Photo Friend

One of life’s great joys is discovering people who share your love of something that is important to you. I love nature and beauty, and that particular interest has led to a friendship with Carol Freeman, an outstanding nature photographer who shares my love of beauty. Sure, there are differences in our approaches—I’m more international [...]

High as a Kite

In the family Accipitridae, which includes eagles, buzzards, and harriers, kites are the mid-sized models. There are numerous species of kites, divided among three subfamilies, which live in warm (temperate as well as tropical) regions worldwide. Like other daylight raptors, kites generally rely on speed to dine. That said, some kites eat nothing but snails, [...]

Southern Cross

Back to writing about Australia and my adventures there.
It was while in the Centre, camping near Ayers Rock, that I first saw the constellation known as the Southern Cross. I have always enjoyed stargazing, and the Australian nighttime sky is astonishing, but this constellation delighted me beyond simply being a nice grouping of stars. Of [...]

Hook Island

Okay—my excuse is that I moved this last weekend, after 19 years in the same place. So I lost track of where I was going. Not that everything on this blog always has to be in order, mind you, but it would have made sense to have Hook Island right after Hayman Island. I visited [...]

Whitsunday Islands

During my stay at Airlie Beach, I caught a boat out to the nearby Whitsunday Islands, spectacular islands that rise up out of the Great Barrier Reef (the GBR parallels most of the Queensland coast). First stop was Hayman Island, a glorious little tropical paradise. I thought that perhaps readers might think I was exaggerating [...]

At O’Reilly’s in Queensland

Just a few days after my first encounter with the rain forest, I was on my way to O’Reilly’s. O’Reilly’s is one of only two entryways into Lamington National Park, the other being Binna Burra. One can walk between the two, if one is fit—it’s 23km, or a bit more than 14 miles. But while [...]

Houses on Stumps

One of the things I intend to do with this blog is illustrate my book, Waltzing Australia. There are some wonderful things I saw that, though described in the book, might benefit from an occasional photo. So, as you read, you can come here to find pictures that go with the words. I’ll focus on [...]

Cabin ‘roo at Ross River

For reasons I do not fully understand, I connected with the outback, particularly in the Red Centre, at a deep level. As a result, on my first trip back, I made sure I spent time in the Centre. I spent a few days in Alice Springs and then headed out to Ross River Homestead, where [...]

Three Sisters

My first visit to the Three Sisters was on my first trip to Australia. However, my favorite photo of this rock formation was from my second trip to Oz.
The Three Sisters is a three-peaked rock formation at the edge of the Jamison Valley in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney. On my first visit, it was [...]

Phillip Island’s Penguins

Australia is sometimes called the land of the parrot. This is a fair description, as parrots, including rosellas, cockatoos, and galahs, are numerous and close to ubiquitous. The bird life in Australia is one of the great delights of this country—from the mobs of geese, storks, herons in Kakadu to the major migratory flyway near [...]