Places of Flowers

By Jen.

My new camera only takes AA batteries. This isn’t ideal, as I take a lot of photos and use the bluetooth function, so the batteries are dead just after a few days. So, we ordered some new lithium rechargeable ones to use. However, I didn’t send them to a post office far enough south for our timeline, and we needed to burn some days in the area until the package arrived. That was ok, though. It gave me a great excuse to have Jonathan take me a Japanese garden in Toowoomba. I must give credit to the Japanese; they know how to design a garden. Not only are they beautiful, but they are peaceful. Made me want to have one!

From there, we went south to Girraween National Park. This place is known for its flowers, with supposedly 6 months of natural flower displays. Somehow, we arrived in that 6 months, but during a time when there were only a few flowers blooming. Our first walk was to the underground creek, where we found lots of dragons, lizards, and skinks living the good life on the rocks.

The ubiquitous superb fairy wren along the path.

Then, the next day, we did a circuit that included Granite Arch, The Pyramid, and Wyberba walking trails. I must say, there is just something about granite that makes it very fun to experience in nature. The boulders, the worn pathways for water, the bald peaks. They all just make me inexplicably happy.

Granite arch. While it looks like a giant was playing with rocks, the 3 rocks used to be on large rock.

Check out that slope we were traversing!

This little skink made his home in a layer of bark. Sure looked like a snake for a minute, though!

FUN FACT: If you have been reading the “By the Numbers” posts, you have noticed that some states provide plastic bags at stores for free, others charge. Despite Tasmania and South Australia requiring the use of reusable bags, we had so many bags by the time we reached Broome, that we decided to use reusable bags for a while until we ran out. They don’t really have very many recycling places for plastic bags here, so I didn’t want to be wasteful. Well, we finally ran out. From the beginning of June until about halfway through October, we did not need to obtain any plastic bags. We really only use them as trash bags, and only generate about 2-4 bags per week of trash. Now, we will only get bags from the store when need more bags for trash.