Dubbo is a breeding Zoo and they have many young giraffe’s which was a delight.   They are not only kept in this pen for breeding but many are now on there newly created Savvanah

Well done Dubbo Zoo

We sort them here, there and everywhere, but no Cassowaries did we find in the Rainforest of Queensland.    Lots of signs… ‘slow down Cassowary sighted’   or ‘ Cassowary just sighted’.   Again like the Bilby I thought they were only in captivity and these sightings were only there to excite the tourists.

But just as we were leaving the rainforests of Queensland we called in to Etty Bay at 5 pm and wandering down the beach were Cassowaries…. Oh my ….

It was raining but I did not care, out came the camera and click, click, click……

the Cassowary stopped looked straight at me and started coming towards me …… very scary!  I had heard lots of tall tales about how ferocious they can be apparently their top horn and their feet can shred you to pieces.   They look so prehistoric…. but I kept clicking …. It stopped very close and looked at me, I held my breath and stopped clicking, then as the seconds ticked by with no movement I stood very still and thought this was not one of my most cautious moments…. luckily  it decided to move on.    Phew!

The next day we came out of our vans and they were back…. I just could not resist,  nor could anyone else.   A very exciting moment for me to come faced to face with a wild prehistoric animal!!!!!

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More Photos by Lorna Darby

While up in Imagico at the top of Cape York Peninsula we were privileged to see the Palm Cockatoos.   They are absolutely marvellous huge birds and it made our difficult tip worth while

Today I stroked a Bilby.   Always thought they were mythical but no so.

We are in Charleville and we visited the conservation centre for Bilbys.   They used to cover the mainland of Australia but they have been decimated by feral animals.   In particular cats. Feral cats are a growing problem in numbers and in size they have cats with their paw size the size of my palm.   They are extremely destructive, clever, difficult to locate and eradicate and can live in arid places.

Bilbies are Omnivores and live in very arid places.   They get their fluids from bugs small reptiles and grasses.   Their burrows are a spiral shape so they do not destroy the ground.    Now there are as few as 400 – 600 Bilbies in Queensland and 1500- 2000 in WA and NT Top end.  The rest of Australian mainland has had 100% extinction.

There has been a concerted effort to save the Queensland Bilby by two people in Charleville and they have build a special fence through raising funds, donations and Federal government money to allow the bilbies to breed in a feral free environment.   The Federal Government has declared a Bilby day.   The second Sunday in September in an effort to raise awareness of their plight.

I was surprised by the sized of the animal and the ones in the pictures are females.  The males are bigger.   They are soft and very busy animals part of the bandicoot family.  I fell in love with this animal and hope the pictures and info inspire you.

More photos in Queensland Interior – Bilbies in Charleville by Lorna Darby

We were very excited to be heading for Cape Tribulation and going down the Captain Cook Highway to Port Douglas.  The weather was not the best, in fact this year in Queensland the weather has been very unseasonal.   Lots of Rain.   We had to book a caravan park  at Glengarry just outside Port Douglas as the Port Douglas Shire does not allow any free camping and all the  caravan parks were full with no vacancies.   Apparently people book a year ahead and much like Broome the Queensland tropics is a favoured destination of people wanting to get away from the cold in the South of the continent.

We call these travellers ‘Snow Birders’ as they come north for three to four months to the same caravan park every year.   The caravan parks during this period are very expensive and can be up to $60.00 per night.   There seems to be a ban on caravans camping on the road side most of the Queensland coast, so we had little choice but to pay.   Sad really as we will not be back because we did not really feel welcomed and there was limited places to come into.

Nonetheless we were glad to leave Cairns as we had a difficult situation at the caravan park in which we were staying.   When we came to Cairns the only available site at the park we had booked was near the camp kitchen and the backpackers.   Very noisy.   One night it was 2pm and Leo came out to ask the backpackers to turn down the noise when a local who had been drinking with them became very aggressive.   Leo tried to calm him down and in so doing took a long time and disappeared from the site.  Leo was trying to steer him away from our van but after about 40 minutes I became very worried and was running around trying to find him at 3am in the morning.   Finally I heard a loud scream, and I started running… Leo was alright but the man was very upset.  I was very upset and scared.   We finally sorted it all out but left the park the next day and had to settle for a temporary overspill site at Glengarry.   Of course it was raining when we arrived… not fun.

