Daintree Day 2 – Beaches and Swamps

Daintree, Queensland, 24 to 25 July 2022
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View from the Kulki Boardwalk at dusk.

The last post was an infrared post at Cape Tribulation. This first image was the only “normal” image from that day. The rest of the images in this post are from the following day.

As we got up, this bush turkey was one of two wandering around below our verandah.

Only about a kilometre from where we were staying at Cape Trib, this is Myall Beach.

I’m not even sure whether this small island has a name.

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Fascinating patterns in the sand.

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To get to Myall Beach, we walked past Madja Boardwalk, which we are now about to visit.

Part of Madja Boardwalk is rainforest and part mangrove swamp. This is rainforest.

Fan palms overhead.

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And as you might have guessed, this is amongst the mangroves. They are very shallowly rooted, the soil is poor and the roots come up to air to breathe.

Basket fern.

Staghorn ferns.

Mangrove roots.

Fish.

Crab.

Mangrove roots.

Curious flowering plant.

As we were driving south, we encountered a cassowary. We pulled well off the road but others just stopped in the road, generating some ire from a car of locals.

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We headed for Cape Kimberly Beach because it looked like an interesting remote location on the map. This is Snapper Island, viewed lengthwise.

We the walked along the beach, towards the small point in the distance. If you were to keep walking long enough (and if it were possible to continue), it wold turn into the Daintree river.

Patterns in the sand.

Red-capped plover.

Driftwood in the sand.

Getting closer to the intended destination.

The tree is impressive, but its roots are being eroded.

Natural antler sculpture.

Large natural wood sculpture.

Curious natural work of art.

It must be a very wild place at times.

Branches stretching towards the island…

We were warned by the local in a previous image not to leave it too late to cross the stream in the middle of the beach. Jools left early while I was still taking photographs and is walking along the beach in the distance. The water had risen but the stream did not prove a problem.

Exposed roots in the sand.

Back at the end of the beach where we started.

Daintree River Wildlife

Mar5

Daintree River, Queensland, 22 July 2022
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We got up early for a dawn wildlife cruise on the Daintree River with Murray Hunt of Daintree Boatman Wildlife Cruises.

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Early on, there were a few Brahman cattle on the banks.

… together with a few young ones and also some cattle egrets.

Common tree snake, hidden in the foliage at the edge of the river.

Australasian Darter at top right. I suspect the bird at bottom left is a juvenile pied heron.

(Click on image for a better view).

Common tree snake.

Flowering plant beside the river.

Common tree snake.

I think this is a Striated Heron.

… and away it goes….

Great-billed Heron.

Salt water crocodile (this one called “Lumpy”).

Swimming not advised.

Common tree snake.

Sacred Kingfisher (above) and Black Bittern (below).

Cattle Egret.

Azure Kingfisher.

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Papuan Frogmouth.

Saltwater crocodile (“Lumpy”).

(Not “Lumpy”).

A flock of white birds in the sky.

… descending into a tree.

Where we can see they are cattle egrets.

I think a Little Pied Cormorant.

Rainbow Bee-Eater (male).

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He’s just about to take off but I didn’t successfully manage to catch him in flight.

On a new perch.

Welcome Swallow.

Mossman Gorge

Feb19

Mossman Gorge, Queensland, 20 July 2022
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We travelled south from Cooktown to Mossman where we stayed at a delightful B&B near the entrance to Mossman Gorge. In the morning during breakfast I photographed a few birds on the feeder, having their brreakfast perhaps.

Macleay’s Honeyeater.

Helmeted Friarbird.

After breakfast we proceeded to Mossman Gorge.

In many ways I found the Gorge quite disappointing. Rather than being a quiet place to commune with nature, it is for the most part a giant tourist trap. The Visitors’ Centre I found to be something of a travesty. Its only purpose was to sell you things. there was no historical or ecological information about the area and even maps of walking trails were not available. Fortunately I had already printed one out before we left Canberra.

The gorge itself was fine, at least when you had got off the main metal walkway and onto the less frequented loop track.

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I did not include the humans by choice, I had no option, despite this being a scenic viewpoint from the main track.

A bush turkey, very common in Queensland including in suburbs.

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Lots of fish in the river.

Cooktown Monochromes

Feb12

Cooktown, Northern Queensland, 17 to 19 July 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.)

Mouth of the Endeavour River from Grassy Hill Lookout.

Laura and Cooktown Infrareds.

Grassy Hill Lighthouse from 1886.

Cooktown and Rock Art.

Rock Art.

Enroute to Rock Art.

Rock Art.

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Keating’s Lagoon.

Keating’s Lagoon (Mulbabidgee).

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(Still Keating’s lagoon).

Laura and Cooktown Infrareds.

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Keating’s Lagoon (Mulbabidgee).

Laura and Cooktown Infrareds.

Keating’s Lagoon (Mulbabidgee).

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Black Mountain or Kalkajaka.

Laura and Cooktown Infrareds.

View from Rex Range Lookout, looking north towards the Daintree.

Keating’s Lagoon (Mulbabidgee).

Laura Monochromes

Feb5

Laura, Northern Queensland, 12 to 15 July 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.)

Views from the road between Yungaburra and Laura.

Yungaburra to Laura.

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Galahs in Laura.

Laura General Store and Pub.

Kookaburra.

Galahs.

Helmeted guineafowl.

Driving into the bush camp.

Laura Bush Camp Day 1.

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Ants’ nest in tree.

Johnny explaining rock art.

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A cave for special female ceremonies.

Laura Bush Camp Day 2.

Swimming hole with waterfall.

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Anthills. On the road again.

Back to the main rock art site.

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Back at camp. Ground cover, bush and miniature tree.

Rock art (Art by the rock).

Night skies.

Keating’s Lagoon (Mulbabidgee)

Jan15

Cooktown, Queensland, 19 July 2022
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Gastro stopped me seeing as much of Cooktown as I would have liked but we are now on our way out, heading towards Mosman Gorge. On the way we stopped at Keatings Lagoon or Mulbabidgeee.

Mulbabidgeee is a wetlands area on the outskirts of Cooktown.

I could have got closer on the way in, going off the path, but something was holding me back.

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A bit further on there is a view across the lagoon from a bird hide.

… and some distant waterbirds….

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Giant waterlily in flower.

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After a while one a bit came closer. Note the extraordinary toes.

This is a juvenile comb-crested jacana. It becomes more spectacular as an adult.

They roost and build nests on the floating lilypads.

Walking back with some reflection(s).

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The black pile of rocks in the background is Black Mountain or Kalkajaka.

This was originally a tongue of volcanic magma. Over time, heat and water led to fractures and it is now a heap of granite boulders with the solid granite core buried well beneath.

Beneath the surface rocks is a maze of passages and chambers, with sheer drops in complete darkness, pockets of bad air and likely encounters with bats and snakes. So access is prohibited and it also includes many sites sacred to Aborigines.

It houses unique wildlife, including Black Mountain boulderfrog, Black Mountain skink and Black Mountain gecko, as well as Godman’s rock-wallabies and amethystine pythons that can grow to more than five metres long. There have been numerous reports as recently as a few decades ago of an animal appearing to be a thylaceo or marsupial lion and reputedly living here, though supposedly extinct for 20,000 years.

Aboriginal legend has it that the twin-peaked black mountain was built by two brothers who were competing for the same girl. They were so invested in this task that they did not notice an approaching cyclone which blew the brothers into the cracks between the boulders and drowned the girl.

Somewhat further on, we stopped near a bridge and I took some images of the small river flowing through.

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Much further in the journey, getting close to our Mosman Gorge destination, this is the view from Rex Range Lookout, looking north towards the Daintree.

Now in our B&B near Mosman Gorge, this is the view from our bedroom window.

Laura Bush Camp Day 2

Dec25

Near Laura, Queensland, 14 August 2022
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(For the benefit of some Americans who may be reading this, this post has absolutely nothing to do with Laura Bush).

Gnaingar.

On our way to another rock art site, this is the flowers of Gnaingar, or Eucalyptus Phœnicia, or Scarlet Gum, endemic to the far north of Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia.

A kangaroo, perhaps.

Male figure.

Female figure.

Main figure a snake, probably dreamtime serpent.

Fish, perhaps.

A cave for special female ceremonies.

Inside, dragonflies on the walls.

At the next site, perhaps a family group. Appears to be made by a negative process with removal of colour.

Two females, one over a long figure perhaps snake, eel or lungfish.

Here is the site overall. You can see some of the figures shown above.

We dropped down to a pool fed by a small waterfall.

A tree trying to grow in a most surprising place.

Contorted trunk and roots of a eucalypt beside the pool.

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On the move now. Taken from a moving four wheel drive vehicle. There has been some fire stick farming going on to manage the land. This involves small scale slow cool burns that do not escape to destroy land and wildlife.

Images on the move.

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Passing a large termite mound. The black pole with a blue cap is on the vehicle.

Back to the main rock art site.

I was looking for a different perspective this time. Most of my shots on the previous day were taken with a very wide angle lens (Fujifilm 8-16mm) whereas most of these were taken with a moderate telephoto (Fujifilm 80mm macro).

These figures may be very old, maybe 20,000 years.

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The upside-down person represents someone who has transgressed fundamental rules of the society and received serious punishment such as exile or death.

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Given how far north we are, this is probably a cassowary rather than an emu.

Dingo at the front.

A wider view with many figures.

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Back at the base now, probably after dinner. The is a macro landscape with some combination of ground cover, bush and miniature tree.

Rock Art.

In other words, Art created by the Rock.

Balanda Rock Painting.

Perhaps reminiscent of the cargo cult of Papua New Guinea, this is designed to encourage the great gyroscopic whirring bird to drop from the sky.

Night sky from near the tent, a ten second exposure from 5:30am.

If you are on a PC or Mac, this image will appear very dark against the white page here. You need to click on it for a larger version to see it properly.

There is also something moving in the sky with a somewhat discontinuous light, perhaps a satellite or a plane.

Laura Bush Camp Day 1

Dec18

Near Laura, Queensland, 13 August 2022
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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.