140908 Queensland Cairns to Atherton

Queensland, Australia 2014-09-05--09-25
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© NF Photos 140908

I woke up at 5,45 for an early start of the day. Breakast was supposed to be at 6.30 so I had to be packed and ready to leave by then. Now, it happend that the chef had overslept so there was no breakast ready. OK, change of plans then. We left for the Esplanade and trying to find the owl again. With no success. We walked around several places, but no owl. But it was a nice morning in the park of the Esplanade. 

Finally we went back and got our breakfast. But now we learned that one of the men had trouble with the eyes. Our tour guide decided he had to go to see a doctor. We left the two men off at an emergency and our birdguide took the rest of us for a birding tour around Cairns. Turned out to be quite nice. First we drove slowly through an old graveyard. Phil, the guide, did not let us out but we could take some shots from the open doors of the bus. The place was crowded with Bush-thick knees (bush stone-curlew). It was strange to see them in and around the graves. They seemed to fit in rather well.

Then we drove in to the Centenary lakes Botanic garden. It was a large park with several different areas and we spent the better time of the morning there. There was flowers, birds, butterflies, snakes, trees, lots of things.  Most famos for having both sweet and salt water lakes. The best Botanic Garden I´ve ever been to. Later on I will probably have to make a post for that place only. I think this species is a Carpet python. What you can see is about half the lenght of it.

We also visited Machans beach, close to Cairns, a nice, sandy, beach. It was probably low tide when we visited.
Me on the beach to the left.  

After having some lunch we realised our two lost men would not be ready to continue. It was decided they had to go by cab to the lodge for the evening and the rest of us went on our way to visit some of the planned places for the day.  So, we headed inland. Straight to Granite Gorge. It is  a Nature Park as well as a camping site. And they hosted the lovely little Rock Wallaby and two Tawny Frogmouth. And I could finally touch a Termite Mound to see what it felt like. I have a post with the Rock Wallabies and a video HERE. It shows how you can feed the small ones with pellets. The one here has a baby in her pouch. So tiny you could probably have it all in your hand. The head probably not more then 2 cm.

 

The Tawny Frogmoth was sitting in a tree that had a table beside it. To get better shots I climbed the table to click from there. Then I overheard Phil, our guide, talking to some other guests. They pointed out that I was on the table. He explained it like this: oh, she is from Sweden!  Giggling. Like that should explain it all. :)

After Granite Gorge we made two more stops before going to Chambers. Our lodge for the next two nights. Our two men was already there. And as it seemed OK.  I got an entire appartment all by myself in the djungle. How cool is that! Agreat place from what I can tell. We spend a few moments to look around and get our things to the rooms. Then we had dinner and the birdlist done. This place is DARK! You need the flashlight if you want to go out.

Uploaded todays images, washed up some clothes and took a shower. Then...sleep!

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Labels:    Resor, travel, trip, journey, Sverige, Sweden, sky, photo, photography, Monica Johansson, NatureFootstep, nfphoto, NF_photo, nature, natur, fågelskådning, birding, resa, travel, Australia, Australien, Botanic Gardens, Queensland  bush stone-curlew, Bush-thick knees, Cairns, Centenary Lakes, Machans beach, Queensland, Carpet python, Rock wallaby, tawny frogmouth.Chambers,