We stayed three days at Glengarry travelling into Port Douglas.   I had so wanted to see it as my parents had travelled here in the early 70s and told me about the small special place where coconuts drop on the beach.   Now it is quite different and I was disappointing.    Beautiful beach but very commercial and built up.   The whole place is full of hotels and shops catering to tourists.    We have found a lot of this travelling up the Queensland Coast.   Some people would love this and if you could get a site at $60 per night in the caravan park near the beach in Port Douglas it would be quite pleasant to do the tourist thing.   But this is not what we like, we like raw and natural.   Also there were limited coconuts to see dropping as the council has them cut down to avoid them dropping on the tourists.

The weather was still intermittent rain and very humid and sticky but we made the most of it.   We travelled up and down the Captain Cook Highway calling in to all the bays.    We expected it to be very blue and pretty but the water with the cloud was often sandy and looked murky.   Up north there are big tidal movements and of course you cannot swim because of the Crocs.  Also there are signs everywhere about the Stingers and bottles of vinegar placed in Letter holders giving instructions to rub vinegar on if you are stung.   Not really enticing.

We did find a wonderful quint essential Queensland view however, in touring round Glengarry we came across two beautiful Queensland homes on one block.   More like a sugar plantation very impressive.

We finally managed to get a booking in a park at Wonga Beach  a place between Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation.   Very lucky apparently as it is always booked out.   We were expecting a wonderful place but it was very average  park and we were parked under giant Wonga trees than dropped nuts on the van and car.   We were given thick cloths for the car to protect it but could do nothing about the van.    However the claim here is, that it is the only park on the Captain Cook Drive to be on the beach so it offered the tropical beach experience.    Also the managers had laid  gravel throughout the whole park so there were very few the midges to contend with unlike the park further up which was all grass and as it dried at the end of the dry period so the midges multiplied.

Every morning we would sit on the beach under the shade and watch the water and the thin strip of beach.   It really is an example of when the rainforest meets the sea and yes there were coconuts dropping everywhere along the beach.  Quite untouched really.      But we were too scared to walk the beach at night, as last year a woman was taken but a Croc a couple of beaches down while she was walking at night.  The tide comes in so high it came up to the caravan park edge.

We finally left the park and did have a good experience here despite the Wonga Nuts and the Croc infested water.   The people were lovely and every night there is a long table where everyone comes to sit and yarn.

Now onto Cape Trip!!!!

More Photos in   Lorna’s     or   Leo’s   Albums

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We left Atherton Tablelands quite tired and exhausted by all the sights of the area.    We headed down the Savannah Way of Queensland as we wanted to see the Gulf of Carpentaria.   The Savannah Way covers the direct journey from Cairns to Broome.   We were not heading for Broome as we had to get to Melbourne to fix a van issue but we thought it would still be cool enough to survive some free camping on the way and in and around the Gulf.    We were wrong.   Late September is definitely the time to head south.   We abandoned the journey to Karumba until next year when we come up to travel the Cape York peninsular. It will be cooler then and we will actually go right across to Broome.

However we did make it to Normanton and had two amazing off road experiences the best of these was a stop completely alone by a waterhole in the outback….

It is hard to describe the emotions of camping alone outback you do feel vulnerable especially as we had not communications except the CB radio but it was very exhilarating and romantic being on our own miles from nowhere, in the bush with not coms.

We faced the billabong under the shade and despite the heat had a fire to cook our camp oven food.   We danced at night by the fire under the stars and felt real peace.  The Milky Way was so fantastic and only in the pure black of the bush with no lights can you feel there closeness and magnitude.   We wanted to take photos of this type of starlight but felt it would ruin the special experience so we left this for another time.

The birds visiting the waterhole by day were an absolute delight and amazingly we watch to Monitors trolling the water’s edge for dinner.   There were a few toads at this sight which were quickly disposed of but not before a few had hidden in our levelling platforms under the van wheels.   Quite a shock for poor old Darbs when he lifted them as we left the sight, a few unexpected toads jumped on him.   Very unpleasant!!!!!

After a few days we left the Waterhole and headed for Normanton.  We had had such a lovely time off road we decided to stop at Leichhardt Lagoon bush camp, and stay for a couple more days without power and coms.    The experience here was quite different.

More Photos from Lorna   and   Leo

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We have been on holiday from our holiday and spent a lovely two weeks with our son down the Sapphire Coast … fishing ..fishing and more fishing.

We started at Bermagui and ended up at Mystery Bay.  What a gem!!! we had always felt Bendalong on the south coast of NSW was the jewel in the crown but now we have revised our thoughts.  Mystery Bay is glorious.  The Antartic and Pacific waters come together consequently one day the water is like ice and the next it is balmy.  But more importantly this phenomena creates an abundance of available fish and wonderful visitations by playful dolphins and seals.

The rock formations are also amazing even though you know they are volcanic they look like massive fallen petrified trees.  There are great photo opportunities here with the sapphire colours and the caves and hidden bays.  There is also an abundance of a strange bottle green seaweed which crayfish apparently love and bright green weed for the Luderick fish.

We were lucky enough to be with out son who is an avid fisherman and explored the waters thoroughly to the extent that his dives and fishing expeditions filled our freezer with an amazing array of fresh fish.  and we were taught how to successfully catch worms off the beach.   An activity which brought many curious onlookers.

There is a council campsite on the water and although the ground in places was hilly we were allowed to cut down and prop to level the van so that we had a million dollar view over the bay.   A bit scary getting in and out but that is part of the course of off road caravanning.

The surrounding areas are also magnificent and we spent quite some time exploring different coves and scenic views realising that there is a place for swimming in any wind.  The weather fortunately was fantastic not too hot and no sever southerly,  so we just enjoyed, replenished and felt maybe this is as good as it gets!!!!

but all good things have to be treasured for another time and we moved on to Myall lake for our next beautiful spot.

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Magistrates Hutt at Linton by Lorna Darby

Small Gaol at Linton by Lorna Darby

After visiting the Hutt River Province we headed down to the Pink Lake at Gregory.   On the way we stumbled upon a small ruined convict garrison.   The convicts in WAs were only sent there for approximately 7 years and this site was built for them.   Mostly they camped in tents whilst they built the site but by the time it was finished they stopped convict transportation and it shut down a year later.  It was good to see the layout and how small the magistrate hut was and the cells the prisoners were kept in.

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More photos on Lorna Darby Mid West Album

and Leo Darby’s Mid West Album

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Sandy Cape – White Sandhills – Leo

Monkey Mia was great but the days were starting to heat up and Lorna needed to get her final wrist review from her surgeon in Perth. We had no plans for our return journey but intended on staying at a few free camps on the way down, however, the heat was getting a bit unbearable. We stopped at Billabong Roadhouse for lunch and the temperature there was 46 degrees and rising. Further along the road we pulled over to adjust some rattling luggage and noticed that the tar on the newly built road was running off the edge in liquid form. We made a quick decision, aborted the free camping idea and headed for Jurien Bay for a caravan park with electricity and the ability to turn our air conditioner on!!

Julien Bay is a great little town with a small wharf and a snorkel trail. We had a great time and met up with Shane and Chrissy who we had first met at Kalbarrie and then Denham. We did a couple of side trips around the bay and also braved the 7km dirt road into Sandy Cape which is a council run camp site costing only $15 per night. It is a fantastic place with a picturesque protected bay, blinding white sand dunes and an amazing headland with views up and down the coast. We noted it down for a future stay!!

