Tag Archives: bush

Day 26

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Thursday 9th. 

What a day,  awesome. Did lots of shooting birds,  did the boat trip, that was fantastic learning all the history of the gorge and the Waanyi people.

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Heading up the Gorge.

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Cliff face, going up the Gorge, some light it looks red, other times its orange, keep’s changing colours. Just beautiful.

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We go up around the bend ahead. Feel very small in comparison to the cliffs.

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Another part of the trip.

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Crocodile slide. We waited but didn’t see anything.

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Canoeing, they all having fun, Indarri Falls just around the corner.

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Trees growing out of rocks, amazing.

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Part of the falls, quite a story as to how long the falls have eroded the rock away, it passes through lime stone and deposits calcium to form where the falls fall.

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Another fall as part of the Indarri falls.

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A Bower bird landed on the calcium ledge.

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Indarri Falls in all its glory, they are so beautiful..

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Shapes, colour, just breath taking.

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The skipper was telling us about the crack in this cliff face, when there’s been a lot of rain the water gushes out from this crack and forms a water fall that flows right out into the water. So where we are now he said, we’d be getting wet.

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Honey Bee full of nectar.

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Purple crowned wren.

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Day 25

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Wednesday 8th June 

Had a great day. Had a good breakfast and then headed off on a hike to Indarri Falls, 3 hours round trip up over the plateau and down the cliff face,  dam steep. The colours out here are just so vivid. The falls are beautiful. The terrain is very undulating,  rocky and colourful. Alice and Jack went up to the falls in their kayak, went to the second level, we saw them at the falls. Got back at 12.30 pm.  Had to cool down, then went for a cold shower. Had lunch and just sat around for awhile,  it was 35 deg today again. Flies are bad. Wearing the fly net most days. Don and Jack went walking up over the Constance Range,  Don said it’s beautiful but extremely tough. I’m not doing it.  Couldn’t get on the boat trip today but have booked for tomorrow 10 am. Looking forward to that. Not cold at nights. Lovely and fresh.

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Beautiful cliffs where we’re camping. These colours are as they are.

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Path on our 3 hour walk to Indarri falls, then to the lookout and back down to camp.

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This is the Lawn creek, magic colours. There are fresh water crocodiles but we didn’t see one.

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The Indarri Falls, so lovely.

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Love these reflections.

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Indarri falls,

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Going up the escarpment, reds and green, we are so lucky this national park was closed to flooding two weeks prior to us coming.

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View from climbing up higher, the falls being just to the left of the middle of photo.

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On our way up to the lookout, this a great view but facing the sun.

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The workers and rangers accommodation.

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Bigger view of the whole camping.

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Sun going down and I’m down by the jetty.

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Another angle. magic reflections.

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Heading back to camp, got a sun burst through the trees.

IMG_9216Young Crimson Finch

Young crimson finch.

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Very bright but still beautiful.

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White winged triller.

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White winged triller.

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Yellow tinted honey eater.

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Liked these, don’t know there name, reminded me of the Lupines in NZ up Mt Cook.

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Lizard sunning.

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Indarra falls.

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Indarra falls.

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Close up of the falls.

Day 24

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Tuesday 7th    Traveling to Lawn Hill

We got away from Gregory river by 9 am, sad to be leaving but will be calling back on our way south. Wonderful drive to Adels Grove where we had morning tea. Then another 10 km to Lawn Hill NP. The scenery is so beautiful and changes so often I have taken shots along the way from the vehicle as we are driving. Very hot, 35 deg. Lots of birds. I’m going on the boat cruise as there is no way I can row 6 km. I will then walk to the falls in the afternoon. Had a cold shower to cool off then got tea. We are here for 2 full days then leave Friday 10th. We have full telstra coverage 4G with blue tick.

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The road to Lawn Hill, some of the tar sealed roads were worse than gravel roads.

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This is the road to Adels Grove. It is a Caravan Park. Been very wet here two weeks ago so we have timed it nicely, lovely and green really.

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Still not much water for the animals, but better than none.

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We are here, yahoo, only 4 km now to the camping area.

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Beautiful red soil and rocks. Very crumbly looking. The skies are so blue.

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Good amount of foliage.

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Well, this is the colour of the Lawn creek/river.

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Another wider view.

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Termite mounds, I have seen them reds, browns, creams, I’ve been told that what ever the colour of the soil then that’s the colour of the mounds. Makes sense.

