Ben racing out of the sea, with Kate and Andy watching... and the rain coming in the distance!

The drive to Habana, north of Mackay, where Ben’s kennels are is a lengthy one at the best of times, but after the huge journey up from Bargara it seemed a long long journey to get to Ben. But we did get there and a very very excited Labrador bounded out of his kennel to see everyone!
We took him to Blacks Beach, our usual walking place, which is the best beach around Mackay I would say. We paddled in the sea as Ben swam about. However, one problem was that there was no sunshine – just huge black clouds in the sky, which was such a shame because the beach looks so perfect in the sun. Just as we got far enough down the beach the sky opened up and the rain lashed down on us, we all raced back to the car, but the damage had been done, within 5 minutes we were all drenched!! Welcome to Mackay!
Well, it certainly refreshed everybody anyway, ready for the 2.5 hour drive back to Moranbah! Mum, dad and Kate at last got to see the views Andy and I see on our regular journeys back and forth to Mackay, i.e. the nothingness that exists for almost 2 hours of the journey! The poor drought ridden land couldn’t give any colouring to the almost white stumps of grass that were bravely hanging onto the last threads of life.

There are more trees than people would expect, the many varieties of eucalypt that are the great adapters and survivors of the tree population in Australia. In fact, there are more than 700 species of Eucalyptus mostly native to Australia, they can be found in every part of the continent as they have adapted to all conditions. Many are known as ‘gum trees’. No other continent is so characterised by a single genus of tree as Australia is by eucalyptus. Their bark dies annually so it is really strange to see ‘bald’ trees everywhere at the moment, or half bald as some shed only the top half of their bark. Eucalypts also have a rather dangerous habit of just dropping off huge whole branches as they grow to conserve water, therefore one should never camp beneath a eucalypt tree! Eucalypt oil is highly flammable and the trees can just explode, another reason to admire these unpredictable eucalypts at a distance! They do love a bit of fire though and the fallen branches and bark are highly flammable to help forest fires really get going. Many of the eucalypts depend on fire for spread and regeneration. One last fact on these interesting trees is that they can grow up to an incredible 92 metres tall – making them the tallest of all flowering plants.

We finally got back to Moranbah as it had just got dark and pulled up the drive to our house. It was so bizarre having my family there after all this time! I gave a quick tour around our house and then we all sat outside and had pizza and champagne to celebrate!!