And on to Cape York

What's that on the river bank...?

That will be a crocodile!

At The Lions Den.

Black Mountain

Looking north from the lighthouse at Archer point

The Coen pub!

Our first damper.

We spent 4 nights staying with Alan in the Daintree, enjoying his hospitality, the view, the bath, the outdoor shower and even some television. We had a meal of freshly caught wild boar, smoked, and served with local yams. The girls tried soursop and persimmons. We had a great day out on the Barrier Reef, with lots of snorkelling. Spotted many colourful fish, including Parrot Fish and some Sea Turtles. The giant clams were also a hit. Leaving the Daintree, we stealed ourselves for the Bloomfield track, a notoriously treacherous dirt road from Cape Tribulation, over the Bloomfield river and onto Cooktown. The road only opened a few days ago, as the causeway at the Bloomfield had been washed away. We were told we could only cross at low tide, so we had a small window to make the river. The Bloomfield is about 34kms from Cape Tribulation, but due to the conditions took 2 ½ hours. Some sections of the road are incredibly steep, with a gradient of perhaps 30 degrees. Russ had to engage the low 4wd for those sections and we slowly ascended the ranges. It is a very beautiful part of the world, with fan palms, lawyer cane and magnificent views of the ocean and the forest. We saw a crocodile sunning itself on the river bank just out of Wujal Wujal. Stopped at the famous Lions Den Hotel for a beer, and then on to Cooktown. Stopped at Black Mountain which are two huge mountains made of granite covered in a black lichen. Cooktown is situated on the mouth of the Endeavour River, where remnants of the gold rush can be seen in the number of old pubs lining the main street. Captain Cook had to pull in here to mend the Endeavour after running aground on the reef off Cape Tribulation. We stayed out of town at Archer Point, camping just off the beach. There had been a recent crocodile sighting so we stayed away from the water. Had fun exploring and beachcombing, finding lots of matchbox beans and fantastic shells. Arieh had a turn driving as we headed to Laura where we walked to some rock painting sites. This area is unique in it’s depiction of Quinkins, which are spirits. We will head back this way when we attend the Laura Dance festival in a few weeks. From Laura we headed to Coen, which is where we are currently camped beside a picturesque creek. Again the road conditions have been challenging, and made more so by the trucks and roadtrains, who do not move over or stop. This caused some minor anxiety in the backseat and some damage to the trailer electrics. We have spent the day relaxing, swimming and yarning with the locals. The girls are yabbying, lots of local families are camped nearby fishing. The local kids are being more successful at catching yabbies than us, they use a snorkel mask and a spear! Russ is reading under a tree and Arieh is playing with the fire. We made damper this morning, which was very yummy when served with Golden Syrup. Arieh spotted snake number nine...a File Snake. They are water snakes and we have seen it swimming on the creek bed. The locals told us they can deliver a serious bite. One of the families we talked to, referred to Russ as the Old Fella! Much amusement from us! Then they called to me “hey old girl…”! Fair enough I thought. So here we are, half way up Cape York. We will head to Moreton Telegraph Station tomorrow and then on to Bamaga. The real adventure has begun!

The girls comment from the Daintree.

Ellen @ Butterfly House

Maeve with friend @ Butterfly House

A Cairns Birdwing

Palm Cove beach with our caravan park on right.

At Cape Tribulation

Crab art.

At Cape Tribulation

Misty morning looking west from  Alan's property in the Daintree

A Forest Kingfisher

Buttress roots at Mosman Gorge

Wood fungi

The Trip So Far!

                           So far our trip has been amazing!

First off we went to Wellington Caves, Willcannia, Broken Hill, Tibooburra, Bourke, Charleville, Carnarvon Gorge, Barcaldine, Longreach, Winton, Hughenden, Porcupine Gorge, Undara Lava Tubes & Lake Tinaroo. At Undara we were allowed to swim in a flooded tube. We swam 100metres into the tubes and you stand on the railings of the boardwalk which were metres below the water. It was scary in the dark. The tubes had lava flowing through them 190,000 years ago!

The last few weeks we’ve been at Palm Cove, which of course is in so quickly changing Cairns. We hadn’t seen the beach for almost 2 months!

