I took a trip home to see people while I was still in comfortable driving range.  But first, updates from Armidale!

Before Angus took off for Melbourne once again, we went swimming at the blue hole – a natural gorge with a tricky entrance.  It’s a very steep climb down (and then back up), but it’s worth it – the place is gorgeous!  Angus showed me the best spots; the place where a small waterfall has worn the rocks so smooth you can use it as a waterslide into a lower pool, and the tall rocks that you can use for high dives into a really deep spot.

Unfortunately, because of the aforementioned steep climb, there are no photos to show you – just this one of Angus in the place where we parked the car:

I also spotted a rabbit on the farm.  Pretty common sight, but it’s unusual to get picture and video of it:

 

It just ran away from the car for a short burst, then stopped, like it was checking if the car was following it.  When it realised it wasn’t being chased, it didn’t keep running, and I was able to grab the photo and video.

And another kestrel!  First, some photos; a nice close-up, and one of the bird looking hilariously wind-ruffled:

A video of it launching off from the fence post:

 

And finally, some funny videos I took of the horse Flash scratching himself against a tree branch.  He was just so careful about the whole thing – lining himself up and then going to town with it, I couldn’t resist taping him:

 

Up at Brisbane, the whole family went on a trip to Mt Nebo, and we took a quick walk on the Pitta track.  It had lots of informative signs about the flora and fauna (including the difference between rainforest and eucalyptus forest).  Here is a picture of my family, checking out one of those signs:

And the photo I took once they realised what I was doing:

Jonathon is playing it cool.

Dad found an interesting-looking ant on a tree, and I took a photo:

I have no idea what species this is – the list of possibilities was way too long.  Apparently, Queensland has the greatest diversity of ants in the entire world (which isn’t a particularly useful fact, but I thought it was interesting).

Now, for some photos of some of the more spectacular trees:

I also recorded some of the bird and insect sounds – see if you can spot a guest appearance by Dad’s hat as I pan around:

 

The track changed into a boardwalk for part of it, skirting between the trees.  This is Mum and Jonathon, having a casual stroll down it:

After the track turned back into a dirt path, Jonathon managed to spot a goanna running off into the bushes.  We had a look around, and found it had climbed up a tree:

Then we all went to have lunch at Boonbana, before heading back home to watch Lord of the Rings.

Later in the week, while Jonathon was working, Mum, Dad and I went up to Springbrook.  It was raining, but it was actually really nice – it was just a light mist of rain, and you couldn’t help but feel that this was how the rainforest was supposed to be.  Provided you were watching it from the comfort of the car/café, and not actually out in it, of course.

We stopped for a brief walk and a trip to the loo before lunch, and I took this photo of Mum and Dad standing in front of a giant stump.

The tree was cut down because the settlers were worried it would fall on the schoolhouse, which you can just see in the background.  I also took a video of some large-billed scrubwrens that were flitting around the trees:

 

We had morning tea at a little café, and then had another, slightly longer walk through the rainforest.  We were close enough to the road to hear cars passing by, but we could also hear birds as well:

 

We spotted some large ants by the side of the path:

They were obviously expanding or restructuring their nest, because they were hauling out little bits of dirt and gravel and dumping them on the ground.  I took two videos of it.

The first one, with Mum’s commentary:

 

She’s referring to the fact that some ants took the bits of dirt a long way from the hole and some just dumped it quite close by.

A shorter video, without the commentary:

 

Mum and Dad had walked further up the path when I shot this.

We also spotted some more birds.  Look, it’s our old friend – the yellow robin:

A few months ago, I didn’t even know these guys existed, now I seem to see them everywhere!

I’m not completely sure about this one, because the video never really gets a good look at it, but I think it might be a grey shrike-thrush:

 

Here’s a few seconds of the white-browed scrubwren:

 

And I’m pretty sure this is the return of the large-billed scrubwren:

 

Guess Springbrook is a good place for scrubwrens.

I also saw a lot of my friends while I was up, and there was a big family breakfast barbeque on the last day.  It was a good trip.