Heading south we ducked into Cervantes a small fishing village to pick up some lobsters and prawns and then headed for the Pinnacles in nearby Nambung National Park. We had not heard much about the Pinnacles but a number of people had suggested that they were worth seeing. We pulled into the Pinnacles only to be told that you could not take your caravan past the car park. That left the option of doing just the small 1-2km walk around some of the Pinnacles or of unhitching the van and driving around the 5-6km road right through the middle of the Pinnacles.

Weird shaped Pinnacles – Leo

What do you do? Unhook the van of course and take the drive through what turned out to be one of the amazing landscapes we have seen on the trip. The Pinnacles are made up of thousands of tall limestone spires rising eerily out of the yellow desert sands. The track winds right through them and you can walk in and around them. These amazing lunar-like natural limestone structures, some standing as high as five metres, were formed approximately 25,000 to 30,000 years ago. The raw material for the limestone of the Pinnacles came from seashells in an earlier era that was rich in marine life. These shells were broken down into lime-rich sands that were blown inland to form high mobile dunes. There is still debate as to how they formed between the weathering of the limestone through dissolution or through the preservation of buried tree casts. We didn’t care which option was correct but just enjoyed a great experience and hitched up the van and headed for Perth

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Leaving Katherine we headed for Pine Creek for lunch … what a great little pub … loved the Barra &Chips (half the price !!) … then down to Yellow River  … we had some great memories of this place from our last visit several years ago … what a disappointment… crowded sites, mosquitoes big enough to carry you away and a crowded reception area with large queues trying to cater for everything at once … a very poor effort!!

However we were undaunted by these minor issues … we quickly booked the dawn yellow water cruise (with breakfast) and had a great photo shoot … heaps of birds and  crocs and a great sunrise … we were so impressed that we also booked the evening sunset cruise (discounted to $25 each as a section cruise option) … we also wanted to redo the Twin and Jim Jim Falls trip that we had enjoyed a few years earlier … however the river crossing was at 80cm and even one of the Tour companies had not yet gone across … so we decided not to take the car and tightening our belts paid for a tour … we were glad we did … the first 50km of corrugations and dust were nothing compared to the last 10km of winding sand track full of steep humps, deep sand sections and trees that scraped along the sides of the tour vehicle … the driver was continually dodging and weaving through the deeply rutted track … taking the tour was definitely the most sensible solution!!

The tour guide also told us of numerous recent breakdowns at the crossing … keen 4WD drivers who did not have snorkels on their cars and who had misjudged the depth of the water!!

We finally got to Twin Falls through the water crossing and after a short boat ride got some great shots of the falls … but no swimming due to the possibility of crocs!!!

Back through the same winding type of track to the walk to Jim Jim Falls … what a Trek … 1.5km up over boulders with no real trail to follow except for little orange arrows randomly placed (no wonder no crocs could get up here)… our guide who seemed to want everyone to run the track took off with everyone trying to keep up … anyway we finally made it to the falls and a waterhole that you could swim in … the guide suggested that anyone wanting to go across to the Falls swim around the edge … Lorna who had done it before just said forget that and we headed straight across … what an exhilarating experience the waterfall was like little pin needles splashing down on you … well worth the walk and swim!!

Time to head back … again the Guide took off and a small group of us gathered ourselves together and started back … the boulders at this end were huge … some as high as two people … as we started across a couple I heard a noise and turned to find Lorna falling backward off the top of a boulder with her back arched and head down like a high jumper over the bar … only instead of a mat below there was only a boulder that would break her head and back .. stepping forward I reached out and caught her in my arms before she hit the boulder … the other people with us were amazed and gave me the nick name “Crocodile Darbee” (we had all watched the movie Crocodile Dundee in the parks open cinema the night before) … we were both in shock but composed ourselves and concentrated on getting back to the tour bus which we did with no further serious episodes!!

That evening we spent some down time swimming in the resort pool to ease our sore muscles and the next day headed out to the Burrunggui Anbangbang billabong (near Nourlangie) were we had a great time walking around the Billabong taking photos a various birdlife … then back to the pool for some R&R … Yellow River had some great attractions but the mossies made it unpleasant to be outside … so it was time to move on to Jabaru and see if it would provide a better environment!!

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