Each day for 2weeks we’ve been swimming. We went to Kuranda and visited the Bird sanctuary and the Butterfly House. My favourite bird was the Sun Conure, which is bright yellow and comes from South America. The Macaws were extremely cheeky and almost pecked off the buttons on my Dad’s shorts. At the Butterfly house we were shown the giant caterpillar of the Hercules Moth. The caterpillar was as big as an adults hand. The Hercules Moth is the largest moth in the world. The Cairns Birdwing is the largest butterfly in the world.

On the last few days our brother came. Now we’re at the Daintree rainforest! This is where our brother’s Dad lives. We’ve seen a lot of kingfishers! Yesterday we went to Cape Tribulation and we visited an exotic fruit farm where there was an ice creamery. The flavours we tried were Wattleseed, Yellow Sapote, Blueberry, Coconut and Macadamia. My favourite was Yellow Sapote.

By Ellen

A taste of Cairns

When we first arrived at Palm Cove (north of Cairns) I was so delighted to finally see the Ocean. After all that dust and dirt I was busting to get some nice refreshing saltwater on me.

We stayed at a nice caravan park just by the seaside . It was pretty daggy compared to most of the other caravan parks and resorts that were surrounding us but most of those were really expensive, and had no view of the crystal sea (which to me is not a resort at all).

The minimum temperature it got to was around 26 degrees but most days it was around 30 degrees.

Almost everyday we went to the beach and went for a swim though the downside is we had to go swimming in the stinger net when stinger season was over! We didn’t see any crocodiles either (phew!).

Palm cove was very posh looking and most things were quite dear.

There were many birds of an array of colours. We even saw one called a “spangled drongo”!

We stayed there over Mothers Day and went to a restaurant called “Banana Leaf” it was a Thai cuisine and the food was mouth watering.

We are staying in the Daintree right now and there are so many different types of flora and fauna, we are hoping to see a crocodile and a cassowary as well

Tomorrow we are going on a cruise called “Quicksilver” to the Great Barrier Reef and we are going snorkelling at the Ribbon Reef which is a reef on the very edge of the Barrier Reef

I can’t wait!

By Maeve

 

Tropical Cairns

Looking south from Port Douglas

The mighty Barron Falls

A Brush Turkey

Russ getting to know Eric

Eric the Blue Macaw

Maeve with an Indian Ringneck

A Cassowary

A Mandarin Duck

Nellie and a Sun Conure

A Scarlet Macaw

Listening to the sounds of the "surf" gently roll up against the white sands, fruit bats arguing in the trees and bush stone curlews crying mournfully. We are camped beside the beach at Palm Cove just north of Cairns. Million dollar address in a low budget camping ground. Thanks to Cairns council for not giving in to developers pressure, and still providing such a fabulous place to stop and enjoy the tropics. We have been swimming every day, in the stinger nets, which are still in place. Apparently the cyclone some how extended the threat from marine stingers! Avocados are $2 for a bag of six and bananas are only $4 a kilo! Heaven. The place has changed in the last 20 odd years...they even have traffic lights! Had a great lunch today at the pub in Port Douglas and had a peep at Christopher Skase's folly...the Sheraton Mirage. Prefer our camping ground any day. We have visited the Botanic Gardens, the markets and Bird World. The Botanic Gardens are amazing and have improved incredibly since I worked there in 1985. Great fresh produce at Rusty's and sad imported rubbish at Kuranda. The girls just loved Bird World. Arieh arrives this week and we are very excited.The road to Cape York has opened and all reports are that it is in good shape. We are starting to plan for that leg of our trip, getting enough provisions for 3 weeks, and making sure the Trakshak and car are in good working order. Right now we are relaxing, being beach bums, swimming and even trying for afternoon naps..it's a hard life! The nights have been cool (for Cairns) requiring jumpers and socks! Off for a swim...bye!

