unexpecting

Blazing through Lamington National Park last week, I caught a glimpse of a few things I was not looking for. This Giant Panda snail (Hedleyella falconeri), for one. Others included a handful of sunbathing rough-scaled snakes, a gulley of glowworms, Prickly Tree Fern fronds that could double as some nice lingerie for a citizen of Brobdingnag, the largest erosion caldera in the southern hemisphere, enough strangler figs to make you suspicious, and the Victoria Riflebird through a pair of the most expensive binoculars that will ever touch my face, courtesy of a couple bird quacks-I mean, watchers.

The only downside is that the rainforest butchers the sky, which makes cloudwatching a bit complicated. September is Morning Glory month. So in less than two weeks, I'll be gliding north in hopes of glimpsing that famous cloud in the Gulf of Carpentaria. It has occurred there every year for at least the past 20. To be expected? It's only a cloud.