Minerva Hills National Park

Sunday, January 29...off to Springsure (small town about 60 km south of Emerald) and to Minerva Hills National Park. This is only a day use park (no overnight camping). We had a picnic lunch and then had a quick hike to view the town of Springsure. While we were hiking up along the hills we saw TONS of spiders and huge spider webs...we probably saw 50 or so just while we were walking and so you can imagine how many more there were off the path. After the first hike we drove around looking for the actual marked hiking trail but it turned out to be closed. Minerva is known for the "Virgin" rock where apparently you can see an outline of the Virgin Mary....you can decide!

One of the many spiders we saw along our walk.

Not sure what kind of bird this is...but it was big!

Here we are on our way back to the car...watch out for spider webs! Charles actually walked through one and the spider landed on his hat, luckily not on his face.

Prickly pear trees....you can eat these like a fruit. Charles says it is a mix between a pomegranite and a passion fruit (I think that is what he said....I really should be taking notes and making sure I'm saying the correct thing!)

Here is the view of Springsure and the back of the "Virgin" rock.

And here is the front of the "Virgin" rock...do you see it?

This week has been pretty good because we have all been looking forward to our trip out to the coast....Great Keppel Island. We are leaving early tomorrow (Friday) and will be away until Monday night. I've started teaching dance for 5 hours on Tuesday night and the kids are very good...I know I will really enjoy teaching them. Also, I've started working at the Emerald Aquatic Centre, mostly in the shop area (checking kids off as they go in for lessons, having people pay as they come in, selling food and swim wear). I will be teaching swimming on Wednesday mornings at the pool and working pretty much the rest of the week there (they are giving me close to 40 hours! FINALLY, I have some work. I'm still hoping to supply teach but still waiting to be put on the list, what a lengthy process. In the meantime I'll be busy at the pool, the MEMO and the dance studio. And Brendon is working hard with his job and we usually work the same shift at the MEMO on either Friday or Saturday night.

SO, if you like pictures of sun, sand and ocean check back again next week. I'm sure we will have a post of our holiday out to Keppel.

If you want you can check out the webpage for the Aqautic Centre.

http://www.emeraldaquaticcentre.com.au/