(Purportedly) The Big Mango

Apologies for having changed my blip. I thought this one was a better reflection of the day, if less interesting aesthetically speaking.

Australians have an obsession with 'big' things. Around the country you can find the Big Prawn, Big Banana, Big Beer Bottle, etc etc and so an ad nauseum. This is a relatively new addition (new in the last decade, that is). It is fair to say that it is hideous, bears no relationship to a mango, and in no way entices visitors to stop and buy local produce. That small road you see at left of the picture is the national highway - only in Australia would the main road be called the Bruce Highway.

YackamundaMel was very tolerant as I took photos out of the car window during our drive yesterday - photos of cows, horses, dead trees, sugar cane paddocks, tumbledown and overgrown cottages, long-redundant sugar mills... all the things I know so well from when I lived in this area. All those things I missed. The light is different, and seems to bleach everything, just a little. The air is different.

Weird being back in the area - it''s been more than 10 years since I lived in North Queensland. Lots of memories of places along the roadside came flooding back (mostly being stranded during floods, cyclones, etc).

Am over at Magnetic (Maggie) Island, staying with YackamundaMel's lovely family in a rainforest house.