Girraween

I have decided to go and get my body back and am on a walking regime.  First stop explore all the near National Parks and then the far ones and when have done that in a couple of years am doing a Forrest Gump and walk the world well that is the plan and many a slip between the cup and the lip.  Life is a box of chocolates.....

First stop Girraween and what a beautiful place that is and right here on my doorstep with the most incredible diversity of wildflowers, heath, and great walks, although did not do the walk up the pyramid as I had planned due to the inclement weather and the slipperiness of granite with moisture.

Left home at 12.30 am picked up an enthusiastic photographer in Toowoomba and met the dawn near the Queensland NSW border.  A wonderful spot to spend the first day of Summer.A beautiful morning with mist rising from the creek the platypus plopping in the creek wondering what she is doing sitting above my borrow and how I knew it was its burrow will explain a little further on.

Quite a mild morning but this locale is the coldest area of Queensland with snow in the winter time some years.  The dew on the grass was beautiful as the first rays of the sun touched the tops.  Sun rise was around the 4 o'clock time.

Nature sure turned it on and thought I would share some of the magic of the morning with the little things.

I was snapping away enjoying myself and in the background could hear a noise on the water periodically and was looking through the viewfinder of my camera and a duck was evident in the gloom.  I put the zoom lens on after a few shots and could see that the duck was caught in the tree with fishing line wound around his neck.  I progressed down the creek and could cross at a bridge a couple of hundred metres upstream but the other side of the river had a little anna branch of a stream and very boggy with high reeds and grasses and perhaps some joe blakes so sat and contemplated for a few minutes knowing I could not leave the duck where it was and the other photographer companion was who knows where and would be back who knows when.  I went back to the car and dug around for an old shirt and took that down to the creek together with a change of clothes and left my old clothers which were muddy and sodden from trying to access the duck from the other side on the vehicle bull bar to dry out.

Collect a sharp stanley knife and reminded myself I had been a strong swimmer and if I were to continue this Gump thing had to make a start.  Swam up the creek with the knife in my mouth, treading water mightily and cut the duck loose.  Swam back to the shore and proceeded to put on my clean clothes feeling rather satisfied with myself.  See the duck in the background tethered to the tree.

I thought I was rather good rescuing that duck.

My first morning of "Gump" is one of mixed emotions.  Oh yes about the platypus burrows when trying to find an alternative to swimming up that dark water and negotiating the edges of the creek my legs went down a hole in the bank of the creek with mud nearly up to my waist.  I do not think I landed on any platypii.

The sun shone on the top of the Cottontops and everything looked a little more sane.

Drove back towards Stanthorpe and some beautiful shots were taken of this most colorful parrot an Eastern Rosella which I had never seen before and he was so brightly colored he hurt the eyes.  Although obviously fed in the trees was still very shy and nervous.

Then on to Girraween which will speak through the photographs such a beautiful place and well worth a visit or two.

These fellows were eastern greys and did look a little poor but not as poor as the big roos I saw in the Charters Towers area where the grasses were virtually non existent due to the lack of rain, thankfully the "wet" season in the north is not that far away.

A jewel of a beetle and a bad nail job.  Ever since the mop tops I always spell beetle incorrectly and have to stop and redo EVERY time.

These bushes had every color imaginable must have had something to do with slight differences in soil to produce such a different array of color.  I did not photograph the range of color which I realize I should have done.

Huge granite boulders everywhere giving the place a spiritual and eerie  feel

except when there were silly buggers about and I am talking about the person taking the photograph who had to climb  up a tree to get this effect.