Yosemite (rhymes with vegemite)

Went to Yosemite National Park with our friends David and Diane for a weekend trip. It's truly spectacular. This is half dome, I think.

Yosemite Falls. They are a LONG way up. I only wished I had brought the camera up with me ( I hared off ahead and the others ran out of time to make the push for the tip )

Oops, THAT's half dome. No idea what the other one was.
Oh, I asked Nadine to marry me and she said she'd think about it.

Nadine's Triathalon

Nadine all ready and looking suspiciously like a seal. Sharks can tell though. Most of the time.

Off they go.

Nadine sets off on the bike, after aceing the swim. This photo would indicate that she's currently first.

Yay!!!

Cape Cleveland Recce

Me and Dan headed out early one morning to scout Cape Cleveland for some cool climbs.

Unfortunately the rock was really chossy and rough, but some of the boulders were pretty cool.

This one is about 25 metres high.

Looking out over the cape.

Veronica and Charlie's Visit

We did some sightseeing up in Cairns and some...

Dancing!!!

(This was at a lovely waterhole in Cairns, I forget the name)

We also climbed up Mt Bartle Frere (1700m), the tallest in Queensland, but as usual, it was

covered in a pea-soup fog, so we don't have any pics. Oh, and the top was covered in trees anyway, so I doubt if there would have been much to see anyway.

Hang on, here's a pic!! Charlie is none too happy with the view situation ( and the leech situation)

Hotrock 08

My first MTB race. It was very hot and dusty.

The couse was a 15 km loop alternating between singletrack and rutted 4wd trails.

At the end of the day, dirt was the winner.

No, that's not a 5 o'clock shadow.

Wallaman Falls

Went to the Wallaman falls, near us. I think they are the highest falls in Australia at 275 metres.

We walked down the bottom and looked out for nasty snakes and killer plants.

We only found the killer plants, which was disappointing.

The week following our visit, a base jumper was blown into the side of the cliff, nearly killing him.

Greenvale Rail Trail

I did some Googling, and found that there was this enormous abandoned railway line just up the road. Imagine, a 300km railroad, completely closed up and unused!! Me and Dean decided that the least we could do would be to run at least a bit of it. So we ran from this interesting, tunnely bit down to the sea ( about 30 km ).

Above is the first tunnel, which is full of bats. They are very cute, until they poo in your eye.

Coming out of the first tunnel

The morning light made things look quite pretty.

About to disappear into another gaping maw

Found this lovely (not lively) python sunning itself on the tracks. I would too if I was a python.

Lots of cool features like bridges. Going the other way, after about 100kms, you get to a huge bridge that crosses the burdekin river. It's apparently over 1km long.