From the Atherton Tablelands

The Pyramid at Porcupine Gorge

The water hole

A Black Headed Python

Looking out from the Crater

Our Tawny friend

A Bettong

A flooded Lava Tube

An Unflooded Lava tube

A borrowed image of a Lava Tube

Inside the Cathedral Fig

The Cathedral Fig

So last we wrote we were camped beside the water hole at Bladensburg, exploring, swimming and relaxing. We moved on from there to Hughenden, where we were able to discover the Muttaburrasaurus (or really a recreation). From here we drove to Porcupine Gorge, situated below a Jump-up Mesa. The camp was on the Mesa, very dry and stoney. The Gorge was accessed via a steep climb down (and an even steeper climb up). It was worth the exercise -an amazing winding creek that cut through the different layers of rock. The rocks were multicoloured, from the white sandstone, through yellow and orange granite to dark rich brown basalt. Some rocks even took on a pink/mauve hue: stunning, with a crystal clear pool to swim in. We have only been able to have fires in a few places as we have tended to stay in National Parks. The evenings were cold at Porcupine Creek, due to the elevation, and without a fire, we had to rug up. From here we headed north along another dirt road to Undara Lava Tubes. Maeve had seen this on the map and we all decided it would be worth the look. Russell spotted a Black headed python crossing the road. We had decided to stay away from the coast given the damage from Cyclone Yasi. The inland roads had copped the rain, and we had to cross a fair amount of water and avoid some large pot holes. So the damage to the coast must be worse. Coming in to Undara we were amazed by the landscape, the numerous small hills and the large basalt boulders everywhere. We soon learned that this area underwent massive volcanic activity, and the hills were small volcanoes. From the lookout on top of one caldera crater, there were volcanoes as far as the eye could see, too numerous to count. A stunning landscape. The camp ground was lovely, with fire pits (at last!) The tour through the Lava Tubes was expensive but well worth the price. The tubes are the largest in the world, and are formed by lava flowing beneath the ground. We were very lucky to be able to swim through a flooded tube, with the boardwalk below us under metres of water. When the guide turned his torch off, the darkness and the deep water were rather eerie. The tubes have only flooded a few times in the last twenty years, so it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  We spent 4 days at Undara and saw an amazing array of wildlife. Russell almost trod on a snake returning from the amenities block one night (Russ returning not the snake). Upon closer inspection we decided it was a Northern Death Adder. Russ was able to persuade it to move off the path, and we were all a little more vigilant going to the toilet at night. Maeve found a baby Green Tree Python one day, just lazily hanging around the amenities block. We had a regular visitor each night in the form of a Bettong, which is a small nocturnal wallaby/pademelon, shaped like a hairy rockmelon and about the size of a cat. Very cute and cheeky! A Tawny Frogmouth also visited most nights, sitting in a tree near our campfire. From Undara, we drove up onto the Atherton Tablelands and are currently camped beside the picturesque Tinaroo Lake. The scene is reminiscent of a Canadian picture postcard, with a pine plantation across the inlet near our camp ground. I trod on a snake last night, which I calmly exclaimed was only an amethyst python. It was quite unperturbed by my foot, and just looked at me. After much excitement and mirth (at my expense), Russ picked it up with a large stick and encouraged it back into the forest. It looked to be about 2 metres in length. Suffice to say, we are again vigilant about walking around at night! That makes 8 snakes that we have crossed paths with. It is good to be in the wet tropics again after so many years. We are heading to Cairns tomorrow and will have the car serviced and repair a few things. We saw our first McDonalds yesterday in over 5 weeks, and will hit the main highway in Cairns which will be the first ‘real’ highway we have been on since Broken Hill. It has been interesting to watch our slow evolution, the girls now wear cowgirl hats and Russ has started drinking XXXX beer out of cans! When in QLD…..

Winton to Hughenden

Bladesnburg National Park near Winton 20-26 April 2011

‘Twas brillig and the slithy Toves ….  Well it wasn’t actually a Tove, but a Black-headed Python.  ‘Twas also hot – hot enough to boil a monkey’s bum Your Majesty.

We had just reached the Bough Waterhole (which was to become our camp for the next 6 nights), put on the cossies (yes, we were still wearing them at that stage), and about to plunge into the Nana-strength-milk-tea waters of this fine murky waterhole, when Jenny goes strangely quiet.  That, itself, was strange enough, but two metres of slinking, fat, slowly slithering, stripy snake just on the edge of our path into the water sort of made us think again about how pressing the need for a swim really was.  Sense prevailed, the snake slunk off, and we all took the plunge.  The resulting fine swim sealed the deal and convinced us that this spot could well keep us entertained for a few good days.  (We later found out it was a python, rather than a Tiger Snake, but it kept us on our toes for a couple of days.  This was snake no. 5 so far for the trip.  What is going on here …. We seem to be attracting them somehow.)

