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.

The Guided Tour Begins

We were scheduled to be picked up at 12:50 and warned that we should have lunch first. In the event, the pick up was early, but happily we had had an early lunch, too.

The bus was a 26-seater, but the maximum on this tour is 10 couples. There was a solo traveller, so 19 of us all up. The pairs of seats were all numbered, apparently haphazardly, and there was a notice with the location of seat numbers. If we were in, say, seats 10 on one day this would tell us where seats 11 were, which we were to ride in the next day. This system makes sure that over time everyone rides on the left side and the right side, and towards the front or the back. No-one 'owns' a particular seat.

The driver and organiser were a couple. Grant did the driving, the on-road commentaries and attended to the luggage. Debbie organised room keys and catering. Often this involved pre-ordering meals so we had to select meals from two or three options hours or even days in advance. A feature of Outback Spirit tours is the inclusion of 'real', i.e. espresso, coffee at breakfast and alcoholic drinks with dinner. Debbie said she had a budget for these – and always went over it. Not that we saw anyone indulging to excess.

The first day was a simple drive to Port Douglas. We saw lots of sugar cane growing. There was a stop at the Port Douglas Sugar Wharf before we checked in to the Sheraton Resort. No budget accommodation on this tour! We climbed back onto the bus to be taken to Flagstaff Hill, where we admired and photographed the view.

The Sugar Wharf and Trinity Bay, Port Douglas

Four Mile Beach from Flagstaff Hill

A bus tour would be impossible without a clear timetable. We had our bags packed by the appointed hour, and only had to leave them outside the room. Sheraton employees would transfer them to the bus and Grant would load them.

For our 'cabin' bags we used the nice little backpacks supplied to us by Outback Spirit, including a very practical water bottle. From Port Douglas we were going on a couple of bush walks so Eve popped her hiking pole in her backpack. Bill carried the backpacks from the room to breakfast and afterwards out to the bus. Along the way the pole disappeared! Since the bus carried extra poles it wasn't a disaster, but it remains a mystery.

The first walk was the Mossman Gorge in the Daintree National Park. Our indigenous guide, Levi, pointed out the uses of many of the plants along the way.

Just outside the Mossman Gorge Centre was this Giant Golden Orbweaver.

The most dangerous plant in Australia. Dendrocnide moroides, commonly known in Australia as the stinging tree, stinging bush, or gympie-gympie, is a plant in the nettle family Urticaceae. It is notorious for its extremely painful and long-lasting sting.

A harmless Basket Fern

Our guide, Levi.

An unidentified lizard

Some of the trees have buttress roots that jut out like the fins on a spaceship. Levi demonstrated how effective these are for communication by thumping the root with a rock. An accomplice at the Gorge Centre was listening for this and sent a reply.

The next activity was sitting down in a boat on the Daintree River. The notable wildlife here was not spiders, but Saltwater Crocodiles.

A 4-metre crocodile.  That's medium sized here.

Mangrove air roots

Another boatload of tourists on the Daintree River

From the river we went to the Cooper Creek wilderness, home to old growth rainforest. Our guide not only identified many items of interest but explained that the total protection of the area was actually damaging. Invasive species, like pigs, may not be killed. Some of the plants are not propagating because they have evolved to rely on animals to spread their seeds or seedlings. This was likely done by now-extinct animals in the distant past, but more recently by the aboriginal human population. He risks major fines if he moves seeds or seedlings himself.

The lizard on the diagonal branch is a Boyd's Forest Dragon

Queensland Fan Palms from below

Spiny Leaf Insect (Extatosoma tiaratum), a species of stick insect.

The accommodation that night was in the Heritage Lodge & Spa. How appropriate.

We're off to Tropical Queensland

The most efficient way for us to get to Cairns is to fly from Christchurch. There are no direct flights and the Qantas computer offers a choice of routes. As we have come to expect with airline pricing, fares seem to be quite random. The shortest flying time, and thus presumably the least cost to Qantas, is via Brisbane. For the dates we wanted, the cheapest options were via Sydney on the outbound leg and via Melbourne to return.

In theory we had enough air points for both journeys, but the points 'fares' fluctuate even more than the cash ones so we had to make it a points plus cash deal.

