More bird stories

Tony found the nests and we've been following the progress of these little birds commonly know as Willie Wagtails but Tony says more correctly they are Fantails.  Three speckled little eggs in the nest, mum sitting patiently all day waiting. She's having a real go at us for interfering! Another pair are busy finishing off a nest in the tree where we're parked. Tony allows them to swoop him and take hair to help build their nests.  They're after anyone with grey hair in the park so people are walking around covering their heads with anything available!

This little family have been child minding constantly, doing what all conscientious parents do, protect.                                                         

 

We're being "growled at" by dad.

How about the colour of this beetle? Can't find "emerald coloured beetle" in the Google search so if anyone feels they have the time to search please help. It's 3cm long.

Some interesting stuff

If anyone out there has seen anything like this please let us know!!!!  

We think it maybe because these mushrooms are trying to expire in an extremely humid environment!

This is the before











This is the almost gone!
By day's end there was nothing left to photograph.

Convalescing in Style

Just 15mins north of Cairns on Cairns Northern Beaches is Palm Cove.  Here we found a one bedroom fully self contained unit on the ground floor...very important for an invalid!

Darrel and Sue, who manage the units called Allasio, were so helpful,. A big thank you for making our stay so easy.

with Darryl and Sue

 A week after being in hospital.  

great pool and BBQ area. The water was 26 degrees as was the ocean across the road.

out of the unit and into the pool

For more on Palm Cove see an earlier blog in the archived section.

Tony zipped!

If you're wondering why the blog has slowed somewhat it's because we've been forced to slow down.  A Caesar Salad was apparently the last straw for Tone's gall bladder!!!!  In excruciating pain I rushed him to Cairns Base hospital where he was held under the influence of morphine and after a scan and stomach drain via a tube down his nose he was in no position to argue the case against surgery.  Three hours later he was stapled up minus his gall bladder.  No other problems and he is now on the mend. The zip was removed today....Yayh!!!!

  This is what an emergency zip looks like. No consideration for the cosmetic appearance.  Bellybutton? What bellybutton?

We will however keep the post coming on whatever interesting stuff we stumble upon.

CRAB ART

Yes, crabs can do art too.  Some of the crabs are so small and and almost transparent. Every morning when the tide goes out leaving a blank canvas, these little creatures busy themselves re establishing a home and in the process giving us something else at which to marvel.  The size of the hole represents the size of the crab and therefore the size of the balls of sand.  I'm thinking of getting an enlargement of one of these pictures....know just where I'll hang it too.

A contribution from the bird life gives this one some "movement" don't you think?

CAPE TRIBULATION

A RAIN FOREST IN THE RAIN IS SENSATIONAL.   IT DOESN'T USUALLY RAIN IN THIS REGION AT THIS TIME OF THE YEAR SO IT WAS A REAL TREAT TO BE  HERE WITH THE FOREST LOOKING SO FRESH, JUST BEAUTIFUL. THE WET SEASON KNOWN AS "THE BIG WET" IN THE FAR NORTH TROPICS OF AUSTRALIA BEGINS AROUND THE END OF OCTOBER AND GOES THROUGH 'TILL MARCH.  

WE STAYED OUT OF CARAVAN PARKS IN CAPE TRIB. AND WENT NATIVE IN THE NOAH NATIONAL PARK AREA......

CROSSING NOAH BRIDGE

A VIDEO OF OUR DRIVE IN THE RAIN FOREST WITH SANDY WHITE'S CD PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND

ONE OF THE MANY RIVERS

CAUGHT THIS LITTLE GREEN TREE FROG MAKING OUR EVENING EXTRA SPECIAL

THE FOREST WAS ABUZZ WITH A SYMPHONY OF INSECT AND FROG CALLING ALL NIGHT!  THE BIRDS CHIMED IN AT DUSK AND DAWN.  THIS IS A VIDEO OF A LITTLE GREEN TREE FROG

WITH HIS MATES IN THE BACKGROUND. I HAD NO PROBLEM 

SLEEPING TO THIS "MUSIC", TONE ON THE OTHER HAND STUFFED HIS EARS WITH EAR PLUGS!