We had never heard of this place before, and it was another one of those times when you glance at the map, wonder what a certain place is like, and for want of more pressing alternatives, you head there.  It was a good move.  Bladensburg NP is quite similar to Sturt NP, but in its own Qld sort of way.  It was a typical, early pastoral station from the late 1800s, home also to gibber deserts, low-rise jump ups, giving way to mulga scrub and Spinifex grasslands.  Qld Parks has had it since 1995, and the original old homestead survives and houses the park info centre, ranger station etc. It was a bit drier than the country to the east and south, but still in good nick, and great to drive through, including the bare, stony-bottomed creeks dotted with a range of waterholes, fine views from the edge of the mesas, and the strangely beautiful Scrammy Gorge. It’s named after one of the old station workers, Scrammy Jack – ‘scrammy’ being an Old English word for left-handed – who led a bit of a hermit’s life out on this eastern end of the property.

It was so good to stop in the one place for a few days again.  Maeve and Ellen befriended a pair of similarly-aged Townsville brothers from the next camp – Aidan and Jesse – and they spent as much time in the water as out.  The young lads donated their catch of 2 dozen live yabbies to our pot – as despite the zeal with which they caught them, neither they nor their parents ate them.  So, after several hours of the kids entertaining themselves with yabby races,  Jenny fired up the boiling pots and mastered the gentle art of her first yabby feast.  Russ found the secret ingredients for the magic 5 Islands (no, not 1000 Island) Sauce  - I’d give you the recipe, but then I’d have to kill you.  Yums all round were heard, including from Jesse, much to his own surprise.

One day we ventured out the other side of Winton to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs display.  A decade or so ago, they found a couple of new dinosaur finds on this property, that has now been donated to the dinosaur cause.  Apart from George our young, overacting guide, it was brilliant to see and feel these massive bones over 95 million years old.  Did you know that the way to see if the dark rock your holding is actually fossilised bone or just, well, dark rock, you need to lick it?  The more porous structure of the old bone sucks up moisture like anything, and if your tongue sticks to it, then it’s probably dinosaur, not rock.  Matilda, Banjo and Clancy were the names given to the 3 main reconstructed characters, of which they only have partial skeletons, but which they otherwise complete for displays with the presumed other bits.  Clancy was a wee thing at around 2 metres, but Matilda came in at a beefy 6 metres or more.  The end result of our trip was confirmation from Maeve that her future as a palaeontologist was a dead cert.  It seems that this dinosaur/fossil business has taken quite a hold in this part of the country, with about four other major excavations within a 200 km radius, including the well known Muttaburrasaurus.  Then a bit closer to the Gulf is the famous Riversleigh site – chockers with not dinosaurs, but more recent fossilised giant marsupials etc etc…. Let’s hope we get there in a month or so.  

The Easter bilby somehow heard where we were, and kindly left a fine array of chocolate things (only a couple of which arrived slightly worse for wear).  Jenny, being the chocolate specialist, was delighted at the quality of the bilby’s offerings – now the camp fridges have more chocolate than meat in them.  We sort of expected a deluge of locals at our camping spot, given Easter and all, but instead it was all out-of-towners.  Were it not for the 30 bird watchers from Townsville that chose to also share our space (and did I mention, early bloody morning starts for 5 days) it would have been only us and a handful of other travellers.  Nevertheless, we enjoyed the holiday weekend immensely.  We learned that bird watchers don’t swim, and we had the waterhole largely to ourselves.  We also sort of got into a bit of the bird watching mania – it’s hard not to when there’s so many around.  I think most popular is still the cheeky Apostle Birds, but also loved the Red-winged Parrots, Brolgas, upside-down Noisy Miners and White-plumed Honeyeaters.  Beware! We may return as fully-fledged “twitchers” – gods forbid.

Now that we’re at Hughenden, we’re going to check out Porcupine Gorge NP up the road, then it’s heading for the coast, and getting back into a bit of salt-water happening – Cairns, etc.

We trust that you all had a lovely Easter, and that the bilby too shared her bounty with you.  Sorry that it got a bit damp for you Sydney-folk.  I’d blame Barry if I were you.  See you next post.