IMG_8986Female Purple-crowned Fairy-wren

This is the Female of the Purple-crowned Fairy-wren.

IMG_9023Crimson Finches

These are Crimson Finches, on the tree in our camp spot. How lucky. The red one is the male, other two females.

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Dragonfly on the path where I was walking.

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This is the Male Purple-crowned Fairy-wren.

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Red winged parrot.

IMG_9174Grey-crowned Babbler

Grey-crowned Babbler.

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White-browed Robin.

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Went for a bit of a walk and just love the colours in the rock face, but trees are growing out of cracks, make them hardy up here to survive.

Day 23

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Monday 6th. June

Well woke to a lovely morning,  heaps of people moving out and one new one came In and its only 9.02 am.  We have the Northern kookaburra,  they are so funny the sounds they make.  We walked up into the town which is 1 pub, 1 shop general Store but only necessary groceries really and petrol, all very exe. The bird life here is magic,  so many different types. Not cold tonight.  I got the washing dry,  had showers. Off to Lawn Hill tomorrow.  Met some lovely travelers.

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Lovely reflections on the Gregory River where we are camped.

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Large area’s for camping, Gregory River.

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This camping area is on the other side under the bridge.

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Gregory River down stream.

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Under the bridge.

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Kites, we have a nest above our camp spot. 🙂

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Jack and Alice whom we are traveling with having breakfast in the sun by the rive, doesn’t get much better than this.

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Kite taking off from drinking.

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The cub set up for two nights only this stop. We keep it simple for a couple of nights.

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Getting the shower bottles ready to heat up for the shower. Plenty room over this side of the bridge for camping.

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Wee frog while I was crossing the rocks,

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Kite preening.

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I think this is a young Great bower bird.

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White Gaped Honey Eater.

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Peaceful Dove, they are so small compared to the other Doves.

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A better shot of the Young Great Bower bird.

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White gaped Honey eater.

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Water trucks come in all day, they are doing the road works and its at least one hour away from here, so a long haul.

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Yellow Tinted honey eater bathing.

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Here is a better view of the Yellow tinted honey eater.

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Black chinned honey eaters.

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White browed robin.

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Masked Finch I think.

IMG_8921Rufas Whistler

Not sure the name of this bird.

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Rufus Whistler.

Day 21

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Saturday 4th.
Off to Cloncurry,  stock up on food, fuel and anything else we might need for 9 days off the grid,  heading to Gregory river to camp. We stopped and had a break at Quamby rest area then stayed the night at Terry Smiths Lookout. Nice camp spot, plenty of room, toilets, dump point, just make sure the water is operating.
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Old remains at the Quamby rest area.

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Just north of Cloncurry, the Albert hotel, aka, The Quamby Pub was built as the customs house in the 1860’s The word Quamby is aboriginal meaning being “stop”, rest awhile. The timbers in the building are beautiful, shame its all falling down.

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Quamby Hotel,

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View from the camper trailer at Terry Smith’s Lookout.

Day 20

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Friday 3rd 

We decided to go kayaking today while its not to bad weather, bit of a breeze and we wanted to get photo’s of the crocodiles, they are fresh water so not to dangerous in a kayak.Rowed over to the island and some lovely wee bays. Didn’t see any fresh water crocodiles.

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Don getting ready to take some photo’s. We are using our underwater camera’s not the good one’s.

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Heading back home, nice and sheltered in this bay. I’m in Jacks inflatable kayak, hes paddling, i’m taking photo’s. 🙂 thanks Jack.

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Looking at the Dam wall from the kayak. 

Day 85

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Monday 25th May

Went for a drive to Evercreech Forest,from St Helens you go along the way down the coast and over the St Marys Pass, very windy and narrow in places but just take your time, its very high and lovely. St Marys town is a quaint wee country town.The Museum at the old Railway Station is worth the stop, Ian will tell you about so many things, may even give you a tune on his Banjo if you ask nicely.  Further on we called into Cornwall, full of history as a coal mining town, they have a wall of remembrance there, very nice to see. Had smoko there. Got to Fingal, which is a lovely drive down through the valley and we turned off and headed to Mathinna, our turn off was just this side to the Evercreech forest, good dirt roads. Beautiful driving down through the forest. We ran out of day so will have to make another trip to Mathinna.

