This weekend we've had a Swedish couchsurfer staying with us. She brought Marabou choklad and eldersaft from Ikea. I was mycket excited because you all know how much I love Swedes and godis!

In an attempt to bring her closer to naturen, we went for a walk this morning at the Blue Hole before the weather was too stinking and the flies were too awful. Lucky us, there were so many orchids in bloom. At least there were flowers because there obviously hasn't been much rain out there lately. The gorge, which is usually quite spectacular and full of water (they didn't build a hydro-electric scheme there for nothing), was uh.. empty.

Oxley Wild Rivers National Park around Armidale is mostly dry open woodland. It's listed as a World Heritage Area because it's home to a number of rare or endangered species. We saw lots of little tiny birdies and a kangaroo, and some cows too...

The high-res of these photos are on Flickr, but click to see them bigger.

A dragonfly hovers
The monarch butterfly looks just like a leaf unless you already know it's there.

Terrestrial orchids, Dipodium punctatum, I think...


Hidey-spidey


PS. Top points if you understand the "Miranda!" reference, in light of me telling you that there are lots of mysterious-looking rocks and not many people at the Blue Hole...