29 January 2012

Davenport Range National Park


Friday, 20 January 2012

Northbound. We left Alice Springs for good at about 10:30AM (admittedly a tad late – but we had to make a couple of phone calls and stock up on food and fuel for the next few days) to hit the North Stuart Highway.
But instead of following in John McDouall Stuart’s tracks we veered off the Stuart Hwy after just 68km.
We weren’t done yet exploring, we were eventually going to join the Binns Track again!

Towing the trailer and the fact that we were running a bit late meant we had to improvise slightly.
That's why we didn’t stay on the Plenty Highway to join the Binns Track near Harts Range, we opted for the shortcut and turned onto the Sandover Highway instead. The Sandover Hwy is a major unsealed road in pretty impressive condition, better than most sealed highways we’d encountered in Queensland! Almost 250km we pushed on in a northeasterly direction, past Utopia and through Aboriginal land to ‘Ammaroo’, a cattle station in the middle of nowhere. 

After throwing in a quick (and improvised) picnic lunch we left the Sandover Hwy and finally joined the Binns Track again, heading north on a minor unsealed road now. This road, connecting several Aboriginal communities and cattle stations with the Sandover Hwy, had it all: corrugations from the regular to and fro between outstations, bull dust, washouts, the remnants of blown tyres, ditched wrecks in various states of decay, local families camping next to their broken down cars…
 
100km further on, near ‘Murray Downs’, we turned right yet again.
The Davenport Range National Part was our "piece de resistance" and we were in for some fun four-wheel driving! One minute the narrow track would run along atop a rocky ridge, some tufts of Spinifex only sprinkled on its flanks, next minute we’d be at the foot of the range and crossing the Frew River, its water tannin-stained and stagnant but picturesque just the same.



There was quite a bit of birdlife around, we saw a Sacred Kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus), White-faced Herons (Egretta novaehollandiae) and lots of Spinifex Pigeons (Geophaps plumifera) among others.

Around another corner and the ruins of the old ‘Hatches Creek’ tungsten mine appeared on the horizon. Tungsten (also known as wolfram) from this mine played an important during wartimes.



We had to keep moving though, no time to fall into any of the deep shafts, it was still another 40km to go to the Old Police Station Waterhole – and it would take us at least another 1 ½ hours to get there. The weary explorers started wondering if they’d get to camp before dark.
The donkeys and cattle couldn’t have cared less…

We made it to the waterhole with a few minutes of daylight to spare. We even had enough time to examine all the camp sites along the waterhole to pick the best one of the spacious sites – for once again we were the only travellers around and the only complaints about our arrival were coming from a young bull, a few Australasian Darters (Anhinga novaehollandiae), Little Black Cormorants (Phalacrocorax sulcirostris)and a flock of Australian Wood Ducks (Chenonetta jubata) that took off rather noisily.


We set up camp somewhere halfway along the waterhole under the gum trees, built a neat little campfire and placed the camp oven on the coals a little while later.
Beautiful!


Saturday, 21 January 2012

The temperatures hadn’t dropped much over night and it warmed up again quickly in the morning. As much of an oasis the Old Police Station Waterhole was, we were still surrounded by harsh desert country in the height of summer.
Steve and Flip decided to jump into the waterhole right opposite the ruins of the old police station, a quick swim in lieu of a shower. Not much left of the old building and what little is left of the old stone walls these days can easily be overlooked (hint: there's a little spec of red in the centre of the image below).




Standing on the edge of this tranquil waterhole in the remoteness of Davenport Range National Park, a million miles from civilisation (or so it seemed), it was hard to imagine how back in the old days this place could have possibly been in need of a police constable to restore order among a bunch of unruly miners and put a stop to quarrels between early pastoralists and local Aboriginal people.

We left the national park mid-morning, bypassing Wutunugurra and Epenarra, to enter it again in its northwestern corner at Whistleduck Creek.
Irrmweng (pronounced: Ear-moong-a) Waterhole proved very popular with Little Black Cormorants, the Toms family outnumbered yet again!




