Walking on the Southern Ridges Part Two

Our second trip to the Southern Ridges trails brought us to Hort (short for horticulture) Park.  Along with a canopy walk, stunning views and jungle, this one offers manicured gardens of all varieties.  We met our Australian friends, Peter and Pam for a morning of walking and photographing.

I took some shots of the gardens:  a kitchen one with tomato pots, corn and green beans

but the fun ones were the Peranaken (term for people of Chinese origin who settled this area in the 1800s) one and the recycled car boot:

A view from the "ridge"

and of a pond that has hosts a lot of Monitor Lizards (we saw one but it was so camoflauged, the photo wouldn't come out)

I'm including a shot of a lizard from a different walk, in case you don't know what they look like... and this is a small one...

Everywhere we turned, we saw another beautiful bush or tree.  I don't know this one's name, but isn't it nice?

Lots of amazing types of Heliconia 

And of course, my favorites, Banana Trees ( the ones on the right are about 1/2 inch!)

We returned to the Garden Center where we had lunch at a Wine Bar (!)

This is the wall of the information center, an appropriate mosaic of trees, flowers and butterflies: