Laura Bush Camp Day 1

Dec18

Near Laura, Queensland, 13 August 2022
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Click on any image to see it larger (If you are on a PC at least).

We got up early in the morning in Laura and set out into the bush with Johnny Murison of Jarramali Rock Art Tours.

We were zotting along in tiny four wheel drives. This is the one following us.

A brief stop along the way.

No chance of a school bus coming the other way. We are on Aboriginal land with no permanent habitations out here.

Sometimes the road was quite good.

Other times it was a little rougher.

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Definitely four wheel drive country.

From memory, it took about an hour to drive in.

Now we have arrived.

We were sleeping in a tent but there was a communal meeting room and dining room. This is the view from the veranda.

A closer view of the left end of the cliffs in front of us.

Wedge tail eagles appear.

We were sitting down for lunch when a wedge tail eagle flew past the large window, very close, maybe twenty metres away. Of course I had put the camera away and couldn’t take advantage of that opportunity. Soon after it was joined by a mate. They sat in a distant tree for a while and then climbed into the sky.

This is the best shot I got. The eagle is a long way away and the resolution is enhanced by software.

Where the Green Ants Dream (though Hertzog was not in sight).

After lunch we headed for the rock art site. On the way we encountered this ants nest, up in the tree for safety.

This appears to be another one, old and abandoned.

As you can see, we are now at the main rock art site.

The figures you see can be as old as twenty thousand years old or as recent as the late nineteenth century.

Here is Johnny explaining the associations and significance of each figure.

I remember little of what he said so I’ll just leave you to view and wonder.

The Quinkan rock art galleries are in many locations in Northern Queensland with only a few open to the public. They are listed by UNESCO as being among the top 10 rock art sites in the world.

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There is some ochre on the rock at the bottom right.

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An ancient engraving of an emu footprint.

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Walking back, a couple of details on cliffs on the far side of the canyon.

Moonrise at sunset.

Yungaburra to Laura

Dec11

Yungaburra to Laura, Queensland, 12 August 2022
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View with typical Queensland blood-red sky.

On this day we travelled north from Yungaburra to Laura. Along the way we stopped at a viewpoint for this view.

Somewhat later, the weather was quite different and so was the view.

A rather dreamy vista furher along the road.

This one is quite close by though looking in the opposite direction, which explains why the colours are quite different.

We have now reached Laura, and there are many galahs on the telegraph lines.

Laura is a massive metropolis in Northern Queensland, just like Brisbane in Southern Queensland, although the population of Laura is 228, as compared to 2.28 million for Brisbane. There are not a lot of other differences though. Here are two of the major buildings in Laura. There is the general store on the left and the pub on the right.

Across the road is the Town Hall. To the left of that is a roofed field and basketball court, so schoolchildren can play sports in the rainy season.

It is not hard to find modern technology in Laura.

So this is why the galahs have gathered. It’s feeding time.

Across the road is the motel where we stayed the night.

Later we decided to choose the pub for a meal. Some kookaburra were eating there too. Like Brisbane, there is a great choice of eating establishments in Laura. Specifically, there is the pub and the roadhouse. We’re not in Brisbane so I won’t list the eating establishments in Brisbane for comparison.

The kookaburra were joined by a blue-faced honeyeater (entomyzon cyanotis). Whether the honeyeater had made a reservation for dinner is not clear.

A kookaburra on a branch in the late afternoon sun.

I set out to capture galahs landing on or setting out from the power lines in the late afternoon light.

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This is a helmeted guineafowl (numida meleagris). Not native to Australia, it is from Africa. They are kept in farmyards to kick up a lot of noise when a fox or feral cat comes in.

And yes, there were three infrared images at the start of the post.

Atherton Tablelands Monochromes 2

Dec4

Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, and journey from Canberra, 9 to 11 August 2022.

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Links go to colour posts (with information). If an image does not have a link, the preceding one applies.

(Click on any image to see it in a larger size, if you are on a PC or tablet at least.)

Big Millstream Falls.

Atherton Tablelands in Infrared.

A stream flowing by the path on the walk down to the lower viewpoint at Tully Gorge.

Herberton and Tully Gorge.

Cliffs and trees from the lower viewpoint, Tully Gorge.

The Tully River above where the falls used to be and might be again from time to time.

Looking down also at the Tully River, downstream of the falls, now only occasionally fed by the waterfall.

Krefft’s turtle, Malanda Falls Conservation Park.

Rainforest and Sugar Gliders.

Symbiotic flowering plant.

Grey-headed Robin (Heteromyias cinereifrons).

North Johnstone River.

Funghi by the path.

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Millaa Millaa Falls.

Zillie Falls.

Atherton Tablelands in Infrared.

Zillie Falls.

Rainforest and Sugar Gliders.

Zillie Falls.

Ellinjaa Falls.

Atherton Tablelands in Infrared.

Ellinjaa Falls.

Rainforest and Sugar Gliders.

Sugar glider (petaurus breviceps longicaudatus).

Striped possum (Dactylopsila trivirgata).

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Falls on Barron River near Dinner Falls.

Atherton Tablelands in Infrared.

Dinner Falls.

Waterfalls and Striped Possums.

Mount Hypipamee Crater.

Zillzie Falls.

Back roads to Hastie’s Swamp.

Hastie’s Swamp with plumed whistling-ducks.

Striped possum and sugar glider.

Striped possum.

Atherton Tablelands Monochromes 1

Nov27

Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, and journey from Canberra, 7 to 8 August 2022.

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Links go to colour posts (with information). If an image does not have a link, the preceding one applies.

(Click on any image to see it in a larger size, if you are on a PC or tablet at least.)

Cape Pallarenda and Magnetic Island.

Canberra to Yungaburra (IR).

Probably East Feluga/ Friday Pocket area.

View from Cairns/ Atherton Tablelands Road.

Cathedral Fig Tree.

Our welcoming committee to the Atherton Tablelands.

Curtain Fig Tree.

Herberton and Tully Gorge.

Curtain Fig Tree.

Great Egret, in non-breeding plumage, Hastie’s Swamp.

Grevillea in flower, Herberton.

1942 UK Austin, ex Forestry Department, Herberton.

Boot of dead car.

Steamroller.

Atherton Tablelands in Infrared.

1936 Pontiac Flat head 6.

Herberton and Tully Gorge.

1934 Buick Straight 8.

Ancient machinery.

Atherton Tablelands in Infrared.

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Old harvesters.

From the inside looking out.

Casting a light.

Inside Elderslie House, Herberton.

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The Dispensary, Herberton.

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Waterfalls and Striped Possums

Nov13

Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, 11 August 2022
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Click on any image to see it larger (If you are on a PC at least).

In our third full day in Atherton Tablelands, we first headed off to Mount Hypipamee National Park. Here we are walking the Dinner Falls circuit.

Falls on Barron River near Dinner Falls.

Dinner Falls.

Next we walked on to the Mount Hypipamee Crater.

This is of course a volcanic crater.

From the viewing platform, there is a drop of 130 metres to the lake which is then a further 73 metres deep. It’s a long way down.

I was intrigued by the patterns on the surface of the lake.

These are partly natural and partly created by people who frequently throw rocks down into the lake. (Personally, I’d prefer it just to be natural).

Panoramic view.

After that, I decided to head off to Zillie Falls again. I had carelessly exposed my images there at high ISO the previous day so thought to try again. This image is from a viewpoint on the way.

Zillzie Falls.

In the late afternoon I was shooting into the light and I didn’t bracket enough, so there is no detail in the sky.

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I decided to head back via the bird hide at Hastie’s Swamp. That meant a long trip on the back roads, late in the afternoon. I can’t show you much of what we saw because often the light was fleeting and the narrow winding roads often meant nowhere to pull over.

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At Hastie’s Swamp I took some more photographs of the plumed whistling-ducks in challenging low light conditions of the late afternoon.

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This is the opposite shore, which about 200 metres away.

Back with the night life where we were staying, the sugar gliders were there initially but when one or two much larger striped possums turned up, they made themselves scarce.