We learnt that local Aboriginal people frequent places along Whistleduck Creek for rain making ceremonies to this day. In the 1930s, an old man named ‘Lame Tommy’ was well known for his rainmaking skills and Aboriginal people as well as pastoralists would ask for his help to break periods of drought. Lame Tommy could make the rain stop too.

We had considered camping here for the night, but the water was the colour of black tea and didn’t look too inviting. It was still pretty early in the afternoon, so we backtracked to the main road. At this point we were only about 70km away from the Stuart Highway. After passing Kurundi Homestead the trip turned into something like a rollercoaster ride for a while, the road rather narrow at times, sharp corners, unpredictable turns on top of steep crests, dips with shallow water ove rthe road – holy moly!




We reached the campground at Devils Marbles less than 2 hours after leaving Whistleduck Creek coming full circle.
Steve and Flip had soon gathered enough firewood from the side of the Stuart Highway. Tonight’s dinner would be the last one cooked on an open fire: beef rump steaks, jacket potatoes topped with cream cheese and vegetables.

Boh boh!
Anja


26 January 2012

A Burke and Wills Moment at Ruby Gap


Thursday, 19 January 2012

Years ago, on our last excursion into the East MacDonnell Ranges we visited Emily and Jessie Gaps, Corroboree Rock and Trephina Gorge. Today we would give all these beautiful places a miss and keep on driving. A few kilometres short of Ross River we turned onto the Arltunga Road, as well-maintained as scenic, this formed gravel road road can get busy with cattle trucks at times. It is now also part of the recently established Binns Track.



What was most striking throughout the day were the fresh scars of recent bush fires. For quite a few weeks before embarking on this journey we'd been receiving Watch and Act messages from Bushfires NT, warning of raging bushfires, thick smoke and road closures throughout the Red Centre. While we had been noticing that along the Plenty Highway and in the West Macs fresh green was re-appearing in most places, the area around Arltunga, some 30km down the track, was still looking rather desolate and bare after more recent fires in late December.

There are some walking tracks to explore the Government Battery and Cyanide Works, Police Station, old mine workings and residential areas around the Arltunga Historical Reserve.
But on our arrival the area looked rather locked-up and deserted to us, nothing much happens here during summer. The old Arltunga Hotel was closed, it looked like drinks hadn't been served here for while, a handwritten sign on the hotel's front door read “Reopens in March” – it didn't say which year though.


It would have been a slightly different picture in the 1890s, I guess. In 1887 alluvial gold was found in a dry creek bed nearby, prompting a gold rush. Arltunga, with a population of up to 300 in its heyday was in fact Central Australia's first town!

The first mining rush in Central Australia brought all sorts of fortuneseekers into this area. To start with they had been looking for rubies. In March 1886 they thought they'd discovered the red gemstone in the bed of the Hale River, some 45km to the east. But the red stones turned out to be no more than high grade garnet, of much lesser value than ruby – and the “ruby rush” quickly became a thing of the past. A good thing for the miners that gold had been found here at Arltunga in the meantime...



We were on our way to Ruby Gap Nature Park not for the gemstones but for the four-wheel driving and the nature experience, the park's remoteness and  the rugged beauty of its landscape.
The track beyond Arltunga narrowed quickly and became pretty rough. A 4WD with high clearance is absolutely essential to tackle ruts, washouts and causeways. It took us a bit over 2 hours to make the 40km to the park's entrance where we stopped on the bank of a very dry Hale River for a picnic lunch.

Sitting under a shady gum tree on the grassy riverbank we considered our options. Glen Annie Gorge was still another 9km further upstream: 5km of driving through the sandy river bed to Ruby Gap followed by a 4km walk (one way) rated difficult due to the very rugged terrain.



The walk was totally out of the question. We certainly weren't keen on stumbling through hot sand and over boulders and rocks in 40+ºC for hours. No way, we knew better than to expose ourselves to the extremely hot conditions!