Looking up into the Tree of Knowledge, Barcaldine

Our Easter camp, with waterhole

Looking out from a Mesa over Winton & Surrounds

Rock Star Maeve at Winton's outdoor Musical Fence

The Woonona Mob.

Barcaldine, Longreach to Winton

We camped by the fantastic Lloyd Jones weir out of Barcaldine. We were lucky that the town picture theatre had two sessions that week, Friday and Sunday night. Sunday night was "Rango", so we went along with all the local families and sat in the old theatre, with canvas sling chairs. Girls loved it!  They even had an interval. We also visited the Tree of Knowledge memorial, dedicated to the beginning of the Union movement in Australia. It is an impressive sculpture that dominates the streetscape of Barcaldine. The tree itself was poisoned a few years ago, and the wooden sculpture around the tree is impressive, both visually, especially at night and aurally, when the wind blows. On to Longreach where we did the tourist thing and visited the Stockmans Hall of Fame. The best part was the live show with horses, dogs, sheep and a bullock team. Russ was excited by the QANTAS exhibition and being allowed so close to a 747. We are now camped at Bladensburg National Park, just out of Winton. It's a continuation of the gibber country, with Jump ups. Luckily there is a waterhole, as it is very hot during the day. Tomorrow we will visit the Dinosaur museum and see the fossilised bones and footprints of a stampede found just out of Winton. Maeve & Ellie will get to be palaeontologists for the day! Hope everyone has an eggsalent easter. We believe Bilby's live in the national Park, so are hoping one of them brings us some eggs.

Carnarvon Gorge 14 Aril 2011

Our first water hole!

Rock paintings at Carnarvon

One of many creek rock hoppings!

Moss Garden, Carnarvon Gorge

Russ blog entry for 14 April 2011

It’s about Day 5 without internet access, and the stress is starting to show…..

Thursday 14 April 2011 and we find ourselves on the sandy banks of Carnarvon Creek as it carves its way – as it has for millennia of millennia – into the sweet sandstones of central Queensland.  The result is Carnarvon Gorge – a place we spied on the map; then we went “We wonder what that’s like?”, and then we headed a tad more eastward then planned to find out.  Good move!  This place is brilliant, and if you ever find yourselves in this neck of the woods, you’d be crackers to miss it.  Towering sandstone cliffs loom down on crystal clear shallow sandy creek beds. A wide gorge winds more than 30 clicks upstream, breaks into wee side gorges that hide rainforest pockets, art galleries of hand stencils, rock etchings and the stories from the old folk, and cool slot canyons where the mercury drops about 10 points and you swear you could just live there forever and soak up the calm (well at least until the next horde of school kids come in for their turn).

This is our fifth day here, and next step will be the western end (Salvator Rosa) of the same Carnarvon NP – a short 300 km trip away; a bit less water, and out of the gorge country, but promising a slightly less crowded few days on the banks of another sandy creek.

We found ourselves here after a great week in Corner Country.  We swung back east to Bourke, camped for a few days on a slightly less flooded Darling River – ie compared to our Wilcannia visit – and headed north via Cunnamulla to Charleville.  It was fascinating to watch the landscape constantly change as we headed north.  The gibber deserts of Tibooburra gave way to the Wanaaring mulga scrubs. Bourke picked up brigalow scrub that followed us all the way up into Charleville.  Then as we picked our way north-east-ish on a backroad north of Mitchell (home of the world’s best apple turnovers, as voted by experts) cypress and bimble box woodlands suddenly gave way to the central Queensland sandstone belt and you find fan palms, tall white gums and remnant rainforest species.

Yesterday, we set off at a cracking pace for a (record) 13km walk up the main gorge and its various sideshows. Predictably, the young ones coped brilliantly.  There were two sets of flooded shoes courtesy of wet creek crossings (Jenny and Ellen), no blisters to speak of, and no sooner back home than the young’ns start planning tomorrow’s walk.  The wisdom of the elders (or the weariness of the elders, more like it) prevailed and today is a quiet day mucking around the Takarakka campground.  Tomorrow we will don the walking boots again, climb up one of the bluffs and then hit the road westwards on Saturday (just in time to escape the influx expected as Queensland school holidays start). Pictures to come later due to satelite time difficulties!