Part 2 and Some Friendly Natives

Here I come with Part 2 ready or not. As I said we did lots of smaller walks one was out to Baloon Cave which features a smaller section of Indigenious art.

The walk along Mickey Creek was a favourite of mine too.

There were lots of lush ferns, rock pools and crevices to explore.

I was very taken by the beauty of the Rock Pool walk that we did from the Ranger headquarters at the park.

The reflections in the water were so gorgeous mid afternoon.
When we did the 14 km walk our last off shoot was to what they call the Moss Gardens and Violet Falls.
Water seeps from the rocks constantly and creates these hanging gardens of moss.

These are Violet Falls which is but a trickle because of the drought.

I felt really proud of myself after the effort of that long walk and thought myself done with the strenuous stuff but Mr R. then informed me that he really fancied having a go at the 960 odd steps (yep you read it right) that take you up to Boolimba Bluff to over look the Gorge. 300 metres of which is very steep and some ladders involved.Which also meant it was the same to come back down again. I hoped against hope that my silence would indicate my lack of enthusiasm for the idea....ah NO! So with heart in mouth off we set to walk the 3.2 kms out to the bluff and up these steps of which these are but a tiny few...

The view was certainly worth it after I recovered my breath.

I was cheering "Yay" we did it but I didn't count on the journey back down which was so much more dicey.

I had my cranky face on and was not favourably inclined to photos at this point and didn't know what he had to smile about when we could plummet to our death at any minute.

As you have gathered we made it down in one piece and appreciated the 6.4 km around trip a few hours later when everything stopped hurting.
I promised you some of the furry and feathered friends we got up close and personal with. This kookaburra really wanted to join us for lunch...

He watched us every day from his nearby perch behind our van and allowed us to get quite close.

Currawongs serenaded us night and day and were very cheeky around mealtimes too.

These funny little Apostle birds kept us amused too.

We did see the elusive platypus many times but they are so quick and shy. We feel grateful we got some photos at all.

We had resident "pretty face" or whiptail wallabies very near our camp. Can you see the little Joey peeking out from her pouch?

We also saw lots of laid back Grey kangaroos just hanging out and relaxing.

they also did not seem at all nervous about our presence.

Every now and then a white cockatoo would make it's presence known with a loud screech.

Not long after we spotted a lone pelican just cruising along down the creek.

Everywhere we went butterflies danced along in front of us, landing and fluttering and taking off again...just beautiful.

As wildlife lovers we were just blown away by all we saw and encountered. Even as we drove along the road out to come home these crazy feathered folk ran across our path.

Phew! I think that is it folks and I promise next time some stitching. Thanks for hanging in there.
Namaste and Blessings,
Michelle xxx