But what about just driving the next 5km to Ruby Gap?
We had already crossed the dry Hale River a couple of times. In the scorching summer heat the sand had softened to a point where driving on without letting the tyres down wouldn't have been a smart thing to do – especially after realising that we'd left the compressor behind. We wouldn't have been able to pump the tyres up again later! Travelling on without at least one other accompanying vehicle wouldn't have been a smart thing either. Too rugged, too remote, too risky.
Yes, we had our satellite phone and we had let people know where we were going – but we were a long way away from any help if we'd got ourselves in trouble out here.

We played it safe, called it a “Burke and Wills moment” and our expedition to Ruby Gap Nature Park a success just the same.
Burke and Wills reached the Gulf of Carpentaria in February 1861 after crossing Australia's interior. They declared their expedition a success although they never actually planted a flag on the beach, jumped in the surf or even saw the sea. In fact, they couldn't make it through the mangrove swamps of the Flinders River!

The Toms family thoroughly enjoyed their little expedition into Ruby Gap Nature Park.
These explorers travelled through some awesome country, experienced a truly ancient landscape – and made it safely back to their base camp on the Todd River without any loss of life or equipment in the late afternoon.

Boh boh!
Anja

25 January 2012

Ellery Creek Big Hole

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

"Naaaaaw... Why didn't we come here last night?!"
That's what the three explorers exclaimed in unison when they arrived at Ellery Creek Big Hole in the West MacDonnell Ranges this morning.


We could have been the only campers in this beautiful camp ground just a stone throw away from the waterhole last night. We could have enjoyed the tranquillity of this remote place without any generator noise, sewerage smells or whizz-banging neighbours. And we would have been about $20.00 better off for the night as well.

From Glen Helen it's only a short 43km drive on sealed road towards the Alice on Namatjira Drive (or 88km from Alice Springs). From the car park it's only a short walk on a paved path (wheelchair accessible) down to the creek.

Ellery Creek is yet another important tributary of the Finke River. Even during dry spells there's water in this big waterhole. This ancient river cut right through the red rocks of the West Macs, shaping a picturesque gorge, creating this beautiful deep pool.
What a sight for sore eyes and weary walkers – and an important lifeline for native wildlife!
A flock of about a dozen of Black Cormorants (Phalacrocorax sulcirostris) took off from a nearby gum tree to settle on a few rocks on the other side of the gap.

The water was clear and pleasantly warm – Flip jumped in without further ado!
An Australasian Grebe (Tachybabtus novaehollandiae) took little notice of the visitors and kept diving for food only a few metres away from where the exploring party was soaking up the peaceful and relaxing atmosphere.


Too hot to even consider walking a section of the Larapinta Trail (once again, excellent information provided by NT Parks & Wildlife), we had a very enjoyable time down by the water.




On completion of our loop through the West Macs we returned to 'G'Day Mate' and booked in for another 2 nights. We were still keen on exploring the East MacDonnell Ranges the next day, leaving the camper trailer in the caravan park.

Tonight we went across the road to the Heavitree Gap Tavern for a few cold drinks and a bite to eat. We nearly missed out on the yummy beef casserole (they serve very decent $10.00 meals down here, daily) as we caught up with the manager of Heavitree Gap, an old mate from Darwin. Many yarns from the olden days and a few cold drinks were shared before we eventually decided we needed a feed, minutes before the kitchen closed for the night. That was lucky!

Boh boh!
Anja



23 January 2012

Palm Valley and the West Macs


Monday, 16 January 2012

It's been a few years since our last stay in the Alice and it will probably be a while before we return...
From our caravan park we ventured northbound through 'The Gap' and into the centre of town only a few times. Alice Springs more or less resembled a ghost town with a lot of shops and residential dwellings up for lease or sale, the only hive of activity being the Yeperenye Shopping Centre.

