we were asked to stay on the boardwalk, this tree was on the very edge beside the carpark! The rest of the rainforest is behind it.

Another place that our helpful Information Ofice girl told us about was Summerland House. Actually my tour guide son had told us about it only a week earlier and recommended that we try to visit. Anyway, we did visit. This is a farm that is worked by handicapped people and is obviously a very productive and successful farm. Avocados, macadamia nuts and hydrophonic tomatoes are the main crops grown and a tractor tour of the farm was a real eye opener to the success of the place.

As well as the farm there are shops where gifts can be bought, farm grown groceries can be bought and a nursery where plants can be bought.

I would have loved to have bought a few of the plants that were here – they looked so strong and were not expensive either. Maybe we could call in again on the way home. Its four days before we pack up to leave this caravan park (which is deserted now the weekend is over!)

The evening light was beautiful when I looked out of the window of our cabin back at the caravan park so we hastily jumped into the car to get to where we could see the sun setting over the water. It was dazzling bright and not good for photography so I waited until the sun dropped out of sight. The clouds were beautiful so I contented myself with a shot of them. Driving back to the camp again the tiny clouds overhead and in the East were reds and yellows. It makes you feel good to see the beauty that nature can provide!

We intend to head South tomorrow. Fingers crossed that the weather stays as good as this!

AJ

All good things . . .

It rained through the night but the morning broke bright and sunny – so bright that the white boats out on the Endeavour River were almost too white to look at! We showered and packed and handed our keys back to Reception before driving up the road a short way to the Kiosk where we had eaten breakfast the day before.

The food and the location could not be bettered so we chose it for breakfast on our last day in Cooktown.

I think that we had managed to see and photograph just about everything there was to see and photograph without getting onto a boat, so we slammed the doors shut on the little white hire car and drove off into the sunset – well maybe not – but in that direction!

WE passed a few signs to scenic lookouts – but we had called in to most of them on the way north so did not stop this time around. High on a hill we did let the wheel turn us onto a tiny track up a rise. There were two other vehicles up there when we arrived and the view, although magnificent, was directly east so we were looking straight into the sun. 

Fortunately there was a spindly tree offering a bit of shade so I stood under that to take my photograph. Sunlight on the lens makes a very disappointing job of a great picture! I recommend that when you are faced with a similar situation that you either get someone to hold their hat to put shade on the lens or else look for a shady spot as I did. Since there was nothing else to see except for rolling hills and dazzling sunshine, our stop at the James Earl lookout was very short (I have no idea who James Earl was! Maybe a local councilor?)

After a couple of hours of driving I felt in need of a pick-me-up so we drove into the roadhouse at Mt Carbine and bought coffees (once I had established that there was indeed a coffee machine! I don’t like instant coffee!)

Colin chose to take a photo of his very weary wife – it really shows!

I did feel a lot brighter after the coffee though. The drive changed at Mr Molloy where we had to drive down a steep and very windy road through amazing rainforest. It was so beautiful that I felt very wide awake! What a great road! I asked Colin to take lots of photos as we drove down but his style of shooting is not mine and unfortunately none of them are good enough to share. The sun was dappling through the canopy all the time and the brightness on the windscreen seemed to have coincided with each of his shutter snaps. But they are a memory for us of how beautiful it was.

Then we were driving along the coast. WE stopped for a couple of shots. Its funny but we both felt that we had “stopped here before” and wanted to keep driving. When I did stop the view that was so tantalizing from the moving car did not seem to be as lovely as expected!

Yes, the sea was gorgeous, the rocks gave character and the vegetation along the beach was green and bright – but somehow it looked even more special from the moving car! Crazy!

But I did find one spot where the beach looked even better from out of the car.

If I had driven past I would not have seen the palm tree leaning over the sands, somehow that one palm gives a very tropical look!

As we drove closer to Cairns I realized that it was lunch time so rather than go directly to our motel I turned the car to Trinity Beach, picked up food for lunch and took it down to a park near the sands. Although it was quite a hot day we found a lovely shady spot in a little garden on the Esplanade. A few people wandered past us as we sat there. It was a relaxed and very pleasant ambience.

We were using the cups that we had purchased on the train tour and I remembered the challenge that had been issued by the train driver to take photographs of the mugs in different locations, so I set my mug on a fence with the sands of Trinity Beach behind and here it is.

Our travels in North Queensland are over. Tomorrow all I have to do is take the car back to the hire car firm and fly back home to the Gold Coast. All good things must come to an end!