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Here you can see the elongated fourth finger with a long hooked nail that it uses to extract insects and caterpillars from bark and cracks. In this it is similar to the very weird Aye-Aye from Madagascar. They are not related though. The Aye-Aye is a lemur and a very primitive primate whereas the striped possum is a marsupial found mainly in New Guinea and West Irian but also in coastal North Queensland.

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Rainforest and Sugar Gliders

Nov6

Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, 9 August 2022
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Click on any image to see it larger (If you are on a PC at least).

On our second full day in the Atherton Tablelands, we first headed to Malanda, which was not far. We discovered a wonderful coffee bar near the Visitors’ Centre with great coffee and perhaps the best muffins I have encountered. The owner told us he is a chef and made the muffins himself, whereas most places purchase premade cheap frozen muffins, with a corresponding cost in taste. Creeping Americanisation perhaps.

Krefft’s turtle.

We walked several trails in Malanda Falls Conservation Park on both sides of the road. We were hoping to encounter a tree kangaroo in one of a number of locations in the Atherton Tablelands but this was not to happen. However, there was lots more to see.

There were a number of these turtles swimming round near the bank at a particular location in the North Johnstone River.

I think there may have been a description of this symbiotic flowering plant in the Visitors’ Centre but I did not record it so I can’t tell you what it is.

Grey-headed Robin (Heteromyias cinereifrons).

North Johnstone River.

Funghi by the path.

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Red-legged pademelon (Thylogale stigmatica) moving quickly through the bush.

Funghi by the Path.

Millaa Millaa Falls.

Next we visited the waterfall circuit at Millaa Millaa.

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Zillie Falls.

With a bit of a scramble, I found a good location for the Zillie Falls and also took some studies of water and rocks.

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Ellinjaa Falls.

I also had in mind to visit Crawford’s Lookout, North Johnston Lookout Track, Mamu Tropical Skywalk, Innisfail and Babinda Boulders but we would have needed an extra day for that.

Returning to our accomodation at Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodges, we were able to experience nightime observations of sugar gliders (petaurus breviceps longicaudatus).

A Striped possum (Dactylopsila trivirgata) briefly appeared.

And then it was back to the sugar gliders again, feeding on the sap of a tree.

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Herberton and Tully Gorge

Oct30

Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, 7 to 8 August 2022
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Click on any image to see it larger (If you are on a PC at least).

Cairns/ Atherton Tablelands Road.

This is a view from the road from Cairns to Atherton Tablelands. I posted an infrared view from the same spot in the previous post.

Curtain Fig Tree.

In the previous infrared post we saw images of the Cathedral Fig Tree. This is a different one, close to Yungaburra where we stayed on the first night. the Curtain Fig Tree.

This tree started out as a seed dropped in the branches of a host tree, presumably excreted by a bird. Over time, the fig strangled the host, causing it to fall over against another tree and the fig roots reached to the ground, creating the curtain you see.

Over more time, the host rotted away, leaving just the fig tree. It is nearly fifty metres tall and you can get a sense of the height of the roots from the people on the platform near ground level at lower right. It is believed to be around five hundred years old.

On our way south, we dropped into the Hastie’s Swamp Bird Hide. These are plumed whistling-ducks, in the reeds near the shore.

Great Egret, in non-breeding plumage.

We next spent a few hours at Herberton. This is a grevillea in flower at the side of the path..

One of the main reasons I wanted to visit Herberton was the graveyard of old cars, which we will see more of in a future infrared post. The is a 1942 UK Austin, ex Forestry Department.

Time takes its toll.

This small bird is a Chowchilla, the southern subspecies orthonyx melasmenus with a longer beak.

Dodge emblem. The text says Dodge Brothers and is probably from the 1930s.

1936 Pontiac Flat head 6.

I don’t think this one would make a good getaway car, given that it has wooden stumps instead of rear wheels.

1934 Buick Straight 8.

The cornering ability of this one is probably suspect.

No identification for this one.

Since it has no wheels, maybe it was intended to fly.

Perhaps the front of an engine housing.

Gone full circle.

