Month: August 2015

2000 km south…

What a difference 2000 km makes
A couple of weeks ago I was on the Atherton Tableland
1000 metres high
Camping
A mild 14 degrees overnight

Last night
1000 metres high
The New England Tableland was -3
The frost white on the grass this morning.

It’s the last day of winter
And I’m heading south
Back home

It’s now sheep country not cattle
The Brahman studs replaced by merino studs

On a clear day the air is crisp and dry
The moist tropical air way north.

On the bike Im wearing 5 layers of clothes
Cause
Its now 2000 km south

Art and sculpture of the land

The land is its own canvas
Planted by nature

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Coloured sands, Elim Beach, Cape York
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Giant Queensland Kauri, Lake Barrine

Sculpted by the huge volcanic forces of the earth

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The Crater (diatreme), Mt Hypipamee NP

image lava tubes, Undara, Queensland

A pallet so vast
The colours breathtaking

Streaking along the highway
Sometimes, it’s just a glimpse
Of a beautiful construct
Or a juxtaposition of colour
Or texture
That stays in the mind.

Though it is in times of quiet contemplation
In a special place
In the quiet
We know that nature is the greatest artist.

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Rainforest meets the sea at Cape Tribulation

Cape York – On the trail of our indigenous culture and James Cook

On the banks of the Endeavour River, in Cooktown, there is an interpretive plaque that says the James Cook and the local aborigines reconciled in 1770.

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Was it a reconciliation of convenience? Cook had a damaged ship that needed repair. Or was he open to a deeper understanding.

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The rock art on Cape York is evidence of a complex culture many thousands of years old. Some of the carvings in the walls of the Split Rock are estimated to be 13000 years old.

I’m a great admirer of James Cook, – three circumnavigations of the world before his death at 51 in Hawaii.

And know I can learn much from our indigenous culture, it’s spirituality and understanding of place and the land.

In Cape York the two came together.