AJ

Don't forget! Click on one of the pictures and you will be able to see each of them much larger and clearer - its worth doing! Also, to contact me send an email to joanren AT gmail.com

Wet and mouldy

You would think that living in the subtropics we would be well used to lots of rain - well think again! We love our blue skies and dry weather - how else can be get out and about and enjoy this gorgeous part of the world! But just lately the skies have taken to tormenting us with lots (and lots) of rain. So much that I am glad we did not put solar panels on our roof to provide us with electricity!
Saturday was a real "doozy" of a wet day.

It had rained for a week before Colin and I took ourselves off for a few days to Lennox Head and we were lucky to have some days that were not quite sunny, but pleasant enough to go exploring. We arrived home to   almost non stop rain.

These shots were taken from the protection of the back (upstairs) veranda where I ventured out to see whether the water would come high enough to get into our shed where we keep the trailer and Paul's hobby car - which is in bits. You can just see the shed on the left next to our rain water tank. The rain did not come above the ridge  by those two trees so no worry to the contents of the shed.
That green stuff on the surface of the water is a small leafed water weed, the fence between us and our next door neighbour's property was enough to act as a dam to hold it back. When the water does go down that week will remain but it will be a good fertilizer for the lawn! It will be a bit messy and rather slimey for a while but it will go eventually.

This shot shows more clearly the water week - those tree trunks mark the edge of the block of land, the actual creek is on the other side of them.
The next morning the rain had eased (a bit!) and with an umbrella in one hand and the little Samsung camera in the other I ventured down into the squelchy back yard with the two dogs to give them a bit of exercise and to see what fungi I could find. After rain the wood heap is a great source of fungi!

From the shiny nature of the wood you can tell that it is still raining! The wood is completely saturated. Everyday there are different fungi among the cut timber - they only last a few hours before they are gone.

This was a great find - but the photo is deceptive - the fungi are very small so to begin with I almost didn't notice them. Each of those little caps would be about the size of a finger nail - the camera was switched to MACRO mode to take them - the trouble with a point and shoot camera is that you cannot control the amount of flash. Being close to these delicate little things the flash has removed a lot of the detail from them.
What will I see tomorrow? Maybe nothing special at all - but I shall still venture out with the camera!
AJ

Unspoiled Rainforest

I mentioned a couple of days ago that Colin and I had visited a tiny patch of rainforest called Victoria Park. Today I would like to show you a few of the photographs I took there. The young man in the Ballina Information Office was quite passionate about this little park telling us how it was the only area left of the pristine rainforest when the timber men finished their destruction of the local cedar and pine trees that were used to make packing cases for the banana crops.

Rainforests are known for their huge buttress rooted trees and this one abounded with them.

For those of you who have not been into a rainforest, they are often quite dark, not overly crowded with leaves in the lower levels but the roof of the forest is a mat of leaves that shut out the sunlight to the ground below.

Knowing this I dug out the flash gun and extension lead and attached it to my camera before stepping out of the sunlight. It is a bit tricky using an unattached flash gun but I gripped it with the last two fingers of my right hand, guiding its direction with my left hand before that hand was used to support the camera. When you want something badly enough you work for it!!

There were patches of brightness along the way where large trees had been blown down by strong winds, these trees had crashed down tearing off branches of other trees on their way and leaving huge windows of light – and dead leaves.

Although the 300 year old strangler fig has long gone there is another that is growing up and will one day rival the first for size. The fruit from a strangler fig will be deposited in the angle of a branch of an established tree, either falling there or being dropped there by a bird or animal and starts to grow in the moist leaf litter that is caught there.

There were some great signs in the rainforest that were worthy of a photograph.

Without a person standing nearby it is not easy to see how large this tree is. You will have to take my word for it!

My last picture for today is also of a sign.

I thought the signs rather clever, I can't pronounce the names, I wonder if you can?

(Clicking on the picture enlarges them)

AJ

A bird in the bush

Today I am going to share something very different to yesterday, I took a short road trip and enjoyed a couple of hours in the nearby rainforest so rather than give you something to learn I will give you a little story.
Last weekend much of Queensland was battered by a severe and long lasting storm that has left in its wake immeasurable damage. Damage to homes to businesses and to farms. It has also done a lot of damage to the bush. In monetary terms this is not a national worry, the bush heals. The communities in small towns divided by bush are not so lucky though, the damage to the bush created road closures, gigantic trees fell over roads, landslips and rock slides created hazards to be cleared and access to these small places was compromised.
From my home to the top of the mountain where a small township called Springbrook is situated the roads were cut in several places but amazingly by today the roads were passable. Road crews are still busy and I could see how much had already been done. Colin, my husband, and I decided to take a look at the National Park that wraps around the town of Springbrook. It is one of our favourite places.
The park has many rainforest trees which are characterised by their buttress roots - rainforest trees are shallow rooted, the moisture is filtered through the canopy of the trees and lies on the surface of the soil and in the leaf litter so the roots do not need to penetrate deep into the earth.