Different view of the same grevillea. I realised my shutter speed had only been 1/10 sec so retook it, but need not have worried due to image stabilisation on the lens.

Inside Elderslie House, home of J.Newell, Founder of Herberton.

Herberton was established by John Newell in 1880 for tin mining. In late 1880 it had a population of 300 males and 27 females. The Historic village opened in 1973, on the edge of the actual town of Herberton. It was created by Harry Skennar and includes buildings and artefacts from nearby and further afield. There are probably forty or fifty buildings including historic shops.

Coach House.

Day’s Garage.

The Dispensary or Chemist.

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Dispensary window ledge.

Driving on further south towards Tully Gorge, we visited Big Millstream Falls near Ravenshoe.

Tully Gorge Lookout.

That bare patch in the lower mid right is where Tully Falls was when it was the largest waterfall in Queensland. The free flow of the Tully River was stopped in 1960 by the construction of the Koombooloomba Dam, so now the falls only flow during a big wet season. The road to Tully Gorge Lookout has been sealed for only a couple of years.

A stream flowing by the path on the walk down to the lower viewpoint.

Cliffs and trees from the lower viewpoint.

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A closer view of the Tully River above where the falls used to be and might be again from time to time.

Looking down also at the Tully River, downstream of the falls, now only occasionally fed by the waterfall.

Chania Harbourside

Sep11

Chania, Crete, Greece, 19 October 2018.

(Click on any image to see it in a larger size, if you are on a PC or tablet at least.)

Looking across Chania Harbour.

We’d arrived the previous evening after driving from Sougia (previous post) and were staying nearby in the old city.

Giali Tzami (Mosque of the Seaside), taken from the same spot.

This was the first mosque built in Chania, in 1649, shortly after the Ottoman takeover. After the last Moslems left in 1923 (following the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922), it became first a museum and then an art gallery.

Chania lighthouse.

The original lighthouse was built by the Venetians between 1595 and 1601. It was destroyed in1645 after the Ottoman takeover. It was rebuilt by Egyptian troops under the Ottoman Empire in 1864, upon the original base. Crete had been run by Mohammed Ali of Egypt from 1830 to 1840, during the time when he had built an empire inside the Ottoman Empire.

Street musicians.

The Firka Fortress.

It was built in 1629 by the Venetians to protect the harbour from invaders such as the Ottomans who turned up in 1645. A chain could be raised across the harbour mouth from the fortress to the lighthouse.

A submarine in Chania Harbour?

No, not really but you can go inside it and view underwater through glass windows.

Harbour wall and a glass-bottom boat.

My guess is that there were cannons on the wall and the small building was the ammunition store.

Elegant harbour-side transport.

A reflection in the water (you probably worked that out).

Walking beside the Neoria or dockyards.

The Neoria were for maintenance of ships. There is a long history of such structures and there were similar ones in Carthage for example. The first ones were built by the Venetians in 1204, when Venice occupied Crete following the Latin conquest of Byzantium during the Fourth Crusade. By 1607 there were twenty-two Neoria. This row of seven survive, plus another single one further west.

Is it a fishing boat or a street market?

View across a flotilla of moored small boats to the Neoria.

Another elegant harbour-side transport, this time with a female driver aged maybe eight.

Minaret and bell tower behind the Neoria.

Harbour-side views.

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A view of the lighthouse from walking along the harbour wall (there was no entry).

Looking back along the harbour wall.

Walls with perhaps many stories to tell.

Boats and Neoria.

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Fishing boat and nets.

The Grand Arsenal of Chania.

This is a long building because it was originally one of the Neoria, built around 1585. It was converted to a conventional building in the mid nineteenth century and a second floor added in 1872. It was damaged by German bombing in the Second World War and reconstructed in 2002. It is now the Centre of Mediterranean Architecture and hosts events, conferences, theatrical performances, workshops and concerts.

The pseudo-submarine at the harbour mouth.

The water in the harbour is surprisingly clear.

A last look at the lighthouse….
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Sougia to Chania

Sep4

Sougia to Chania, Crete, Greece, 18 October 2018.

(Click on any image to see it in a larger size, if you are on a PC or tablet at least.)

