To Moreton Telegraph Station

Leaving Lotus Bird Lodge was a wee bit of a wrench. We had been so well looked after, and the wildlife was abundant.

Most of the day was devoted to travelling. There was still a good long way to reach Cape York itself.

We stopped in Coen. Not a major centre, even by local standards. The population at the last census was 320. The main reason to stop was probably to have a coffee break, but there was a small museum and an active bird population.

What a great name for a museum

History in bottles

Unsophisticated humour.

Before we set off, Bill made a list of ten bird species he would really like to see. Coen produced one of them. Alas, it was the only one of the ten we saw in the wild.

The Sahul Sunbird (until recently named the Olive-backed Sunbird) is a small nectar-feeder that occupies much the same ecological niche as a hummingbird.

Galahs are found all over Australia

Another hour's driving saw us lunching at the Archer River Roadhouse. It occurred to us to wonder how the Peninsula Development Road generated enough custom to support the business, but then there is no competition anywhere near.

Another example of apostrophe abuse.

We suspect it is an old sign and no longer enforced. There were no campers, guests or dogs tied up.

Our destination for the night was Weipa (rhymes with creeper). It exists because of the bauxite resource, which is shipped from Weipa to aluminium smelters elsewhere in Australia. The smelter in NZ was not mentioned. More posh accommodation at the Albatross Bay Resort.

Sunset from the resort.

The main attraction of the tour's Day 7 was a cruise. To fill in time we were taken to Rocky Point, where the sea shore was populated by wading birds and the sky by terns.

Great Egrets usually pace slowly through the shallows when looking for food.  This one took a much more active approach and is seen here pouncing on a small fish.

A Striated heron

A Lesser Crested Tern

There was time for some shopping; the tour recognises that we wrinklies need to pop in to a pharmacy now and then.

No royalties, alas.

The cruise was described in the itinerary as “on the Embley River”. It would be more accurate to say “across the Embley River from Evans Landing and up Robets Creek”. We were promised wildlife, including big salt water crocodiles. It certainly delivered. Mud banks in the wide Embley River were home to a couple of large crocodiles. Robets Creek was much narrower, though still a very navigable mangrove-lined waterway. More crocodiles had their resting places here, and many water birds. In addition to those illustrated below, we saw a Sacred Kingfisher, oystercatchers and stilts.

The tour boat returning from its earlier cruise.

4 metres of reptile on an Embley River mud bank.

They were not noticeably smaller amongst the mangroves of Robets Creek.

A Great Egret hunting in more typical style

A Great-billed Heron

There's only one species of pelican in Australia, the Australian Pelican.

Not just water birds.  This is a Brahminy Kite.

Yet another Great Egret, this time in flight.

Sacred Ibises

Robets Creek is used as an anchorage by a few commercial fishing vessels. We wondered whether the wrecks we saw were the result of tropical storms, but the creek is fairly well sheltered, or as a dumping ground for unwanted vessels.

Back at Evans Landing a flock of unfamiliar birds wheeled overhead. Ashley, the Aussie birder recognised them at once as frigate birds. Determining which species they were was not easy.

Almost certainly a Great Frigate Bird

Then it was on to Moreton Telegraph Station, now an Outback Spirit lodge, and some more cosseting.

Lotus Bird Lodge

The lodge is in, or adjacent to, Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park. It's a lovely location beside a large billabong (lake) crowded with plants and water birds. Some of the latter, and a small mob of Agile Wallabies, were clustered near the dining area when we arrived. Such a delightful welcome is orchestrated by scattering food for the wallabies at the same time every afternoon. The birds are on the lookout for any morsels they can grab.

An Agile Wallaby and her joey

A Bar-shouldered Dove

The accommodation was in very pleasant cabins, each one named after a bird and suitably illustrated. Ours was “Jabiru” aka Black-necked Stork. Reliable wi-fi was available in the dining area, and occasionally the signal reached our cabin. The fact that there was any wi-fi at all in this location was impressive.

"Jabiru" with its deck

A machine dispensed espresso coffee 24/7, there were drinks available before and during dinner and the chef was an artist. There once was a time when I preferred my national parks carrying a tent on my back, but if luxury cannot be avoided I will stiffen the upper lip and tough it out with the best of them. I'll even use the coffee machine!

The big adventure at Lotus Bird Lodge is a helicopter flight over the national park. It's a small helicopter with room for the pilot and 3 passengers, so it takes many flights to make sure everyone gets a ride.

Neither of us is terribly keen on helicopter rides, and this machine has an interesting feature – no doors. Bill is an acrophobe (having an irrational fear of heights) and being able to look vertically down when the ground is hundreds of feet below is about the worst situation he can imagine. Whether he would undo his harness and jump out he doesn't know, but it is certain he would not enjoy the flight and he decided it would be foolhardy to test the hypothesis that he would not jump. The pilot was very good about it, and didn't try to coax Bill into flying. It was made clear that if he should change his mind then they would take him up.

Eve decided to go.

Eve is in the front seat.  Removing the doors must give a much better view for those who are not scrunching their eyes up in terror.

Take off!

Fortunately, Eve enjoyed it very much.  Here is a sample of her photographs.

While Eve was away some feral cattle wandered by.  

This mother did not put her horns on straight this morning!

