The Shed

Frogs

Rescued from a backyard pool not long after the Brisbane floods, the tadpoles were transferred to a backyard pond where they stood a better chance of survival. 

Our backyard is only a few km from the centre of the city, but we have tried to recreate a little piece of rainforest that is frequented by native animals, birds and of course, amphibians. 

The rescued tadpoles have done well, growing steadily with some losing their tails and turning into frogs. Its fabulous to observe nature in your own backyard.

Waiting for Wezzy

Looks like fun

Not what I do but looks like fun.

Nightrider

Night riding in Queensland is much cooler ..... so now that the rain has stopped, the wind has died down and the mud has dried, it was time to get out for a spin around Daisy. A great way to end a day and start the week.

Dunk'n'Wind

Eighteen months ago I was lucky enough to paddle my sea kayak with a group of others up the eastern side of Hinchinbrook Island from Lucinda to arrive at Dunk Island over 100kms and 10 days later. It was nice to have hot showers and cool drinks after over a week of wilderness camping.

The photo above was the view from the resort restaurant looking across to Mission Beach.

Below is a photo taken after powerful cyclone Yasi demolished the resort. The pool is was to the left and in front of the green roof.  I would imagine that many of the lush, tropical campsites along the coast of Hinchinbrook Island have met the same fate.  :-((


Photo: Brian Cassey/Courier Mail

Australia Day - by the sea

After all the wet weather and floods, it was great to get out by the water (with about 1,000 of our closest friends) and play in kayaks, eat sausages and rissoles, drink (ginger) beer and have a generally good time.

The surf out on Currumbin Alley in the kayaks was a lot of fun too.

Lift

Today was about lifting the debris on the footpath onto the trucks to take it all away.

Our team of three added to the 50,000 volunteers who took to the streets today.
A good days work.

Mud

The sight confronting us at the first house to be cleaned up. This is the kitchen and dining - Shane and his family only bought the house 5 months ago. It is unsure if their insurance will cover it.

The finished mess after cleaning out the second house. The tenants arrived home from holidays while we were outside. They had not realised the extend of the damage and did not have insurance.

Flood

The Scooby Roll

Favourite mountain bike stacks

 Some of my favourite mountain bike stacks have been performed by

• Lazy Ray - who could forget the day that he put the power down from a standing start, snapped his chain and went over the bars ROFLMAO
• Dean0 ... what more can you say
• MaxR for his superman impression while showing us how to jump a small log near the stepover 
• ... and most of the rest of the DH Wed morning crew at one time or another

but I didn't have a camera to record them so I have posted some that I did capture at some downhill events ... always a good source of carnage material.

This one from Illinbah appeared in Inside Sport. Enjoy.

The rest are from a downhill event at Brookfield.

Stay upright and have a safe and happy Christmas.

Building site holiday

When is a holiday not a holiday?

When you have two building sites next to your house and every tradesman and his noisiest machine are there to make sure that work seems a better place to be. Oh, and its been 12 months since they started.

To add to the noise, the constant north easterly winds have created a constant stream of aircraft as well.

Perhaps there will be another severe storm to chase them all away. Hail has never sounded so good!!

Note: a whopper of a storm came through early afternoon ... thunder and lightning and no tradies.

Rolling again.

The injured shoulder is well on its way to full recovery so given the green light to get out there, I've wasted no time using it to get rolling again .... both in the kayak and on the mountain bike.

Dean0 and I took the shoulder out for a test run at Daisy for an easy Sunday afternoon cruise.

.... it was then onto a koala spotting night ride through Daisy. Glad to see that there really are koalas out there in the Koala Forests.

Always great to get out with mates to test the fitness and catch up on the latest.

Once in a blue mo...

There are a lot of good causes out there but with a little help from a few friends, decided to show my hairy side by growing a mo for MOvember in support of Beyond Blue and Prostrate Cancer Research.

After numerous comments about 'bum fluff' and the like .... due to the fact that my Mo was hard to see being mostly blonde with a hint of grey .... I decided to turn it blue for the rest of the month. It looks more blue in real life but you get the idea.

If you have any spare cash and want to support your mates, why not put a few dollars towards a good cause. I'm sure that you will only see a blue Mo only once in a blue Moon. ;-{))

http://au.movember.com/mospace/990950/

Ups and downs in Nepal

Thought I'd drag a few photos out of the vault from a trip to Nepal in 2004. Lucky I had two good shoulders then otherwise I might have found myself falling a looooong way down. ;-)

We travelled on tracks not used much these days, not seeing any other people for 4 or 5 days at a time. Although there was that Maoist rebel that travelled with us for a while as a "friend" of one of the guides. It was a time when you had to pay cash to the rebels (with large guns and knives) to enter their territory,  but they gave you a receipt so that you could show the next group that you had already paid. Scarey at times, but very civilised really.

There is nothing like being in the mountains with peaks towering to 7,000m around you. A trip I had wanted to do for a lifetime. Carpe diem.

Eagle boy ... lizard whisperer ... what the???

If you can't ride your bike or paddle your kayak you will find other things to do. Annoying the local wildlife is always fun. I'm not sure who was out-staring who with my lizard encounter ... in the end it didn't bite me and I didn't bite it ... so it all ended well.

In the case of the wedge tail eagle, I think it was taming me. It let me scratch its neck like it was a puppy. Its talons and beak were pretty serious weapons though.

The animals of SE Qld will be happy to know that I was back on my bike today ... first time in three months. Might even go for a paddle soon. :-))