On our way again -Eungella.

At last we are going north towards Cape York. This will be quite an adventure, with world class 4WD tracks. As always for this trip we will be racing the onset of the wet season, which can cut roads making them impassable even for high clearance 4WDs. Joe has done this trip once before, but I have only been to and from the tip by boat and plane. I did a locum in Bamaga in 1983. I arrived there after a pandora expedition!

On that occasion Joe went to Bamaga by road. And the wet season started as he was leaving Cairns. I was in Bamaga when the rain stared bucketing down. Visibility was down to about 50 meters, and the rivers were rising rapidly. In those days there was no bridge over the Wenlock and no barge on the Jardine River. The big danger was getting caught between these two big rivers at the onset of the wet. If you did get stuck there was no getting out until after the wet and the rivers went down. That could be 6 months. Joe did get stuck! And was eventually winched across the Jardine. We had the Suzuki in the north for a couple of months, and later had it taken to Cairns on the barge. 

So we hope that there is not a repeat of this story this year!

We left Brisbane a few days ago, going via Mt Glorious where we spent an evening with old friends. These are friends we knew in the 1980s, and who shared an interest in home made wines (as well as insects). Joe surprised us when he brought out a 1978 onion wine that had been maturing under his parents house for all these years. And it was quite nice. This was just right occasion to enjoy it! 

We then travelled to Eungella by the western route, camping two nights on the way, in the Connondale Forest reserve, and the Cooningla state forest. Both these spots were lovelly. In particular the Connondale forest reserve was very rich with bird life. We spotted scaly breasted lorikeets among the rainbow lorikeets in the flowering eucalypts. 

Coming up the back road to Eungella also brought back memories. In 1981 we were returning from a locum in Normanton. It had been a particularly hot and humid summer and Normanton and the gulf country were very brown. I saw Eungella on the map as we passed through the mining towns west of Mackay. I had been to Eungella as a child and remembered that it was cool and green. So we looked for a way to get there from the west. We came across the pipeline running west from Eungella dam and decided to follow it to see if we could get to Eungella. It was a very rough trip, at one point going along a river bed, but we did make it. (Later they built a road along a similar route and this was the road we were looking for). We were stunned by the beauty of the Eungella area. It was so green after the western country we had been in for the last few months. Co-incidentally we camped on Diggings road where we later bought our property.

Anyway, looking for the pipeline road, we missed the turnoff to Eungella. When we found the pipeline we found a locked gate! This required a back track and 2 hours wasted! So we eventually got to our Eungella property after 10pm. As always it was great getting here. 

It is quite a few years since we have been here in September. It has been very dry, but right now as I type I can hear thunder from the west. Some of our trees have not survived, but generally we are in time to save them by watering. 

One of the things we enjoy here is bird watching. September apparently brings a different group of birds. The cedar near our deck is flowering and it is full of Scarlett honeyeaters. We have seen these birds only twice before, so this is a lovelly surprise. 

And we have had more surprise. We have seen only one ever Noisy Pitta here. This is such a beautiful bird but it is very shy. We saw one in the first month we were here in 1988, but not since - until this morning. One flew past us when we were sitting on the deck, with tourquoise glinting in the sun. Then we realised that we were hearing a new bird call which we couldn't recognise. So out came the bird app (Morcombe's bird book with recorded bird calls) and sure enough it is the Pitta calling almost incessantly. I do recommend this app for any bird watchers with an idevice. 

The bird illustrations used in this blog are screen dumps from the Morcombe app. 

We are using the Earthcruiser for power here, with a second fridge plugged in to the Earthcruiser batteries, and a lead to the shed for lights. I also used the EC power to use my food processor this morning. What a luxury -previously not experienced at Eungella.

Our plan is to stay here until next Friday when we will be going to Ayr to meet up with my cousin (Ron).