North Queensland wildlife and the environment
The Bali Botanical Garden is up in the mountains, near Mount Batur, an hour or so from Ubud by car. Its altitude makes its climate significantly cooler than the lowlands and the day we visited was overcast with intermittent rain but we had a wonderful time anyway. The orchids and ferns were particularly good, and we would have spent far more time in the Taman Usada or Continue reading “Bali Botanical Gardens”
I interrupted my intended series of posts about Bali (snakefruit, butterflies) to keep up to date with local subjects but I can now return there in spirit if not, unfortunately, in body.
Here’s the only local flying fox we saw close up, resting beneath its perch outside a restaurant in the hills between Mt Agung and Ubud.
The lovely golden fur was enough to alert me to the fact that it wasn’t a species we have here in Australia but discovering its identity wasn’t easy: Wikipedia tells us that there are at least 60 species worldwide but few online resources go into any more detail.
In the end I consulted yet another of my Friendly Local Experts Continue reading “A Balinese flying fox”
We were based in a guesthouse just north of Ubud for the whole of our two weeks in Bali. It was five minutes’ walk from the nearest road, along a narrow footpath (and scooterpath) through the rice paddies. We could, and often did, walk all the the way into the city on the same track. The forty-minute stroll ran beside the edge of a steep narrow valley much of the way, passing occasional houses, craft stalls, shops and ‘warungs’ – local eating places ranging from very basic food stalls to simple but delightful restaurants.
These walks gave me ample opportunities to indulge in nature photography Continue reading “Balinese butterflies”
We have recently returned from two weeks in Bali. They were enjoyable and interesting in many ways and part of the fun was discovering new food. Our favourite ‘new’ fruit, by far, was the snakefruit – ‘salak’ in the local language Continue reading “Reptiles on your plate: snakefruit and dragonfruit”