14th November 2021

When I am with my wife I try not to just do what I want to do. My wife likes to keep moving more than me so the emphasis is on the word “try”. Above is a photo during the wet last December taken at one of the lookouts up the Tablelands with my wife. The rain will be here again soon so best to do some walking with my wife before it is too wet for her.

My wife loves flowers so late October I took her to the Sunflower farm just outside of Atherton as you head to Tolga. When the flowers are in bloom it is a bit of a festival there.

There are usually food and drink vendors on the farm road and the farmers also conduct tours around the farm in an open carriage.

Peterson Creek

Last Sunday my wife was also in charge of where we visited and she wanted to go to Lake Barrine, a place we had not visited for a long time. Too many tourists for us normally.

On the way we stopped at Peterson Creek at Yungaburra to sit on the above bench and wait for the platypus to show themselves.

It was not long before this little fellow decided to swim in front of us and some other local spectators.

The portion of Peterson Creek that we were at had quite a few logs on the surface and turtles were sun-baking on them as the platypus swam around.

My wife was also amused by this little reptile that ran across the top of the water from one side of the creek to the other.

As we were leaving Peterson Creek a Barred Cuckoo-Shrike flew down onto a perch nearby to eat some sort of very large stick like insect. It was time for us to head to Lake Barrine.

Lake Barrine

It was about 4pm by the time we arrived at Lake Barrine and we thought plenty of time to do the 5klm walk around the lake edge . BTW at 4pm on a Sunday, the shop at the Lake was closed.

My wife loves to do her red and green arrow walks with her friends. She was keen to do some exercise and also to not be in the bush in the dark. She was off and racing and I trailed behind …as usual easily being distracted.

It was not long before my wife was questioning her choice of locations. It appears that they have had some heavy storms and the track is well and truly blocked by fallen trees in places. We managed to walk around and kept on going.

On our walk I did manage to get this photo of a Musky Rat-Kangaroo which is a bit better that the one I got a few years ago at the base of the Cathedral Fig at nearby Lake Tinaroo. With it so dark on the track it was hard to get a clear photo and this animal is very shy. For those that are into photography, 1/200s, f/5.6, 300mm, ISO 12800.

Above us the setting sun was still lighting up the tree tops despite the path becoming quite dark. I was told we needed to get a move on.

By the time we made it to the half way point at the back of the Lake the light was really starting to dim. My wife informed me we would now be walking a bit faster and stopping a lot less.

Once we made it back to the carpark we hoped to see a beautiful sunset on the way home but the clouds moved in and this would be one fo the few occasions that the Tablelands failed to deliver a sunset for us.

Behanna Creek

The day before that trip to Lake Barrine with my wife I took a late afternoon walk along Behana Creek on my own. I have been doing this a little bit more over the last few months before the wet season arrives and the water gets too high for me to get into a lot of places. I might share some of those photos next. Behana Gorge is a magical place.