Nature Walk

We had a few patches of blue sky today- the first since arriving in the "Sunshine State" almoat a week ago! We packed the hamper and set out to find somewhere to have lunch before the next shower.  The map showed a picnic spot at the Little Millstream Falls, just around the corner from the camping ground.  On the way we had a look at the Millstream Falls, too- reputed to be the widest in Australia.

The falls were very pretty, but there were no picnic tables, so we consulted the map again.  The road we were on continued off the page, but an arrow pointed south with the words "Tully Falls, 5km"... so we thought we'd try that.  Twenty very scenic kilometers later we reached the turnoff to the falls, and  a further stretch of dirt road finally got us to our destination.  The sun was shining, and there were in fact picnic tables overlooking a spectacular view over the falls! 

I am really enjoying the way the children are interested in everything we see.  During the walks we went on today, they kept stopping and pointing out interesting things along the way- a young fig entwined around a tall tree, butterflies making the most of the patches of sunshine, colourful leaves, a striking flower, a dead cicada, an interesting burrow or a spider's web... 

Kookaburra

rock ferns

white fig

bleeding heart

native lasiandra

new leaves on a fig sapling

Common Brown Ringlet Butterfly (Hypocysta metirius)

cicada

We've been playing a spotting game on our trip while travelling long stretches: if anyone sees something really interesting- preferably something we haven't seen before- we all get a tic-tac.  Today, when Arthur found a little Nobbi dragon along the way he said "Now THAT's tic-tac interesting!" 

Nobbi Dragon

A little later, skipping along beside us, he said, "Thank you so much for taking us on this trip!  We're so lucky to be allowed to see all this amazing stuff!" 
Which sums it up, really!