This post covers our journey from Sougia to Chania in Western Crete.

The first images are from the road from Sougia to Palaiochora.

There are many layers here, terraces, occupied and unoccupied rural buildings.

A residence in a rocky landscape that recedes into the fog.

Perhaps a monastery and a bell tower.

I suspect it is too substantial for just a church. There is also some terracing visible, probably for crops.

A distant church on a remote peak.

This image and the next are close to Palaiochora. The previous three were close to Sougia.

Side road and tree.

This is the point of the peninsula at Palaiochora.

It is taken from the beach at the road from Sougia. There is a harbour round the other side of that point.

Extension of the previous shot, panning to the right.

Not sure why I didn’t make them join up to a panorama.

Zooming in, the Venetian fort atop the town.

It was built in 1278, destroyed in 1332, rebuilt in 1334, destroyed in 1539, rebuilt in 1595 and destroyed some time before 1834.

During the Second World War, there was a battle between German motorcycle reconnaisance troops and a Greek regiment with some Cretan Gendarmes. The Germans built gun emplacements in the fort that are still visible today.

We intended to visit the fort but couldn’t find any parking nearby. So, being concerned not to turn up too late to our accommodation in Chania, we kept driving.

A small village on a strategic ridge with a church, a graveyard and a number of buildings.

A house and a small church.

This is also visible in mid right of the previous image. There is a man, a utility and a small flock of sheep. there is also a very small village in the background, some of which appears relatively new.

Back at the village on the ridge, here is a duplex half occupied and half ruined.

The occupied half includes a spiral staircase up to a small roof balcony.

A church overlooking an ancient coastline.

However, the buildings on the point are not ancient. They are perhaps holiday homes for wealthy residents of Chania, with several swimming pools visible.

Not everyone is affluent.

This is a rocky and impoverished part of Crete where most of the young people have left to find employment and there are many derelict houses. in real estate parlance, renovators’ dreams.

Western Crete has probably been remote for a long time. I don’t know how close they were to these villages, but somewhere in the mountains of Western Crete was a group of Communists who held out twenty years after the civil war had finished in mainland Greece.

Lots of interesting detail. People live in some buildings while other buildings erode away.

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At first sight, someone is using this decaying building for their daily garage.

However, the van is not going anywhere fast. Its wheels are covered in sacks and the rear window is covered in dust.

It’s almost like a modern archaeological site.

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An olive farm on the skyline.

The last two images are somewhere near the north-west corner of the island.

Sougia and Syia

Aug28

Lissos to Sougia and Syia, Crete, Greece, 17 October 2018.

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Captain George to the rescue!

Here we are still in Lissos, the ancient ruined Minoan, Greek, Roman and Byzantine city from the last post, watching the arrival of our sea transport to return to Sougia. There was a sign onshore giving a phone number and saying he would be there in ten minutes.

A view of the cliffs from the boat on the journey back.

Sougia in the distance, taken with a very long lens.

If there’s an earthquake, I think you don’t want to be under this cliff.

Probably only the hardiest of trees can survive here.

A lone tree against the horizon.

We’re back in Sougia now.

This may be a view from where we were staying. There is a swimmer in the water and a ship on the horizon.

We went for a walk around Sougia and discovered traces of the ancient city of Syia.

A very old olive tree, probably with a net for olives wrapped around it.

These are Roman tombs.

Though Syia was a Minoan port, the excavated ruins are Roman and early Byzantine.

Much is still yet to be excavated.

There is apparently an aqueduct outside town visible from the road. There are also ruins of Roman buildings and three large early Christian Basilicas. There is more there than we saw at the time.

Remains of an ancient wall.

Another stone circle, similar to the one we saw at Lissos.

Murray Foote

Tag Archives: Nature

Laura Bush Camp Day 1

Yungaburra to Laura

Atherton Tablelands Monochromes 2

Atherton Tablelands Monochromes 1

Waterfalls and Striped Possums

Rainforest and Sugar Gliders

Herberton and Tully Gorge

Chania Harbourside

Sougia to Chania

Sougia and Syia