Sometimes it seems as if these trees can grow on solid rock, their roots wrap around boulders and stretch over the surface of rocks. They trap the leaves  for their nourishment and the leaves trap the moisture to keep the tree watered. Nature is at her busiest in a rainforest.
We could not go to the National Park without going to see at least one waterfall! The largest and easiest to walk to is named "Purlingbrook". It is a few days since the big rain so the waterfall is not running as fast as it was in the peak of the storm, however it still looks magnificent.

There is a walking track from the lookout that takes the energetic down into the valley and right under the falls, but the deluge had created several hazards - land slips - that made the track unusable so the gate access was locked. A walk to the lookout at the top of the falls was not to be either because debris had been washed down and onto the causeway/footpath and piled up against the safety railing making passage impossible.
Colin and I retreated to a picnic area where we made ourselves comfortable and were joined very quickly by a bird of the rainforest. A scrub turkey.

Not all scrub turkeys are this friendly but many learn that seated humans usually have food that they are willing to share! It is not breeding time -- or if it is, this fellow is not searching for a mate! How do I know? That wrinkly yellow bit on his neck is like a small yellow ruff. In breeding time it relaxes and droops down almost to the top of the legs. The lady turkeys must think it looks really grand!

Our Scrub turkey friend stayed until he was quite sure we didn't have another crumb of our blueberry muffins left and off he strutted to find another free meal at another table further in the park!
To be honest, I quite enjoyed his company because I could use my camera and the new off- camera flash unit I had recently acquired! The bush is quite dark under the trees even on the brightest day - in the first picture you can see that the sun is shining brightly - the bird would have been a full silhouette if I hadn't used the flash. In the second picture the bird is much closer to me and was very difficult to see (very hard to focus on something you cant see!) I held the flash lower than the camera and I was really surprised at how bright the shot came out.
I hope you enjoyed  the shots from our mornings entertainment!
AJ

On top of the world

It was the first time for me - to have a meal at the famous "St Bernard's Hotel" on Mt Tamborine. This was only the second time I have visited the place, the time before only for a quick look. This time I was able to explore the building and the surrounds, some of which I will share in pictures. The hotel has lots of atmosphere and is understandably very popular both for casual drinks as well as for meals. The staff go out of their way to make you feel welcome and by the time you leave you feel as if they are personal friends!
There has been a tradition to own a St Bernard dog since the doors first opened to the hotel years and years ago. (It acquired a liquor license in 1915) I was lucky enough to spot the youngest of the two dogs, one year old Molly. She was exhaustingly energetic, as you can tell from this picture.

The views from the out door tables is spectacular, the eating area hovers over a valley and looks down over tree covered hills. There are beautiful flower filled gardens with seats and easy pathways for the more energetic visitor to wander.

If the weather is fine a walk through the rainforest to see the waterfalls is a possibility. With a group of people patiently waiting for me to return to place my lunch order I only had time to take a few paces into the rainforest where I couldn't help but take photographs of the wonderful stag ferns in the trees, these ferns grow in the wild in the National Park on Mt Tamborine and in the trees that are much too tall for people to steal them so these specimens in this private piece of rainforest would have been placed here deliberately. They are absolutely magnificent.

(remember that if you click on the pictures you can enlarge them)
In yet another part of the garden the lawns have been mown so that the area can be used for open air weddings and functions. While I was there a small group of geese had claimed it as their own and honked angrily at me for disturbing them. They waddled off into yet another part of the property but no doubt returned as soon as I had left.

As you can tell, I was very impressed with my visit to St Bernard's Hotel. I took far more pictures which I would be happy to share - but every day I see something new that is worthy of a story so I will limit the number of my photos!
AJ
joanren@gmail.com

Night flowering tree

After spending the entire day working in the kitchen, by evening I was feeling pretty warm so I took my cup of tea outside onto the veranda and sat down in the cool to enjoy it. The light was about gone from the sky but it wasn't completely dark and I was able to see that the tree the lorikeets fly into during the day was covered with white flowers. I was aware that the flowers only came out in the evening but I had not been outside to see it happening.

2 seconds      F/8     ISO 800

The tree was decorated with white flowers  from top to toe. There must be very little nectar in the flowers because they do not attract the fruit bats - fruit bats are night nectar and fruit eaters. And the honey eaters and lorikeets are not interested in flying around in the dark, so birds do not pollinate these flowers. So there must be insects that do that work.
It seems a shame that such attractive flowers should bloom only at night and fall to the ground before daylight.

                                                              3 seconds       F/8     ISO 800
I am surprised that these pictures came out as well as they did because it was too dark to focus - so focus was pure guesswork! AND there was a slight breeze blowing so the two and three seconds I took to take each photograph meant that the tree and flowers had to be completely still - or completely blurred!
My last image shows that some of the flowers have fallen off already - they really are short lived.

                                                                   3 seconds       F/8     ISO 800
I should look up and find out what this tree is. The birds brought it into my garden and I transplanted it in the grove of trees just across from the veranda. Until now I had no need to know its name!
Now that I have had my little break I had better get myself back into the kitchen and tidy up!
AJ

Sunshine on the mountain

On the last day of winter the sun came out and it was far too nice to stay at home so the picnic box was packed with tea and biscuits so that we could spend the morning exploring the mountain that is very close to home.
Showers were forcast for the afternoon so we only had the morning to do our driving.
Rain had fallen the day before so I felt that it would be worth going to see the waterfalls - there is only a little catchment area so the falls are less spectacular a few days after the rain. The best time of all is when it is actually raining.
I enjoyed the challenge of taking photos in extremely poor light. I am sharing all of the photos that I took that morning (not many) and I hope that you enjoy them too.
Click on the photo and you will be taken to the web album. click on "Slideshow" and change the length of time to 5 seconds once you are in the slideshow, then you will be able to read the captions.
AJ

Springbrook in Spring

A magic location

I have been busy with my video editing! On Wednesday Colin and I took Amanda, my son's girlfriend, to see one of our favourite places. Our home is at the base of Mount Springbrook so it is only a 30 km drive to see some truly magnificent scenery. Actually, we don't need to go quite that far before the "wow" factor sets in! The drive up the mountain is a delight. There are curved bridges and palm filled valleys and old stumps with holes in them that tell tales of the timber times (Cedar cutters were the first residents of this area)on the road leading up the mountain.
For most of the time I was busy with my still camera but remembered to use my tiny JVC bloggy camera once we had reached Purlingbrook Falls.
I hope you enjoy visiting one of our favourite locations! Again I remind you to click on the title on the top left of the video to see it in "widescreen" in Youtube.

If you haven't been to Springbrook yet, let me take you there!
AJ

Rainforest magic

Today I remembered to take my tripod with me when we packed the car for a run up the Numinbah Valley to a beautiful spot known as Natural Bridge. This is the other side of the mountain to the Purlingbrook Falls and is in the Springbrook National Park. To you international readers of my blog this will mean nothing, so I apologise for the confusion! I will make up for my blank statement by showing you why I love visiting this side of the National Park.

f/9  1/13   ISO400  26mm

This wonderful display of several different types of epiphyte (air feeding plants) is in the entrance to Natural Bridge and most people drive under it without even noticing it.
To take my photos today I had the camera in full manual control and increased the ISO to 400 at the start of my photo taking. I did not notice that I inadvertently change this back to 200 part way through the day!

f/5.6  1/5  ISO200  18mm

There are some truly beautiful sights in this piece of rainforest and after all the rain we have had during the last few weeks the creeks are running well. Thanks to the slow shutter speed the water splashes have been smoothed out but the speed of the running water is shown better this way. This part of the park is filled with draping vines of all thicknesses. Anyone with a good imagination would love to be here when there are no other people around!

f/5.6  1/15   ISO200  18mm

This photograph shows why people love to come to this park. The water that was shown in the picture before this one rushed over the surface and has cut a hole through the rock to fall ten to fifteen metres into a rock pool below creating a most spectacular sight. It is possible to walk into the cave that has been carved out over the centuries by this falling water but the spray was so great today that I stayed out in the open and tried several different vantage points. It is difficult to find the right setting to accommodate the brightness of the water and the heavy darkness of the cave and rocks - this is the sort of challenge I enjoy!

f/5.6    1/15     ISO200   18mm

Leaving the thunder of the water behind me I then walked through the rainforest to make my way back to the car and was brought to a stop by these magnificent splayed roots, rainforest trees are very shallow rooted and balance their massive size by spreading their roots out like webbed feet on tip-toe. Although my eyes were well accustomed to the lighting under the trees the camera needed plenty of time for each picture which shows just how dark it really is.

f/5.6  1/40   ISO200   26mm

My last picture tells a story of persistence - the pattern is caused by the roots of a fig that had been scraped off a birds beak as a sticky seed and attached in a branch high in a rainforest tree. The host tree is still encased in these roots but eventually it will be starved of nourishment by the strangler fig and will die leaving a hollow centre within the network of roots.
Using the roots as a good anchor point, several epiphytes have become lodged in this web and enjoy a wonderful view over the treetops.
The rainfall up here in Springbrook National Park is quite a bit higher than that of the suburbs along the sea front only a few kilometers away, so close but so different.
AJ