WALKING AROUND IN THE DARK WITH OUR HEADS ATTACHED TO OUR NIGHT ARMOUR, THE GOOD OLE LED HEADLIGHT, WE FOUND "TOAD, OF TOAD HALL", WITHOUT HIS CLOTHES!

THE FOREST IS COMPLETELY DARK ....PITCH BLACK IN FACT, AT NIGHT BECAUSE OF THE CANOPY.  THIS WORKED TO OUR ADVANTAGE IN THE CAMP SITE.  OUR AWNING WAS ANGLED TO CATCH THE RAIN AT ONE END WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE A REALLY FUN, FROLICKING SHOWER!!!! 

4 DAYS IN THE FOREST AND WE HAD NO LAUNDRY!!!!!

Magnetic Island: a feast of critter and bird magic!

only for those of my friends who are COMPUTER CHALLENGED: where I have added a link you will have to manually go to that site by copy and paste! this is how it is done:  Highlight the URL, right click mouse, choose copy, go to address area of your browser and right click again, then choose paste).

BACK TO THE MAGNETIC CRITTERS AND BIRDS and Magnetic island. Apparently Capt. Cook's compass went haywire here and that is how the island was named. Other tests have been done as to why Capt Cook's compass played up in this part of the world, but to no avail.  Just one of those things!

When we went to collect our tickets from Marilyn we had no idea that a wonderful experience awaited us.  She nurtures orphaned wild life and allowed Tony to feed  Chrissie, the 7 month old Rock Wallaby.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock-wallaby

This little possum with baby in pouch made herself at home in the tree behind our van. No guessing why!

http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/possums.htm

.....and then there were the birds.  Rainbow Lorikeets are found from north to south down the eastern seaboard. Nectar eating birds they don't actually eat the fruit but suck the juice out and leave an unholy mess of dry chewed bits of fibre all over the floor! 

http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/2001/archives/2001_archives/roadtests/birds?p=1200

There's plenty of competition in the noise department from Australia's noisiest and most gorgeous bird, the kookaburra.

http://birdsinbackyards.net/species/Dacelo-novaeguineae

http://www.anbg.gov.au/sounds/kookaburra.au

Waiting to be fed at the hotel where the jazz was on. Yes, the jazz was competing for a little while.

Not to be outdone, the curlews had a go every evening with their blood curdling cries.

Just had to finish this post with the colourful lorikeets.

Magnetic Island

What a fantastic time we had here.  A great Island. 8klms of the coast from Townsville. An unusual island because it is residential for many but with heaps of holiday accommodation. Both of us felt the real sense of community amongst her residents.  Marilyn who organises the jazz festival is also a wildlife saver.  Chrissie, the rock wallaby, was orphaned and is about to be trained to go into the wild. We had the wonderful experience of dining out with her........

 And then she had cuddles from Tony.......

The beaches were fabulous.........

Horseshoe Bay

 

West Point

Arcadia Beach

the picnic area at Arcadia Beach

Rocky Point Beach

 And Balding Beach where we became dare devils and did some rock climbing!  Loved rock climbing as a child, a little harder these days, but still fun!

Balding Beach

pose atop the rocks!

easier going down!

Yes there is a golf course and you won't believe the price.....

 









We thought the war time golf rules were interesting......

Had a couple of beautiful meals at a very french restaurant where we met people from Townsville who had a holiday house on the island and invited us to their home for coffee. You can almost taste the meal from the visual......

An entree, duck pate and duck meat all very tasty.

and the music.....what would we do without music?  This  jazz festival is unique as none of the musicians are paid! Their air travel and accommodation is taken care of and they get to have a 3 day weekend in better weather where they can catch up with one another, make new connections, swap ideas, and jam together. For us lucky listeners, we get to see a whole bunch of the best musicians all in one place and freshen up our music collections.  

