@Issabella and @Dinasset - thankyou, I very much appreciate your kind comments; I am just having a lot of fun and learning about photo manip as I go!

Today Gollum returned to the fabulous Kakadu wetlands but once again disappeared from his group. His group leader eventually found him crouching in the water behind a large bush, his hands searching in the shallow waters edge. He had attracted an audience of Jabiru, Brolga, herons and othe water birds who obviously wondered what this strange creature was doing.

It looks like that ring has really taken hold of Gollum now and he seems to be searching for it everywhere he goes ...

For some reason Gollum seems to really love the wetlands in Kakadu National Park.Today he went on a group walking tour around the Anbangbang Billabong in the shadows of Nourlangie Rock. The party also made a visit to the historic and archeogically important Anbangbang Rock Art gallery at Nawurlandja, the source of many Dreamtime Stories, where the group made a startling discovery!

Right there in front of them, amongst all these ancient Aboriginal rock paintings was the ochre outlined figure of an antiquated, crouching Gollum, barely discernible, but yes it was him ...

Thanks Marcello - maybe Gollum will visit Europe one day!!

Gollum only has a few days of his OZ holiday/vacation left now and has moved onto the last state he will visit, Western Australia, a vast state much of which is arid desert and rock. The first attraction on his list is 600 kilometres inland from Perth, the Super Pit at Kalgoorlie, right on the desert fringe. The Super Pit is an enormous open cut gold mine, over 3 kms long by 1 km or so wide and well over 400 metres deep operating 24 hours a day.

In reality it was probably not really an appropriate choice, given Gollum's problems with that ring ...

Gollum's OZ adventure is nearing its end, but today he visited the Pinnacles Desert some 200kms north of Perth. Its a large area of coastal sand dunes littered with tall limestone pinnacles and suppports many varieties of native fauna.

Apparently Gollum disappeared from the group once again and the photo below shows what he was doing when they finally located him, scuffling around in the sand, digging a series of holes and mumbling about 'precious' ... he was also attracting an interested audience, who obviously had not seen a creature like this before ...

Gollum has moved on to the Margaret River region in far south west Australia, an area well known for its surfing beaches, fine wines, extremely tall Karri forests and abundant unique flora.

But given Gollum's predisposition as a troglodyte, he has headed down the 300 steps into Lake Cave, a fabulous underground world of its own ... but the real reason may be more sinister, for that ring seems to have total control of him now ...



... and so Gollum has decided to stay in Lake Cave.

That's the end of Gollum's adventure in OZ; my thanks to those who posted supportive comments and I hope others enjoyed both Australia and my typical Aussie frivolity as I learned more about Gimp photo manipulation in the process. For now I am putting Gollum on ice so to speak ...

OmG a new iced end for Gollum's adventure ! You have revisited the story with best imagination. From the first flame to the coldest ice bear, I applaud the artist !

Now I feel sorry that Gollum has to spend eternity freezing.

Truly excellent work OMG, sad to see it end...

Jazzon - thank you very much; almost forgotten about Gollum right now. maybe it's time to resurrect him!

Also sorry to read about your shift/click adventure.

OMG, good idea if Gollum can go out from ice. He will be welcome to new adventures under your creativity. He can also come to Spain if he wants to he is invited.

OMG: LOL, I thought it was kinda funny in the end...just now it's 5 am I still haven't gotten any sleep! (Not worth trying now, church in three hours)

Isabella: Gollum at the running of the bulls!

Could not resist it; I resurrected Gollum ...

Hello OMG
I hope Gollum is following all the instructions and washing his hands regularly.
Where is he going for self isolation?
Looks like he is in cave somewhere!

P1937 - hi; it seems that Gollum has now come out of that cave and advised us of his many qualifications to help us combat the virus. Here he is ready to start work in the wards ...

Hilarious, OMG. Gollum cleaned up nicely! I love it. We need some humor! Wonder where he got his MD?

Hi OMG
Gollum looks very smart will certainly impress the patients.

Pat and P1937 - thanks for your comments.

Gollum believes there is a "queen virus" hiding somewhere. So, when rostered off from the hospital wards, he is searching deep in the caves to find her and guess what, he thinks he has located this queen. He is hoping that it is not just the 'ring' (Precious) tricking him.