Welcome to 2012

This is my first post in what is looking like a stunning year for activity and achievement. And, I've written it after going out for a fast early morning bike ride around Armidale (6.30am, 13km, 35 minutes, 23 kph). That came about because I was reading last night that our increasingly sedentary life-styles are a major health threat!

Now for a hectic day because  we have one young Maxwell staying with us demanding to go to the skate park twice a day, out on trips to various places, shopping to buy this that and the other (so far, the major items are a new scooter and a back-pack, but there is a never end stream of requests for ice-creams, slushies, and sausage rolls), and reading Goosebumps books). By the way, why did the sausage roll? Because it saw the apple turnover. On the other hand, we have means of exacting revenge! Max has to practice his reading and arithmetic at least once a day. He's into gadgets and is particularly enamoured of my new smart-phone, the Samsung Nexus running Google's new Ice-Cream Sandwich operating system.

My first picture shows Max at his favourite Armidale haunt, the local skate park. He's one of the younger kids there, but is always trying himself out to go higher, faster, further, and more risky ... so we have to keep a close eye on proceedings. When I'm there I try to blend in by wearing my board-shorts, a singlet, and a baseball cap, which is sometimes on backwards. However, I also take along my Kindle to read or the latest issue of the Australian Financial Review, both of which are I guess a bit daggy.

Yesterday we took Max to the spectacular Dorrigo National Park, which was good fun. It lies about 120km east of Armidale and fairly close to the coast. To the west is Point Lookout at an altitude of about 1650m (5300 ft) with its remnant Antarctic Beech vegetation dated back to the last ice age. Dorrigo mountain is only half that altitude but has one of the world's best examples of subtropical rain-forest and is also a lot warmer! This photo shows Max on the right communing with one member of the park's lovely wild-life, a scrub (or brush) turkey (Alectura lathami).

One of the high points (excuse the pun) of the National Park is its forest canopy walk stretching out horizontally perhaps 100m from the mountain edge over an increasingly large drop below until one is left among the tops of the tress and presented with lovely views. The next picture shows Max pulling a face for the camera with the rain-forested slopes in the background. Note the extremely lush vegetation that results from combining warm temperatures with up to 3000mm of rain annually. That's about 120 inches of rain.

And here are Max and Dot peering over the edge of the board-walk a long way down to the forest floor.

AS