So we returned about 5kms to a site we had looked at on the way in -a lovelly shady riverside area big enough for both vehicles. We camped about three meters above waters level so we felt fairly safe from crocs, although we didn't see any. Stuart thought he saw eyes with his spot light though. And then he lost his lure and wanted to wade into the river to get it! It took some dissuading to prevent him doing just that.
After setting up camp we realised that we were on the aboriginal land of Kalpowar Station. However nobody hassled us and we had a nice night. In the morning we left Stuart and Nira! hopefully to meet up again in the park in the next few days.
The Lakefield Ranger base is a dry and radiating hot place! I almost passed out with the heat!
The booking system for the campsites is very awkward, requiring you to choose not only camping areas but camp sites within them, from photos and brief descriptions! This is not our style since we like to choose camp sites as far as possible from other people, and preferably move on to the next camping area hoping there will be nobody there! Joe felt he had to carefully choose sites whereas I would have paid for 4 nights in any place and then camped wherever we pleased, since there are not many people in the park at present. Consequently I sweltered whilst he chose, getting more hot under the collar as the time went by......and he explained that the computer was playing up!
Have a look at this crocodile trap at the ranger station...
...........and I don't wash my hair for a few days, and don't look in the mirror, and the roads are dusty.
There are a few sights in the Lakefield park... Red and white Lilly lagoons, with lots of water birds, and Breeza Plains Out Station. This place was run by a family for 100 years starting during the Palmer River gold rush and eventually they walked off it (sad). It has 100 year old mango trees. The mangoes are starting to ripen right now and so we picked probably more than we can eat.
Our first camp, chosen because it takes only 1party of max 2cars, was Midway Camping Area. This is a very shady spot on the banks of the Normanby River.
It rained during the night, and the moisture just disappeared into the sandy soil.
Leaving Midway camping area who should we run into at the intersection but Stuart and Nira! Great co-incidence. They suggested adding the green mangoes to the sauerkraut, and treating them as pickles. So that's what I have done!
We went together into Hanushe's camping area, just to have a look. There we saw a large crocodile cruising along the waterhole. We estimated he was more than 3.5 meters. It's difficult to estimate when you are looking through binoculars at an animal that is half underwater. But his head was big and mean looking. So we are being conservative in our estimate. Last we saw him he had submerged just across the river from us - ie about 30 m. We wondered whether he was coming across towards us underwater. Anyway it was time to leave so we will never know whether we were being hunted.....
We wanted to explore the park and Stuart and Nira wanted to move on so we agreed to meet at the Lotus Bird Lodge just outside the park in two days.
I think we visited almost every camping area in the park and travelled through a number of different vegetation types. The riverside camping areas are very similar, with only a few having no shade.
The Nifold plain was interesting - a treeless plain with termite mounds.
There were also a number of waterholes where water birds have concentrated for the end of the dry season. We saw lots of water birds including the Sarus crane -similar to the brolga but slightly different markings. It was thought to be an adaptation of the brolga until it was realised that the two didn't interbreed.
On the last evening in the park we started into Sweetwater camping area, and suddenly Joe cried out that he had seen a very big parrot. Binoculars out and it turned out to be an Eclectus parrot. This is the extreme southern tip of its range, but we got a good look and we were sure that is what it was. We also got photos (on Joe's camera so I can't post them).
Half an hour later we were at the Lotus Bird Lodge to meet up with Stuart and Nira and found the Lodge was closed and they had gone on. We spoke with the receptionist about the parrot. She said they would be out to our spotting place in the morning to look for the parrot. She also told us where Stuart and Nira had gone, so we might still catch up with them in a few days.
Disappointed that we couldn't stay at the Lodge we decided to go back to where we had seen the parrot and see if we could see it again by camping on the spot for the night. We camped on this tiny waterhole close to the tree in which the parrot was seen.
I was even up at dawn (great effort for me) but the parrot failed to show. Oh well, maybe in the McIllwraith Range or Iron Range where they are more common. But I have never seen so many birds in one place before! there were 24 different species, including a number of new ones for me. And we also had a family of pigs with at least 15 piglets, and a few wallabies come to the water hole for a drink.
We have been disappointed with Lakefield National Park. It is no 4wd challenge! There is a veritable highway through the park! Some of the tracks into the camping areas are just wheel tracks -but on very firm and level soils (at least in the dry -in the wet might be a different story). We reckon we could do this park in our daughter's Suzuki Swift! Large parts of the park are closed off with no explanation. It seems that the thing to do here is fishing -which doesn't interest us. Croc watching is good -but you can only do so much of that. The bird life is nice - but the park is really not set up for it with no bird hides, only scorching hot parking areas to view the birds from. So far we can see no good reason to return here, unless to camp in a shady area on the way through to Cooktown.
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