Wednesday morning we headed inland from Cooktown along the Battle Camp road. This road was only opened up after the wet season last week, with large parts of it freshly graded, so it was in pretty good nick. My turn at the back seat, so I bounced around a bit throughout the day.
We stopped at the old abandoned Laura station homestead for a DIY morning tea. On the way in, Doug was telling us that the local publican had been eaten by crocs a month ago. Apparently he was quite a divisive guy in town!!! ( I’m thinking Mid Summer Murder thoughts myself). We decided if we had to die up here, we would rather go by way of falling mangoes.
One of the most interesting things up here are the warning signs. Today’s warned us that they are aerial culling feral animals in the national parks we are traveling through over the next few days. I’m hoping they can tell the difference between a tourist from the southern states and a feral animal – although the way the qld government carried on during Covid suggests maybe not.
Our next venture was a bit of mountain climbing at Split rock to have a look at an aboriginal art site. The climb, largely clambering over rocks, was 150 metres high, or according to my watch, 13 flights of stairs. Informative talk by Lennie, one of the local elders, about the rock works as well as the complicated relationships between families, clans etc.
The afternoon was a long drive up to our 2 night accommodation at Lotus Bird Lodge. The time was spent animal and bird spotting with sightings including some large flocks of black cockatoos, Brolga and a Jabiru. Also lots of other less interesting stuff that had the twitchers highly excited and agitated if the bus didn’t pull up in time, or reverse down the road for the perfect photo. The problem being when one of them had the perfect shot, another was lined up with a tree.
The lodge we are staying at is owned and run by our tour company. The company has a tour leave cairns every 3 days over the dry season, with a couple of extras thrown in this year, so the lodge is pretty much fully occupied. Apparently the company prides itself on the quality of the meals it provides, including hiring top chefs. Gourmet meals, open bar and an outdoor washing machine. We each have our own little cabin along the edge of the lagoon. Not entirely private as I shared my shower with a couple of green frogs last night.
Thursday involved a walk around the lagoon, washing and a 45 minute helicopter flight out over Princess Charlotte Bay. The flight was made a bit special by the fact that there were no doors on the chopper. Definitely a “once in a life time” experience. Chatted later that night over dinner and drinks with the young pilot. Terrific young bloke. Knew uni wasn’t for him, so he headed north out of Brisbane working on cattle properties before taking to the air.
Round about 