To be honest, I was excited to swap deserted Alice Springs for a few days in the West MacDonnell Ranges.
We'd obtained the 'Mereenie Tour Pass', the permit granted by Central Land Council to access the Mereenie Loop Road (the gravel road out to Watarrka (Kings Canyon) National Park) and Gosse Bluff on Sunday, filled up, fuelled up – we were on our way to Hermansburg on the Larapinta Drive.
We didn't actually enter the community with its historic precinct dating back to the missionary days this time, we turned the opposite way to follow a very dry Finke River on our way to Palm Valley in the Finke Gorge National Park.

Steve and I camped here 11 years ago, on our honeymoon. This time we wanted to show Flip the spectacular landscape and pristine wilderness of Pam Valley.




The well-kept campground is right on the edge of a dry creek bed with beautiful views all round.
Our stay would have been perfect, except...we were outnumbered...
I admit it, the millions of obnoxious and bitey little black ants got to me that night!
I made sure I stayed in my chair with my feet up, Steve was on kitchen duty!



Tuesday, 17 January 2012

Why didn't I think of it last night? Workboots = no ant bites on toes!

We packed up the camper trailer and dropped it in the day use area a few hundred metres down the track on our way into Cycad Gorge and Palm Valley.
The next 4 km weren't suitable for trailers where rocky ledges give way to stretches of round river pebbles (of varying sizes) and soft sandy holes in between. Withered cliffs rising steep on both sides of the ancient river bed, cycads and fig trees defying gravity.

And then, of course, there are the palm trees, Australian Red Cabbage Palms (Livistona mariae), to be exact. They're endemic to this part of the Central Desert. No other species of palm tree grows in these harsh conditions, its closest relative can be found in Lawn Hill National Park, Queensland.
Palm Valley's palm trees are stately yet threatened as many people who come to see them ignorantly wander off the well-marked walking track, trampling all over the little seedlings.




We followed the shorter of the two marked tracks through the valley, the Arankaia track ('Arankaia' – pronounced: unk-kee-ah – is the Western Arrernte name for the palms). It's roughly 2km and we completed it before it got too hot in the middle of the day.

Gosse Bluff was next on our list. We had seen the giant meteor crater from the distance on our last journey, this time we were going to have a closer look.
Once again the information and illustration on Tnorala (Gosse Bluff) provided by the NT Parks & Wildlife Commission and the local Traditional Owners was excellent!



In the Dreamtime, when a large group of women danced across the sky as the Milky Way, one of the young mothers accidentally let her infant topple over the edge. He fell down to earth, hitting the ground hard, the 'turna' (the woodden baby carrier) falling on top of the baby creating the crater of Tnorala, forever burying him underneath. The mother, as the Evening Star and the father as the Morning Star are to this day looking for their missing baby.

According to extensive scientific studies this crater was formed 140 million years ago when a giant rock from outer space hit the earth. Flip wasn't the only one who had a hard time comprehending how a meteorite could have such an impact and then simply vaporise, disappear into thin air...

Next we thought we'd give the local economy a boost and visit Glen Helen Resort – bad move!
Eleven years ago we had a great time down by the waterhole and later at the bar.
This time the straightforward act of booking a campsite for a night took half an hour although the place was neither packed (with only 4 or 5 other campers there) nor overly fancy.
Steve had trouble explaining to the staff member (who was friendly enough) that a camper trailer tent wasn't suitable for being carried into the walk-in unpowered grassed sites as it was actually permanently attached to the trailer. The manager couldn't be bothered getting involved in the discussion whether we could park up in one one of the caravan sites without hooking up to electricity which we didn't really need. Sorry, this lack of can-do-attitude just doesn't cut it

In the end Steve paid an extra $6.00 for a powered site, $36.00 in total for a powered site on dirt.
We gave the bar and restaurant a miss and had a lovely home-cooked chili con carne instead.

The management's DILLIGAF attitude became even more obvious during the course of the late afternoon when we visited the campground's facilities. While the demountable bathrooms were neat enough the sewerage pit outside was in a rather dangerous state of disrepair...

Lesson learnt, we won't be frequenting Glen Helen Gorge again any time soon!

