Bill and Marika's Travel snaps.

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 Cape York in June and July 2012

Home Leg through Cobram

Dingos sleeping behind our TVan. Waiting to annoy us in the morning.

These are vicious cowards. We don't feed them, so they get annoyed and nip at you from behind.

A thousand curses on the idiots who fed them a few days before we arrived. The dogs will now have to be shot by a Ranger.

The Ferry that takes 4WD's to Fraser Island

Uli and Marika walking the Glendower dogs at Inskip Point.

Merambas

Blue faced honey eaters feeding a Noisy Friarbird. Lord knows why?

Blue faced Honey eater at Inskip Pont Camp

Our camp on the beach, at Inskip Point with Lee, Gil. Peter and Uli.

Inship point. Yes, another sunset. I cannot resist them.

Lunch at Parkes Radio Telescope. The visitors centre is well worth a visit.

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Returning home via the coast. Will spend a few days at Inskip Point opposite Fraser Island with friends. Peter, Uli, Lee and Gill.

Peter and Uli will be returning via the Newell Hwy with us.

The famous Chilli Beach. Looks good with a sunset and coconut palms.

Iron Range National Park.

Same place as above BUT a close look at the beach. This mess stretches some 200km and is the result of Indonesia and Asia's dumping rubbish at sea. The currents wash it up on this stretch.

Lots of thongs in this mess. Efforts to clean it up are not successful. It is back again within days.

Group Hug at Chilli Beach. A disappointing place made worse by QLD National Parks insisting you pre book all sites in QLD weeks before you arrive!! We never know when we are going to arrive anywhere. It depends on so many factors.

Unamed flowers Iron Range NP

Aboriginal Drawings dated at 13000 years. A mythical 'Quinkan' on the RHS.

Dingo, Platypus and a woman are evident.

Red tailed black cockatoo.

Lakeland NP

Egret. Low Lake .

Lakeland National Park.

Green Pygmy Goose at Low Lake. Lakeland NP

Lotus

Lakeland NP

Back to Pat's place at Yungaburra. Marika and Lee paddling back in after a canoe across Lake Tinaroo

Lake Tinaroo in Pat's backyard. A campfire meal in the making.

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This part of the trip with our friends, Kim Barry, Ruth and John, takes us from Cairns area through the World Heritage Area of the Daintree and Cape Tribulation National Parks. Onward up tp the Tip of Australia, out to Thursday Island, backdown to Weipa on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Finally across to the Iron Range National Park and Chilli Beach. We are now spending a few days in Yungaburra servicing the car and fixing minor damage.

Bloomfield Falls. Wujal wujal native title area. Just past the Daintree.

Cape Tribulation Lookout. The Great Barrier Reef is further out.

Coloured Sands Elim Beach. A drive along the beach at low tide.

Coloured Sands Elim Beach.

Back to the cars on the Beach.

Elim Beach

Crab sand patterns Cape Tribulation NP

Waiting for Barry Kim and party at Ellis Beach, to arrive from Cairns.

Fruit Bat Falls. Telegraph Track.

Interesting Fungi.

A curious Goanna, watching our camp.

We helicoptered out to Thursday Island. They picked us up at the beach behind our Tvan.

Palm Creek Crossing. Telegraph Track. Cape York Peninsula.

Not for the faint hearted.

Some don't make it!

Try explaining this to the insurance company.

Oh! I was just minding my own business when.....

Pitcher Plant. Telegraph Track.

Jabiru. Along the Telegraph Track.

Interpretive Native guide. Showing Kim how to make soap from the leaves of the soap tree.

Some of the Rock art.

 Known as "Peaceful Doves"

These areas are also crocodile infested. In fact most of the Cape is.

Elim Beach sunset. Looking the beach we drove along, is in the distance, so we could access the 'coloured sands'.

Mangrove in the foreground.

A flower growing on a mangrove.

Elliot Falls. A very inaccessible set of falls. Telegraph track.

Thursday Island, Showing Monday and Tuesday Islands in the background.

Torres Straight Island group.

Marika with a painted Lady Crayfish. These are quite different than the Bass Straight crays we are used to. They grow to medium size after 3-4 years due to the hot water. As the surface water heats they migrate to deeper cooler waters during the wet season. Often walk 50-100 km.

All are cuaght by hand. No pots. But as they go deeper and are inaccessible to divers during the migration, the season ends until the water cools again and they return.

An orchid on the Telegraph track.

Palm Cockatoo. Fairly rare and only found at the tip of Cape York Peninsula.

This one visited a tree by our camp several times.

Termite nests. On the Development Road somewhere on Cape York.

Tvan and Landcruiser in back ground.

A long journey.

We have now stood on 3 of the 4 extremes of the continent.

The 4th one next year in Western Australia.

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The trip continues. Porcupine National Park to Ellis Beach, Cairns. 30/6/2012

Above, A yellow Bellied Sunbird Female admiring itself in Bill's Teapot.

Bush Stone Curlew in Camp at Ellis Beach. They make a screaming

 gut wrenching noise at night.

Delicate Fungi from rainforest floor. Lake Eacham Rainforest

Brush Turkies.

Lake Eacham Rainforest.

Marika swinging on a vine. Tarzan took the snap.

Pat, Marika and Bill

Pat's Backyard with out TVan.

Kangaroo with Joey

Lake Eacham. Yungaburra.

A reunion with some old friends at Ellis Beach. We spent a cold and wooly night behind a flooded creek with them on the Oodnadatta track a couple of years ago.

Bill under a Ficus tree. Rainforest Atherton Table lands.

A Banksia of some sort at Undarra Lava tubes.

Currawong. Always waiting to pinch your food.

Dinosaur bone hunt near outback Longreach.

The bones were set in plaster before removing.

Elliot the Dino and the recovered bones so far.

Found only in Australia.

Elliot looked like this.

A Galah trying to demolish the anti dust rubbers on the 4WD.

Grass seeds in the early morning sun.

Porcupine National Park.

We accidentally ran into Ian and Di from Killiecrankie, near neighbours of ours..

We had a deep discussion about the mysterious 'Min Min Lights'

which are often seen in this area.

An Orchid in the tree next to our camp at Porcupine NP

For John Dick to identify.

Potaroo in camp at Porcupine NP

Rainbow Lorikeet.

 Cape York in June and July 2012

Our trip so far has been in the pursuit of National Parks where there is walks etc etc. The parks we have visited are devoid of walks  unless you fancy a walk along the road in, tramping in the bull dust. In Outback Queensland,there are no facilities and fires are banned every where at all times of the year. The nights are cold at around zero but clear blue skies heating up to 23-24 Deg C during the day with a light breeze.

So Far we have twitched over 80 birds.

Gulpa Island deserted camp site under Red Gums. Very quiet spot.

Nankeen  Heron

Carrawinya National Park

Deserted camp spot well away from the White Cliffs opal fields.

Paroo River. Near our camp. Lots of bird life here. I really must buy a good lens so I can get closer shots of the birds.

Longreach. A tree full of destructive Corellas There are featers and leaves every where over the ground. We visited the well run "Stockmans Hall of fame" A must for well presented reviews of early Australian life including the Kelly Gang etc.

A Darter. These birds swim under the water for quite long distances. When surfacing for air only their long sinuous neck (snake like) apears above the water while taking a breath of air.

The Native Companion or Brolga. This one was looking for grubs in the gaden of the Stockmans Hall of Fame.

Marika looking at a native dug water hole in the Eulo area.

These were the only water supply for the natives in drought times and their lives depended on them.

Bustard trying to make out its one meter tall.

Cooking  a Lamb Roast

Bladensburg National Park.