A bush day:
The next morning we journeyed to some less urbanized locations. Robert, his friend Kirk, and Robert's dad John served as
Beth's and my expert tour guides, and they knew all the plants and animals we encountered.
During our first walk we traveled a few kilometers through a variety of Australian forest communities. At one point we came
across this beautiful rock overhang with water dripping over its surface. We patrolled its surface with our binoculars, and
saw several Drosera binata plants growing in the small pockets of soil on the ledges. However,
because of the treacherous surfaces the plants
were quite unapproachable. Using our binoculars, Robert was able to conclude that the plants were
what he would call D. binata var. dichotoma.
One of the plants was even in flower--if you look in the large shadow under the overhanging rock ledge at the top of the
photograph, you can see a little smudge of a flower at the exact vertical centerline of the image.
We also saw the first bulldog ant we were to see on the trip. These ants are great--they are more than 2 cm long and are
pretty feisty critters with potent stings. They also have excellent vision and while you watch them, there is no question that
they are watching you too.
