This year’s solar eclipse so close to us (i.e., only a two-hour flight away and in the same state and country) provided an excellent excuse for a week-long holiday in tropical North Queensland. Best of all, the weather played ball and let us see totality, the black disk of the moon with the sun’s corona around it. That experience really can’t be beaten, and can’t be photographed either, not without special equipment. Even just the sun’s corona is completely beyond the dynamic range of what even good amateur equipment can handle. Nevertheless, we had a great holiday and took many, many photos — believe it or not, the selection below has been pared down to the essentials. Enjoy!
Cattana Wetlands shot through the openings of a bird hide.
Breakfast in our serviced apartment. A tradition we started on our honeymoon.
This was taken during the eclipse but I wasn’t trying very hard. I was focussed on enjoying the awesome experience!
I tried to identify this bird but no luck.
Playing with the panorama feature, Chaz got doubled!
All the uses for a ute!
I think they mean it…
Mud skippers, not muddy for the moment.
See where it got its name from?
Mud skippers, being muddy.
It took eight kms of unsealed road and a 2km walk in blazing sun to get here.
The capital of spiders!
Leaves, partially eaten, make a pretty pattern.
A palm seed pod. Sometimes I do Art.
Where there is a spider exoskeleton, there may also be a spider…
A palm leaf that had dropped onto the boardwalk.
An egret, hunting.
A tern, hunting in Cairns Harbour.
“I’m pretty!”
Aah, cute!
Apparently, these can be quite impressive during the wet season; however, most of the water gets diverted for electricity generation.
Metal art around the Barron Falls canopy walk, to go with the rainforest.