The other group activity for the day was a guided walk around the billabong. Those that were to fly in the afternoon walked in the morning, and vice versa.

Eve flew in the morning, so we were in the afternoon hike. The morning walkers had seen a snake. The reptile had no sense of the dramatic and simply wriggled away. Would be be equally lucky?

A Yellow Ants nest

The main part of the billabong

Black-fronted Dotterel

Blue-winged Kookaburra

Comb-crested Jacana

A Darter preparing to take off.

An Agile Wallaby in the billabong

Blue-faced Honeyeater

Magpie Goose taking off

Forest Kingfisher

A Brolga in flight

No snake on our walk, but we did see this Yellow-spotted Goanna.  The experts at iNaturallist have identified it as the Eastern Argus subspecies.

While we were at Lotus Bird Lodge we discovered that there was another birder. Karleen was also aiming her camera at the avifauna, and we were able to swap intelligence about the species of kingfisher we had seen and where the Frogmouth was perching. We got on well with her and her husband, Blythe, and we are still in touch.

Cape Tribulation and Cooktown

In the morning after our stay at Heritage Lodge we were taken for a stroll on Cape Tribulation Beach. As your history studies have no doubt told you, this was named by Captain Cook, when he was only a Lieutenant, after his ship struck a reef. The beach was very pleasant, and we all heeded the warning to stay at least 5 metres from the water's edge in case of crocodiles.

Bill wasn't the only bird nerd on the tour. Ashley and his wife, Robyn, were really serious about birds. Ashley has a web site “aussiebirder”. They could be a little bit intense, but now and then it was helpful to have someone who could identify a bird we had not seen clearly.

Oddly enough, Ashley didn't spot the birds flying acrobatically to the South of the beach. Bill's photos confirmed that they were swifts or swiftlets, which narrows it down to only 6 possible species. By the parked bus Ashley and Robyn were debating which honeyeater they had seen. By a happy accident Bill had a photo that revealed enough detail to confirm it as a Yellow-spotted.

Cape Tribulation Beach

The Yellow-spotted Honeyeater

After the beach walk we settled down for some real far-North driving. The tour itinerary describes the Bloomfield Track as “infamous”. As we were near the end of the dry season the surface wasn't too bad and the creek crossings not too deep. But we could see why the road would be closed in the wet season.

The scenery was always worth watching, but if you wanted to check your emails the bus had wi-fi. We guess that it was via satellite because cellphone coverage North of Cairns is very restricted.

Another piece of technology in the bus was a 'road cam'. The view straight ahead was displayed on a screen so that we passengers could see ahead. It's not something that either of us had wished for on previous bus journeys, but it was a nice extra perspective.

Towards the end of the morning we stopped at the Bloomfield Falls. The tour information described a 1km walk over a rough, stony creek bed. The reality was about 100m across rocky ground to a good viewpoint, with the falls about another 200m. We admired the waterfall, took our photos and returned to the bus.

Lunch was at the Lions Den Hotel. Shame about the missing apostrophe. If you are saying to yourself that there are no lions in Australia, you are quite right. The hotel is named after the nearby Lions Den tin mine. The mine was named because of a miner named Daniel. Upon seeing Daniel standing in the opening of the tunnel, the owner of the mine characterized him as Daniel in the Lions Den, and the name took to the mine.

The pub is genuinely old for this part of the world, having been founded in 1875. It makes much of its dated appearance, with walls covered in notes left by the miners of the 18^th Century. But the food and service were entirely modern.

The flower of a Cannonball Tree, growing beside the pub.  Unfortunately, we have since discovered that several trees have this common name and have not yet been able to determine which species this is.  If you know, please leave a comment.

Also outside the pub, a beautiful but so far unidentified flower.  If you can help with ID please leave a comment.

Cooktown takes its name from being the place where Cook beached his ship for repairs in 1770. It is a major town on the Cape York Peninsula, despite having a population of fewer than 3,000. It has a good museum and very nice Botanic Gardens.

Foxtail Palms

A Spangled Drongo

Wompoo Fruit-dove

Sunset from Grassy Hill

From Cooktown the tour took us to the Old Laura Homestead, a cattle station from the early years of European settlement. Then on to Split Rock and some Aboriginal rock art. The art was not as protected from the elements as the examples we saw in Kakadu in 2009, so the images were less distinct. However, there were helpful information signs at the site so we could get an understanding of what we were seeing.

There are animals and humanoid supernatural beings in this panel

A bloodwood tree near the rock art site, so named because it has red sap.

To minimise the risk of devastating bush fires, the Aboriginal people start "cold fires" to remove the underbrush. There is a fuller explanation here.

By now we were getting used to the red earth roads and creek crossings. The bush was much more open here than in the Daintree area, and amongst the gum trees were many mounds of the magnetic termite, Amitermes meridionalis. The colony builds mounds with a North-South alignment, so that it makes most use of the morning and evening sun, while minimising the risk of overheating at midday.

We should have had a compass to check the accuracy of the alignment. 😏

A pair of Brolgas in a pond beside the road

It is impossible to photograph the bus fording a creek from the inside, but here is a random vehicle navigating the Kalpowar Crossing.

We arrived at Lotus Bird Lodge in good time for a pre-dinner drink.