Boh boh!
Anja

14 January 2012

The Outback Way – Plenty Highway


Thursday, 12 January 2011

We left Emerald early in the morning and made good way on the Capricorn Highway.
The pies we had for a late breakfast at the bakery in Alpha certainly hit a spot and kept us going. The 'QANTAS Founders Museum' and the 'Stockman's Hall of Fame' in Longreach will have to wait until next time though, we were on a mission.

From Winton we were going to follow the 'Outback Way', a series of remote roads that pass through the central Australian deserts and connect Winton with Laverton in Western Australia.

Since we still had too many hours of daylight left to even start thinking about setting up camp and it was still much more comfortable in our airconditioned 4WD than in the stifling heat outside, we kept travelling on the Kennedy Developmental Road. Another 170km further west on the 'Outback Way' we reached Middleton, our final destination for the day.



Flip had been requesting another night in a hotel, so we thought we'd check into the Hilton for the night. The Hilton Hotel in Middleton is situated opposite the Middleton Hotel.

The Middleton Hotel was built during the Cobb & Co era and served as change station (one of nine change stations on the coach route connecting Winton and Boulia) to replace tired horses with fresh ones. Between 1895 and 1915 Cobb & Co ran a mail service on this route. The distance of 384 km took four days to complete in those days. One of those old mail coaches is still on display outside the Middleton Hotel, this charming little place in the middle of nowhere.



It wasn't quite what Flip had been expecting when the Toms family checked into the Hilton Hotel across the road (no airconditioning, no TV, no pool – no charge). We were the only guests tonight and we'd even brought our own beds!


A little later we joined the publican, his family and a handful of locals at the Middleton, had a fabulous dinner of corned beef, vegetables and white sauce (of course) and watched a glorious outback sun set over the grassy plains.
Dinner was followed by the recital of a number of rather inappropriate poems. Luckily Flip wasn't listening, he was outside getting a lesson in whip cracking by the granddaughter who was roughly his age. A fun night was had by all.


Friday, 13 January 2011

The sunrise was just as spectacular as last night's sunset!
The mail truck arrived just before 6:00, a few minutes ahead of schedule, to drop of the mail and some freight.

There had been no other traffic over night, everything had been really quiet. Just one Barn Owl had perched itself on our tent to swoop down on some little critter a few metres away. As the moon was very bright I could see the bird quite well from our bed.

For a gold coin donation to the RFDS, the Royal Flying Doctor Service, we were welcome to use the facilities at the Middleton Hotel. We donated generously to the Flying Doctors, not just because we really enjoyed the hot shower. Travelling in remote areas makes you appreciate this vital service as one day you could be relying on their medical help yourself.

After having my coffee mug filled we bid farewell to the friendly folks at Middleton and headed west once again.
We stopped just a few kilometres down the track at Cawnpore Lookout where an information board invited us to imagine what the region would have looked like some 98 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period, when the Eromanga Sea below would have been swarming with crocodiles and Ichthyosaurus.



By mid-morning we arrived in Boulia, again, almost 4 weeks after our first stopover in the 'Land of the 'Min Min lights'. But this time we wouldn't head north, recounting our steps, we were westbound. The Donohue Highway which connects Boulia with the Plenty Highway in the Northern Territory had reopened after the rains before Christmas, the creeks in the Channel Country had subsided again, the road was now open to 4WDs with high clearance.



Fabulous country, we passed the red sand dunes of the northern Simpson Desert, crossed the Georgina River and its many tributaries in the Channel Country where majestic gum trees line the creeks, watched the whirly-whirlies do their thing in the wide open Mitchell Grasslands (treeless plains of Mitchell Grass, grasses of the genus Astrebla) and crossed the QLD/NT border in the early afternoon, the same stretch of road now called the Plenty Highway.
Tonight we stopped at Jervois Station where once again we were the only campers for the night.






