Mary River National park

More for artistic effect than information - I actually took the picture because it was possible to see the moon and sun simultaneusly, but the auto exposure is dominated by the sun, which makes the moon hard to find. It is there, on the left. This is Leichhardt Point, in the Mary River National Park, the edge of a large billabong/wetland. It's a good spot for birds, although you need good binoculars. Our best bird was a bee-eater, with a truly stunning green front. There were lots of grebes (lesser), and cormorants, darters, ducks, and kites. Light and camera not really up to pictures though. My phone does do a fair job with closeups, and, perhaps not spectacular, the ground is very

interesting. Not that I know what I'm looking at, but the more you look, the more there is - witness the curious flat-leaved reddish plants above (I started by photographing the flowers).

The extremity of the dry/wet contrast amazes me; no subtle gradations. Less than 100 meters from the wetland is this view, termite-mound dominated, dry grass and struggling trees to (deceptively) the horizon. Not that everything is brown; looking down, another small flat spot of colour. The rangers did some backburning one of the nights we stayed. This brown grass burns beautifully, but there was never enough of it for a fully fledged conflagration. Some low lying water, a sudden stand of established trees, and the fire is gone.