The Southern Highlands - in the rain

It has rained almost constantly for three days, so we decided against walking in the Royal National Park today (it's a bank holiday); instead Kit and I drove to the Southern Highlands; a 5 hour round trip. We stopped in Bowral, home of Sir Donald Bradman, before going to the Fitzroy Falls, which is in one of the national parks south of Sydney.

Unfortunately the relentless rain and thunderstorms meant we couldn't walk much - but we had an Aussie pie, saw three echidnas (I'm awaiting confirmation from any of the pedantic pedagogues who read this to tell me whether this or 'echidnae' is the correct plural form). Unfortunately I couldn't quite squeeze in to the above photo a small post near this echidna, who was furiously burrowing for ants; on the post was a small sign from Telstra, the telecoms firm, which read "Danger - shallow underground cable - call Telstra before digging". Perhaps the echidna had indeed called Telstra, and had been given the all clear to dig; or perhaps it was a Telstra engineer carrying some routine maintenance. In any case, it paid no attention to us - probably because it was more concerned about being electrocuted than being photographed. 

There were also some breathtaking views - enhanced because of the stormy conditions and low-lying mist in the valleys; at least everything was a vibrant green - and with the hills and mountains, as well as the pelting hailstones that came down at one point, the state seemed to be living up to its name of [New] South Wales....