Saturday, 14 January 2011

I'm glad we didn't drive on to Gemtree Caravan Park further west on the Plenty Highway yesterday. While the small shop is open most days of the week, the caravan park is actually closed between November and February, a piece of vital information that had eluded us until we noticed the handwritten sign on the front gate.
During the winter months this place apparently is bustling with caravanners and fossickers, lots of semi-precious stones can be found here in the Harts Ranges. During summer it's quite a desolate place, customers to the shop mainly coming in from surrounding Aboriginal communities.

The rest of the journey was a breeze, driving the last 90 km of the Plenty Highway on sealed road, arriving at the 'G'Day Mate Caravan Park' in Alice Springs in the early afternoon.

Boh boh!
Anja

Emerald


Wednesday, 11 January 2011

We left the Mackay Highlands yesterday and pulled up in Emerald in the early afternoon.
Here the weary travellers found a reasonably priced motel room for the night, recently refurbished and very clean. When we turned on the TV (what luxury!) to watch the news, it hit us why there was a fresh lick of paint on the walls, all new furniture and appliances: Emerald, like so many other towns in Queensland, had also been hit by the big floods a year ago.

Listening yet again to the memorable and very emotional speech Anna Bligh (Queensland's Premier) held a year ago to the day brought it all back...

"As we weep for what we have lost, and as we grieve for family and friends and we confront the challenge that is before us, I want us to remember who we are.
We are Queenslanders. We're the people that they breed tough, north of the border."


Today it was hot and sunny in Emerald, 41ºC in the shade, those storm clouds brewing in the distance and the few drops of rain they would bring over night a far cry from the torrential downpours that resulted in the worst flooding in Queensland's history during December 2010 and January 2011.

Boh boh!
Anja


13 January 2012

The Plural of Platypus


Apologies, I ran out of credit for the WiFi thingymagic a few days ago in Emerald, hence no internet connectivity for literally thousands of kilometres.
I guess I've got some catching up to do now that we've arrived in Alice Springs in the meantime...


Tuesday, 10 January 2012

Three unforgettable days in a rainforest retreat of our liking just went way too fast...

On Saturday, 7 January 2012 we left Cape Hillsborough.
After completing the usual chores such as grocery shopping and fuelling up, we headed for Eungella National Park.
I wanted to see Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) – and we'd been told that this national park in the Mackay Highlands was the place to see them.

It was quite an enjoyable drive through Pioneer Valley with its cane fields and small villages followed by a steep climb up the Clarke Range to the little township of Eungella.

The information provided once we were in the national park was somewhat patchy, to put it mildly. We had expected a proper visitor information centre at Broken River, something similar to Bowali in Kakadu National Park.

To start with, there was no room in the Broken River car park (which appears to be the key visitor site) to park our 4WD and trailer.
There's a Platypus viewing platform on one side of the road. In the middle of the day it's unlikely to spot platypus here, dusk and dawn are the best times. A handful of turtles were paddling in the river, poking their heads up in anticipation, obviously used to scoring a feed as a great many people still ignore all signs that prohibit feeding the wildlife.
I would have appreciated at least a little plaque with information on what species of turtle we could see from the platform – nothing!

A kiosk and an eco lodge can be found on the other side of the road – but the visitor information we came across consisted of three information boards in an unstaffed and otherwise bare room next to kiosk, nothing more. A laminated note on the outside door of the adjacent cafe indicated clearly that staff weren't interested in answering questions regarding camping bookings, etc.

After a drive through Crediton State Forest we found Crediton Hall, an old timber building with corrugated iron roof that serves the local tight-knit farming community as a meeting place. Here we could have camped for the night on the grassy area next to the building, toilets and fire place looked inviting enough – but it didn't quite have the feel we were after.



After lunch and some (heated) deliberation we decided to head back down to Finch Hatton, a small township at the base of this magnificent range. After all, a phone call at Platypus Bush Camp several days earlier had revealed that pre-booking a site wasn't necessary, we could just turn up – and it had 'Platypus' in the name. Nomen est omen, we thought – and I was not going to leave the Mackay Highlands without spotting a platypus in the wild!

