Today is the first day of Spring (Sept 1) and the sun was shining in Melbourne. It’s also National Wattle day.

A year ago I escaped the Melbourne Lockdown, did my two weeks quarantine, rallied some photography buddies and headed to Girraween National Park in the Queensland Granite Belt area. It was a test run for a photo tour and I took over a thousand photos! This year I’m not so lucky and we are now in lockdown 6, extended for at least another 3 weeks. Any plans to run Photo Tours have been put on hold indefinitely. So lets dream about freedom and wildflowers and boulders and bush walks.

On the drive to Girraween, (my metadata tells me it was 9 Sept 2020) my Pommie mate Sarah asks if there might be any Wattle where we’re headed, because she’d just heard about National Wattle day and she didn’t know what wattle looked like. (I’d never heard of National Wattle day but I’m onto it this year!). Turns out we were entering Wattle Heaven at peak time, with about 60 different types of Wattle.

The wildflowers were in abundance and Sarah is now a convert to macro photography after borrowing my Canon 100mm macro lens. It provides a very different view of the world.
My companions aren’t the adventurous type and rock climbing and heights aren’t their idea of fun. Initially i was the only one to venture forth to reach the Balancing Rock, but I think FOMO got the better of the others and one by one they overcame their fear and joined me for the obligatory ‘holding the rock up’ photos. I think it’s safe to say they didn’t regret the challenge.

My brother turns 60 next week, and last year was the first time he had ever visited Girraween, despite living not far away for his whole life. He loved it. I think it’s a good reminder that whilst we can’t travel far in these Covid times, maybe there’s somewhere close to you that you’ve never been. And if you look closely, you might even discover a whole new world of macro wonder.