Finally, Another Cemetery

For all you cemetery aficionados out there, we have overcome the initial infatuation of sunrises and sunset (although we are certainly not done with those yet) and found a cemetery. I'm sure you are relieved to know that you don't have to wait for our return to the mainland.

This small but nice cemetery is located near Cairns Bay, not far from the western shore of the Huon River. It is about 30 minutes south of where we are staying. There are, in fact, lots of cemeteries about (as you'd expect), this is just the first one we've stopped to look at.

As in other places in Australia, we find lots of markers for children.

Here, in this southern rainforest, we find lichen and moss growing on nearly everything, including the cemetery stones.

And we find tombstones that tell the stories, not just of a single person's life, but of a whole family's saga.

When Twitter was created, everyone asked what could possibly be said that might be worthwhile in 140 characters. I've begun to suspect that the inventors of Twitter were tombstone readers. Generations of lives conjured in vivid mental images with a few simple phrases etched on one side of a stone. Novels have said less using reams.