IMG_8893  quick snap while driving past, loved the fog in behind the house. Heading to St Marys.IMG_8889 IMG_8895  Fingal drive.IMG_8921  Esk River, heading out of Fingal to the forest.IMG_8922 IMG_8939  Well here we are at the picnic area of the Evercreech Forest, no camping allowed, but day use only, this is a great shelter, nice toilets and a gas BBQ, table and chairs placed at different place with also fire pits.IMG_8946  Stream, so clear.IMG_8942  picnic area.IMG_9034  walking through the forest, the bush is so quiet.IMG_9046  Well here is some of the White Gums, known as the “White Knights”, about 90 metres tall, they are Australia’s tallest white gums.IMG_9056  Another angle, so hard to photograph as they are to big, and the lighting isn’t always good looking up towards the sky.IMG_9084 IMG_9109  Part of the walk back down.IMG_9115 IMG_9118  Looked like a graveyard of trees all covered in thick bright green mosses.IMG_9119 IMG_9130  Natures smile.IMG_9136  This is the base of an old tree, its rotted away in the middle.IMG_9165  Reflection of the bridge in clear stream.IMG_9170 IMG_9195  Opps the skies are looking dark, this house just looked nice in the foreground of a dirty sky.IMG_9252 IMG_9253  Cornwall has so much history but don’t go wondering up in the hills still lots of  mine shafts  up in the hills we have been told.IMG_9308  Scamander, bridge on left not in use now, only a walk way, new bridge on right, ocean on right. Nice wee seaside town.IMG_8987  I dont like doing portrait shaped photo’s, but this was to try and show the size of some of the trees, this is only quarter of the tree.IMG_9038  This bridge is made from old punga’s and other dead trees and then just a frame to hold it together, we have been told that the towns people and some of the bikie people help maintain this forest, how good is that.IMG_9094 Just a small one. 🙂

Day 11

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17th April Thursday thru to 20th Sunday

Went over early and had a hot shower before everyone else got up. Got brekky and sat under the tree. Storm had gone, mozzies were back, and these are big ones, holly hell they can bite. Bite you thru your clothes; I have big welts on me. We headed to Moura, stopped along the way and saw the mine. We fueled up, emptied toilet, and topped up with some food items at Food Works. Going to Chain Lagoons, on our way we called into Theodore, what a lovely town only small on the Dawson River and a free camping spot. We are now on the Leichhardt H’wy heading south, had a lunch stop here and then got to Chain Lagoons and they had a fence across the road to get to the big lagoon, so we took a bush road thinking we could get thru, ha we got in a tricky spot, but with a bit of work we got back out onto the H’wy. So off we go to plan B and onto Lake Murphy, well what a neat surprise, so green, lovely camp spots so much better, no water in the lake but that’s not a problem, we loved it here and stayed 3 nights, did lots of walks, night shooting, sitting around the camp fire, was lovely, we had Apostle birds hanging around camp, they are so funny, chattering all the time. Our friends are here as well. We spent the next few days just exploring and enjoying the time to relax.

IMG_9930Open Cut Mine at Moura
IMG_9931IMG_9938  Apostle bird, they are so social and funny with their antic’sIMG_9974  Babbler with insect in mouthIMG_9987  A Red Necked kangarooIMG_9991  Apostle BirdIMG_9994 Apostles birds

DSCF1555  Our camp spot at Lake Murphy.DSCF1556  Mowed pathways to Toilet blockDSCF1558  Nice big camp spotsDSCF1563 Our friends and us on our walk over to see the creek, which had water in it.

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Empty Lake Murphy, hard to imagine that this is the lake floor.

Day 11

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Tuesday 11th February 

The last of the visitors left today and another hot day so we have just relaxed, after our late night shooting last night. Here are a few photo’s that we have taken over the last few days when we went driving out the back and up into the hills. The bird life is really incredible at my son’s place so that keeps us photographers happy. 🙂

Here is a kingfisher diving in and out of the swimming pool.

IMG_6767IMG_6772  This king fisher played for ages in the pool, so lovely, it was a very hot day. We didn’t go in until he went away.IMG_6825  Think this is a tree creeper.IMG_6838  We think this is a Scarlet Honey Eater, they are so funny, getting around upside down to all the nectar.IMG_6898  Young King Parrot.IMG_6947 Hotel at Scone.IMG_6950  Old house coming home from Scone.IMG_6957  Echidna up in the bush.IMG_6977

The main line into Murrurundi from out the back.IMG_6981  Busg road we have been using.IMG_6985  Some more of the rocks we have found.IMG_7123 Young Scarlet Rosella, it was poking its head into the hole by the guttering, so don’t know if there is a nest or not.