We left Wiepa about midday, jubilant that the fix seems to have worked, Chris at Kowari Motors was great - and he sent all of the bills to Fuso! We headed off towards Iron Range! But then Joe spotted a short cut, "should only take a few minutes longer" he said. So we turned in at Picanninie Plains! where the sign said it was a conservation area. The road was not too bad although only a minor road, but it became less and less travelled.
Until it was more like an animal track than a vehicle track. The GPS was still leading towards the highway though so we pressed on.
Well eventually the road petered out completely!
But the highway was only less than a km away -surely!
So we went across country, using the GPS to guide us towards the highway. You can see from the above photos that there has been a fire though the area so there was not much debris on the ground. There were as many termite mounds as trees. However it was a bit novel!
Eventually we saw the highway.... And then we saw the fence, with a maintenance road running along it. In the photo the highway is the other side of the fence to Joe.
There was a barbed wire fence between us and the highway! Should we go back? "Not on your life" says Joe. So he dismantled the fence at a couple of spots and laid a couple of logs over the strands of wire, -and simply drove over it. Of course he repaired the fence again -as good as it was when we found it. And we were away again.
First camp in the Iron Range National Park is in tall majestic rain forest. But we arrived after dark so we'll see it in the morning. For now we can hear cat birds calling. In the morning and over the next week we hope to see Palm Cockatoos, Eclectus parrots! and Yellow Billed Kingfishers. And we might also see a striped possum, Cus Cus, green python, all of which occur only in the rainforests of Cape York. WOW!
Saturday 9th Nov.
This camp ground is on the banks of the Claudie River, which at this time of year is a series of stagnant billabongs. In the torch light last night we saw red eyes. They were about 2-3 inches apart, and turned to face us when we rustled the leaves at a safe distance up the bank. Eventually there were 5 sets of eyes looking at us. We reckon they were all from the same batch, young crocodiles. We couldn't tell their length and we weren't going closer to look. We didn't know if Mama was nearby!
This morning I was up early to the sound of lots of unfamiliar bird calls. One which was loud and close tantalised me until Joe suggested it might be a rifle bird. Out came the App and sure enough -the magnificent rifle bird. I have seen it fluttering between trees but haven't yet gotten a good look! It seems to be common here though so eventually I should get a look.
But I did see an Eclectus parrot! It was a fleeting glimpse of a male with his bright green back and red armpits. We had been hearing sounds from a tree across the river for some time, thinking they could be the Eclectus. And so I feel very happy that I have seen one. But I still want to see a female with her bright colours. These are very special birds only found on the top of the Cape. They are terribly sought after for collectors around the world.,
Last time we were here (~Jan 1984) we camped in cook' shut. Then it was a corrugated iron and timber shack, probably built by a miner or prospector. It was in a clearing with mango trees around it. We camped there for a couple of days until a miner passing by stopped to tell us that a cyclone was coming and we'd better go with him. So that's what we did. We certainly experienced cyclonic winds but not the full fury of the storm.
Iron range and cook's hut were very adventurous destinations then. Very few people had been here. We of course were interested in the insect fauna. But there is a lot more known about the special flora and fauna here now. The rainforest here looks nothing like the Eungella rainforest for example. There are very few of the rainforest trees here that we recognise.
Now cook' shut has been turned into a camping area. There remains a few stones of the fireplace but nothing more to explain even the name of the camp-site. I guess something like that old hut can't last forever, but it seems a little sad that there isn't a bit of a story. However it does make a pleasant lunch spot. The mangoe trees are still here.
Rainforest covered in dust is a very sad thing-almost a contradiction in terms. We have been seeing this in all of the rainforest areas we have passed through since Daintree. Apparently there was no wet last year, so this might be 2 year's worth of roadside dust!
We have had overcast skies and a couple of the lightest of rain sprinkles in the last couple of days. And whilst we do not want the wet to start yet, a short sharp downpour would freshen things up a bit. So long as it stops there that would be great. We have no influence with any gods at all, so if anyone else amongst our friends has any influence with the weather gods please make some remonstrations for us....but be careful what you ask for!
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