Some of the very tropical looking trees right next to the creek. The two just in front are mango trees.

Waterpark Creek on an overcast day. As you can see its a bit bigger than your average creek!

Planting native shrubs and bushes along a small section of Waterpark Creek. Due to the flooding at the start of 2008, all the soil was sandy.

Hey all you Yeppoonites, this is where the town water supply comes from (until the Rocky to Yeppoon pipeline is finished anyway). These pipes are up on a high section of the bank, about 5-10 metres away from

Another view of the town water pipes.

These leaves are from the famous Byfield fern, which is native to the Byfield area where it grows prolifically.

Another view of the Byfield Fern.

My sisters having a swim in Waterpark Creek, along with a couple of stick-mad dogs.

Claudie pulling out the horse carriage. The horses are hitched up on either side of the wooden bar in front.

A row of very young tea-tree trees. Every few years or so a whole section is cut down, then processed to make tea-tree oil and mulch.

So, a friend had birthday yesterday. And to celebrate it, he decided to go to Waterpark Creek, a National Park in the Byfield area. Being his friends, we went too. As soon as we arrived there, we all wanted to go for a swim. Waterpark Creek has excellent swimming facilities (just joking) including nice tall trees to jump off, and rope swings. There are also some submerged branches in the water, but they are only close to the bank.

There were also some English men there with their Aussie friends, who had competed in the recent sailing competition at Rydges. They were enjoying themselves a lot.

While I was swinging on one of the ropes there, I decided it would be fun to climb back up the rope. The only way this is possible is to use the your toes to grip the rope. Anyway, while I was climbing up someone from the English group saw me and said, “Hey, look what that kid is doing!”

They all looked up, and I think they were fairly amazed. They shouted out to jump into the water, but I didn’t want to get tangled up in the rope on the way down and end up hanging by my ankle, upside down, and dangling. After I had almost reached the top, I decided it was time to go down, so I did. When I got out of the water my toes hurt a bit, though!

After all the fun, we decided it was time to have our barbecued lunch. We had brought along some mushrooms and eggplant, but we forgot the onion (a bad mistake). Below are some photos of the eggplant on the barby.

Lunch finished, we needed a walk, so we went on the short rainforest circuit that starts just below the picnic area. The walk didn’t take long, and when we arrived back at the picnic tables we played around for a bit, waiting for the half-hour to pass so we could go for another swim.

Nothing eventful happened when we did, although I experimented with the camera and came up with the photos below.

Just before we were leaving, the person whose birthday we were celebrating decided sit under the deluge of water that was going over the causeway. A bubble of air is created when he sits under it, so he can breathe for a while. I took a few photos of that, and decided that the one below was the best. Because of that, it can be found on my photoblog, listed under the 26th February. I have included it below too.