In the morning, a quick visit to the Kershaw Gardens, an Australia native
botanic garden, then the other two Rockhampton tourist attractions of Dreamtime
Aboriginal Center and Capricornia Caves, before driving north to Eungella
National Park, west of Mackay.

Kershaw Botanic Gardens was OK.  Not spectacular, but not sucky
either--just OK.  It was built as a Bicentennial project in 1988, and is a
bit tatty here and there, but the trees and plants don't seem to mind!  
Almost all the plants were labeled, and as it specialized in dry tropical
natives, it was good to see.  I took many more …

Mexican Food

Another kinda long day through sparsely populated country, with just a break or two.
After yesterday's tiring day, we got on the road late--10:00--and drove west. About half an hour out of Mitchell, we spotted a turnoff for "Ooline Park", to find an out-of-the-way set of picnic tables and a bunch of numbered posts along a hillside trail. Nothing else. I was interested in finding the wily ooline tree, a rainforest remnant tree known to be growing in those semi-arid parts. No luck, though I did finally a good picture of a 5m tall prickly pear cactus. They grow …

Eurovision

A long 4WD touring day... about 500 kilometers long, through the little visited Mt Moffat section of Carnarvon National Park in western Queensland. We saw a bit of wildlife, and one of the caves with Aboriginal art, but were disappointed that the largest cave was closed a month ago, and the second largest was a bit damaged. It was a long day, with a bit of interesting things thrown in, but in the end just tiring.

We didn't sleep well. There was thunder and lightning all night, and the rain pounded on the metal roof of the motel off and …

We drove down from the Bunya Mountains and stopped in Roma, a few hours west,

A stroll around the mountains

It's pleasant

Feh

Packing up early, we finished up at Binna Burra with a 'bush brekkie BBQ' and a trip on the flying fox, then headed into Brisbane for the final car preparation work for our Cape York and Kimberley trips. Once finished there, we decided to see what the Gold Coast is all about, and stayed in Surfer's Paradise for the night.

The bush breakfast was OK... Barry did all the cooking, and I saw how billy tea is made. Billy tea is simple: boil the water in the billy, throw in a handful of tea, take the billy off the fire …

Today on the news I saw VP Dick Cheney (on camera!) tell journalists they were 'unpatriotic' for asking how President George Bush reacted to intelligence reports in August 2001 about future terrorist attacks.

It's the 'you can't ask this question if you're a good American' defense.

After four months outside the US, I really don't trust George Bush as President if his administration is pulling this lame shit. So why do so many Americans think he's doing a great job? Are my fellow Americans that deluded that 21st-century McCarthyism is now acceptable to them?

Or do the major American news …

Yawn

Like a big country town

Byron Bay and SE Queensland

To Border Ranges National Park

Rafting on the Nymboida River

Just uploading my rather lengthy journal from our New Caledonia trip. A few pictures for now.

Departure board, Noumea airport

Arrival board, Noumea Airport

See ya, NC

Noumea Airport

Iain at the Medina Hotel

Having a moment at Darling Harbour

Very Steep Decent gave us giggles

Odometer 95000km, 40km northwest of Lithgow, New South Wales

Wellington Caves, NSW

Me and Diprotodon

Chris pets the wombat at the Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo.

Albino kangaroo

Little duffer

Warrumbungles NP, NSW

Sunset, Mt Kaputar NP, NSW

Standing Stones, Glen Innes NSW

Pulling the sword

Glen Innes, NSW

Dumaresq St, Armidale, NSW

Odometer …

Our last day on the island, which we spent having a much better time than expected at the Amadée lighthouse snorkeling.

I had booked a tour to the Amadée lighthouse earlier in the week from the tour operator in the hotel... Chris and I had a little argument; he said I paid twice as much as I should have since we had vouchers for A$60 each and I had paid 10200XPF. Hm. Grrrr... maybe those were the 'Japanese prices' that Andre warned us about. Chris then thought some more, and it looks like I only paid US$10 more …

Around Le Grand Sud of New Caledonia

Day of wandering about central Nouméa... with actual decisiveness towards the end! We rent a 4WD!

Noumeas first McDonalds

American Memorial, Noumea

American Memorial, Noumea

Noumea

10:00am

One of the frustrating things I'm finding here in New Caledonia is that there are interesting things to see here on this island, but finding out where they are and how to get to them is very difficult. I've been trying to find more information about the strange plant life and landscapes here--but to no avail. The ranger at the Parc Provincal de la Rivière Bleue didn't have information, the botanic gardens …

In New Caledonia. A very strange island. Half French, as in France French, with butter from Normandy shipped halfway around the world and Bordeaux wine. Nevermind that Australia and New Zealand are less than a three hour flight away... and the closest big city is Brisbane.

Getting irritated that I can't find any local information about interesting plants. It's not on most tourist's agendas... we're not the right kind of tourist, though. With prices so high here (an hour of Internet access at a cafe is US$10, a rental car is US$70 a day from a cheap place …

A long driving tour around New Caledonia

OK. A day around town. And with a rental car too!

After a lazy morning, we met Andre for lunch and spent the afternoon snorkeling with the fishes and relaxing.