In my backyard

Today is a pretty uninspired blip. My camera battry ran out after two shots so I didn't have much to work with.

This is my backyard and a map of Queensland (my other backyard), in my backyard. Or you could say: A map of my big backyard is in my backyard which is in my big backyard...Er...?

Here are a few Queensland facts:

- Queensland covers 1.72 million square kilometres and occupies just over 22% of the continent.
- The population is around 3.6 million people.
- It has 7400 kilometres of coastline.
- The Great Barrier Reef fringes the northern coast for more than 2000 Kilometres.
- The average summer temprature is 22 degrees celcius and winter is 15. I would be disputing the summer temprature!It is usually much higher than that.
- The capital city is Brisbane which is situated in the southeast corner.
I won't bore you with more.

I have travelled west as far as Birdsville which is in the far west of Queensland right on the edge of the Simpson Desert. Our GPS at the time told us that even though we were more than 1600 km from the ocean we were only 38 metres above sea level!

Jo and I also travelled around quite a bit of Queensland in a series 3 Land Rover about 15 years ago. We made the mistake of heading off at the beginning of the wet season and our vehicle was a soft top.The result of this was that we got flooded in at Mt Isa which is in the North West. I found work and we stayed for 3 months. It was fun.

Most people who come here for a visit don't stray far from the coast. My favourite part of this country is the Outback. Jo and I missed out on a trip out west this year but I am keen to plan one for the not too distant future. I have done a few trips already with Jo and with my friend Ken. There is a lot of open space out there and not much between towns. From about 600 kilometres inland it becomes too arid for crop cultivation. Most of the country far inland is cattle country. I have a friend who has a 130000 acre station in central Queensland. I assumed that he would have tens of thousands of cattle. At the time the country could only sustain around 3000 head of cattle which to me didn't seem like much. He does seem to make a good living out of it though.

That is my big backyard.

As for my small backyard. Well for one the lawn needs mowing but the mower is not running. I will have to look into getting that fixed.

My blip of the day: colour on black and white