A few shallow water crossings on the gravel road to Finch Hatton Gorge were no real challenge. Along the way we noticed a couple of local families swimming in the rock pools by the side of Gorge Road, in crystal clear water. Just 2 km short of Finch Hatton Gorge we found the Platypus Bush Camp. Some fellow campers had already set up camp but Wazza asked a very friendly Canadian couple to move their Jucy van so we could nudge our camper trailer into a level niche between a small shed and the creek.



Once the tent was up and the boxes unpacked, we went to explore Wazza's unique rainforest retreat. What a place! The sparkling clear creek safe to swim in (no crocs, stingers or other nasties), bush toilets with monstrous resident Green Tree Frogs, showers with a view, hot water from a wood-fired oven – all nestled into dense rainforest vegetation complete with over 50 species of birds. And the huts...next time I'm going to stay in one of the huts!




The Platypus viewing pool was only a short stroll upstream from where we were camped. No swimming or fishing here, no disturbing the wildlife!



I'm happy to announce that on Saturday, 7 January 2012, the sun had set already and the full moon was on its way up, I spotted my first Platypus in the wild!
Funny little creatures they are: the bill almost as broad and long as the tail, brown fur, big claws on the front feet – and lightning fast in the water.
This little critter, only about 30-40cm long from bill to tail, would pop up after a dive in the deeps of the pool, float on the surface for a few seconds and then, bum up and bill down, disappear again for a few minutes. Truly special!




We shared our platypus-viewing experience with a small number of like-minded travellers. Everybody at Platypus Bush Camp respects its “Land for Wildlife” status and tries to leave as little impact as possible while enjoying the beauty and diversity of the place during their stay.

I would like to make a point of this as only a couple of kilometres further upstream, in Finch Hatton Gorge (also part of Eungella National Park) we would make a totally different experience just a couple of days later.

The proximity to Mackay makes the gorge with its swimming holes and rock pools a popular destination for day trippers – not much different to Buley Rockhole and Florence Falls in Litchfield National Park. These places get totally overrun on long weekends with visitors from Darwin.
So we decided to wait and hike the trail up Finch Hatton Gorge on Monday instead and spend Sunday (8 January 2012) relaxing and swimming in the rockhole at the bush camp instead, followed by more platypus spotting at dusk. By the way, the plural of platypus is 'platypuses' or simply 'platypus'.

There were surprisingly few mosquitoes around, bliss! Wazza reckons the frogs are taking care of mozzie larvae in the very few stagnant pools of water, the creek otherwise flowing too fast for pesky mosquitoes to breed in.

On Monday, 9 January 2012 we raised early to head up Finch Hatton Gorge.
We were the first ones on the well defined trail that leads about 2km up the gorge to the 'Wheel of Fire'. Well, if the information boards were a little more informative I wouldn't have been left guessing as to why you would name a waterfall with something “fire” in it – apparently there's a plant of this name growing around the place.




We also stopped at the 'Araluen Cascades' where testosterone-driven teenagers and young adults jumping and diving off cliffs and trees into the deep pool below, ignoring the warning signs on the rocks not to dive as deaths have occurred here, were totally oblivious to the wildlife we spotted: goannas, spiders, chubby skinks and tree snakes. Yep, that's Flip in snorkelling there, still struggling with his head above the water he's a pro with the snorkel!







The walk would have been nice enough – but the rubbish left behind by the weekends revellers really turned us off! Somebody even left a 25l esky on the walking track, half-filled with empty stubbies. By the time we reached the car park the esky was full with rubbish we'd collected along the walking track. Disgusting!



Back at Platypus Bush Camp Steve separated recyclable empties from general rubbish, cleaned the esky thoroughly and put it to good use immediately. We treated ourselves to more swimming in the rock pool (even Dog, Wazza's canine pet, jumped on one of the tubes to join the fun in the water), listening to the birds and the frogs. Unwinding is so easy at this place.


The explorers vowed to return as the lot of us could have stayed longer – a lot longer!

Boh boh!
Anja