We had booked well ahead of our travel dates so we were not surprised when Qantas advised a change to the booking. These are often of a flight that has been re-scheduled by 10 or 15 minutes. This time the change was due to the flight from Melbourne to Christchurch being cancelled. The Qantas computer helpfully rebooked us on an earlier flight. So early, in fact, that we were now going to land in Christchurch before we had even taken off from Cairns! We gave the computer 2 weeks to realise it had made a mistake before telephoning. A human Qantas employee very quickly understood the situation and changed the booking to route us via Brisbane. This got us back to Christchurch at about the same time as the original booking, but gave us 2 extra hours in Cairns before the journey started.

The major portion of the holiday was an escorted tour of the Cape York Peninsula. This is new territory for us. We have previously been independent travellers. The Peninsula roads have a reputation of being difficult driving and 4WD camper vans are expensive to hire. The tour was expensive, too, but someone else would do the difficult driving and we wouldn't have to worry about negotiating the roads or finding campsites and places of interest.

Flying from Christchurch is a great reason to spend some time with family there, and we had a very pleasant few days with Eve's brother, Russell, and his wife, Ivy.

I think it was Ivy who had the idea of taking the guided tour of the Botanic Gardens. The plan was to have lunch at a cafe near the Arts Centre and then hop on the little open sided bus that carries you on the tour. But at the Arts Centre Bill noticed a sign advertising an “Open Rehearsal” by a jazz orchestra. It was about to start so Ivy urgently telephoned to rebook on a later tour and we hurried in. They weren’t professionals but they weren’t bad at all. The youngest member of the band was introduced as 14 years old. She had been playing a trombone but she took the mike to sing one of the numbers. Why is she wasting her time blowing a horn when she has such a fabulous voice? For the last 3 numbers they were joined by members of an intermediate school jazz band. The next generation of jazz is in good hands! 😀

In the Botanic Gardens we took the “Caterpillar” ride with a commentary to explain the significance of various trees. Afterwards we visited an unusual bookshop. The Custard Square is a small caravan plus a few bookshelves outside. All the books are second hand and all the books are priced at $5. There seemed to be no filing system, a crime novel might be alongside a book on quantum physics. I found it irresistible.

When we made the Queensland bookings and committed to the trip we did not anticipate the luggage complications that ensued. The tour bus allowed far less than Qantas, both in weight and dimensions of the bags. We would be leaving from New Zealand's late winter and holidaying in the tropics. We only needed to pack hot weather gear, but we shrank from going to the airport at 4am in shorts and T-shirt. The solution was to leave the largest suitcase with the winter clothes in Cairns while we enjoyed the tour.

Getting to the airport was not as ghastly as it had been 18 months ago when we went to Tasmania. The flights to Australia still leave around 6am, but this time we both had a reasonable sleep before the Uber arrived at the requested time.

The flights were on time and uneventful; just the way we like them. The Qantas seating was as uncomfortable for Bill as it was last year. Are there no tall Australians these days?

We had booked a couple of nights at Summer House, a backpackers' hostel, to acclimatise and avoid the risk of missing the tour because a flight got delayed. This turned out to be a good choice. We had a room with a private bathroom, there was a bar/restaurant on site and a free shuttle to downtown Cairns every half hour from 8am to midnight. It set down and picked up at the Night Market. As well as the Market's food court there are eateries of all sorts in the area. Also the Lagoon, where you can paddle or swim without risking an encounter with stinging jellyfish or a crocodile.

The Summer House restaurant didn't do breakfasts. We could self-cater or walk to a cafe. We were given directions to a nearby cafe that provided very nice breakfasts. Eve particularly liked the Avocado Toast.

Our first full day was partly devoted to shopping. There is a Chemist Warehouse in cairns where Eve had discovered via the Internet that quite a few items could be purchased cheaper than in New Zealand. A supermarket provided snacks for the tour. It turned out we didn't need them. The tour catering was frequent and generous.

The 'Birds Seen' list started to grow. Loud, parroty noises were heard around the pool (yes – the backpackers has a pool), but the vocalists remained hidden. The first identified birds were Pigeons (boring), Silver Gulls (BORING) and 2 immature Nankeen Night Herons (tick!).

This Magpie Lark wanted to join us for breakfast.  You can see he is perched on the back of a chair.  We declined to share even a crumb of our toast.

This picture was taken from the same cafe.  The Willie Wagtail preferred a more natural diet.

This is a Torresian Imperial Pigeon.  You can see it's a pigeon and, trust us, it is a BIG pigeon.  Thus - Imperial.  And its wide range includes the Torres Strait.  Also known as the Pied Imperial Pigeon.

On the 2^nd morning we stowed our winter clothes in the biggest suitcase and placed that in the hostel's luggage room to await our return. Then we sat and waited for Outback Spirit to pick us up.