Krissie on stage

A jamming session.

Bye bye for now Magnetic. We'll be back.
(I will try to post some clips of the music on another post.)

Townsville

Townsville has grown enormously over the past 10 years.  I suspect it's because, like Darwin, the growth in military personnel has a lot to do with it.  The city is small and seems wedged between the Ross River and Castle Hill and therefore the suburbs have spread out with huge shopping centres acting like satellite cities and welding the whole area called Townsville together.  

Looking down across the city from atop Castle Hill, a striking anomaly on a flat landscape.

Visiting American soldiers used it as a lookout during WW2. The Townsville area was known as Base Section 2 to the Americans.

We were unable to take photos of the main street as there are major renovations going on there. They hope to be finished in time for Summer. On the South side of the river old Townsville still exists but also with a bit of updating and certainly all the trappings of a city such as jazz music outside the bistro where we had lunch.

looking across to Magnetic Island from Castle Hill

On the South Side. Typical old Queensland building.

The  upgrade of the Strand, a 2.2klm stretch of beachfront was opened in 1999 and is fabulous. 

The Strand

Activities on the Strand

The Rock Pool at the north end of The Strand

The fountain in Anzac Park on The Strand in one of it's colours.

  Known in Australia as the Banyan Fig. It's botanical name Ficus Benghalensis.  I've Google d this and find it is also called the Bengal fig, Indian Fig, east Indian fig, Indian banyan etc.  You will notice in my favourite books a book I picked up in the Cooktown museum called 1421.  The evidence being collected suggests the Chinese discovered and charted the world long before the  Europeans and while doing so move plenty flora and fauna around the globe.  This doesn't sound like an Aussie indigenous tree to me?!

A perfectly comfortable 50 minute trip to Magnetic Island in Bugalugs on the barge.

Townsville Culture Fest.

 The cultural fest was in full swing when we got here.  Just a taste of what we saw: Tai chi marshal arts from China. Traditional Fiji harmony and a Maori performance from New Zealand.
 Food stalls representing different nationalities made deciding what to eat difficult. The easiest way was to make up a tapas from a few stalls and then find a seat.  That's what we did.

More to come on Townsville!

Charters Towers

We loved it!!!!!!  interesting, friendly, good feeling place.  This town came into being in 1871 with the discovery of gold.  The city was first called Charters Tors after mining warden Charters and Tors for the hills in the vicinity of the the gold find.  It was at one time the 2nd largest city in Queensland and was known as 'The World'. The theatre now goes by this name.  Total gold production 1872-1911 was 6,800,000ozs.

This arcade was built in 1887-88 and called The Royal Arcade. In 1890 it became the Charters Towers Stock Exchange.When mining was at its peak this exchange had 3 calls a day.  I guess busy for its time!


There are 3 boarding schools here.  St Mary's opened in 1892.  the State High School opened in 1912 and the Mount Carmel College opened in 1902.
Education  is also delivered from here to children in the outback in the famous 'distance education' programs and international students who seek an Australian curriculum  certificate enrol as full fee paying students.

The entrance to the cinema/theatre.  Lovely auditorium.

We saw "Steaming" here. Very good.

Charters Towers was the birthplace of the ALP.  Bob Katter is the Independent for this seat of Kennedy which is huge!  His father left the Labor party when it lurched too far to the left.  It'll be interesting to see what happens in this election. I suspect Bob will hang on?

The US Army Airforce had their airfield on the site of the present airport.  During world war 2 15,000 US personnel were stationed here.

  street scenes

The bowlers have the weather under control with a retractable sun block "roof".

Arthur and Tony swapping Addresses in the bar at the Civic Club. He has promised to send us a box of mangoes.  This town has mango trees all over the place and most of the fruit just falls to the ground and rots!

At the Civic Club. The other side of this room was a mirror image. Both tables in beautiful playing condition.  Made round 1901.