And just for a change torrential rain, thunder and lightning. Byron lost its electricity supply for a few hours. All in all a chance to take stock and catch up on some editing.
We are 4,800km from home. The trip bird list stands at 103 species. The symbols on the map show where I made my observations. The red symbols are places that are frequently birded, the blue ones are other spots where I found some interesting birds.
I would certainly have seen more if we could have taken our time, a lot of roses left unsmelt on the trip so far but the tempo will change.
I managed a few nice photos along the way …
Sunrise at Barkly HomesteadMale DarterTawny Frogmouth
Gayle has gone to catch up with a friend. Their friendship began on their first day at kinder and survived despite separation whilst still in primary school. I think that’s rather special.
Fifi McGee is a Fox Terrier. She is 15 years old and she has been with us for about 13 of those. No, we did not choose the name. She is blind in one eye and partially sighted in the other, she struggles to determine how far away things are. She is totally deaf, you could let a bomb off next to her and she wouldn’t notice. On the positive side she is no longer bothered by thunder, there is little downside – she never did take any notice of verbal commands.
She is a very widely traveled little dog and a good camper. There is one problem though. After a few days on the road she starts to fart. There is nothing more potent than a dog fart in a closed car. Shame it doesn’t kill flies.
The Roma dawn chorus this morning was dominated by the Laughing Kookaburra. There are two kookaburra species in Oz. Across the top end we have the Blue-winged Kookaburra which winds up ready for a laugh but just can’t finish the job. I feel quite sorry for it. The Laughing Kookaburra is an east coast bird, (also introduced to the Perth region of Western Australia). They overlap in coastal Queensland from Brisbane northwards. An English survivalist, Ray Mears, made a film about survival in the Top End. The soundtrack features a Laughing Kookaburra that isn’t found there. What would a pom know about survival in Australia? Loony.
The Roma Bush Gardens are mainly the work of local volunteers over a quarter of a century. They have done a magnificent job. It is a great place to find a good mix of bush and water birds. Bird of the day is awarded to Plum-headed Finch.
Plum-headed Finch, photo Roksana & Terry, borrowed from the Macaulay Library
And we crossed another border. Byron Bay is in New South Wales. Clocks forward one hour because NSW has Daylight Saving Time through the summer.
Things have gone very well for us so far. Behind us the route is open but extreme caution is called for because of flooding at the Fitzroy and Victoria Rivers. We have friends stranded in Geraldton trying to get home to Broome. Not only have they been held up for a few days they had to swelter through 49.3°C (120.7°F).
We were well aware of the risk of flooding. Our contingency plan was to give ourselves plenty of time to wait out a road closure or two if need be. Our contingency plan for arriving early is to impose on, sorry I mean catch up with, some dear friends rather than spend a week sitting outside our tent. Tomorrow’s destination is Byron Bay.
On the birding side of things we have been adding a bunch of species to the trip list. As we fueled up this morning we saw our first House Sparrows for nearly a year. Broome is virtually devoid of introduced species. We added more plastics (twitcher speak for introduced species) at Roma as well as some attractive natives like Pale-headed Rosella and Rainbow Lorikeet.
Presently I am sitting outside the tent, the evening is mild, the sky is clear. I am well fed. Life is bloody great.
A fine morning, the sky is blue with just a few small fluffy cumulus clouds. Sped across the Barkly Tablelands. I have never seen it so green.
Across the border, new state new time zone, clocks forward half an hour. Increasing cumulus. A quick pause at the Georgina River which in a wet year will send its water all the way to Lake Eyre and close the road for extended periods. Through Camooweal and on to Mt Isa for lunch. Mt Isa has a population of about 17,000. We have traveled 2,840km since leaving Broome (population 15,000), Katherine the largest town in between at fewer than 6,000 people. Broome has no traffic lights Mt. Isa has a fetish for them. Cumulus coalescing and beginning to tower.
It was about 4pm that the inevitable thunderstorm hit. We saw it coming …
We couldn’t see much at all when it hit. The storm followed us to Winton …
Cyclone Sean is boiling the waters south west of Broome, the Victoria Highway is under water behind us (150mm of rain in 24 hours). There is no retreat! For the moment though there is no need to retreat. Today has been blue sky all day. It seems churlish to complain about the heat … a mere 41ºC (105.8ºF). Just enough to dry out the tent. We are about half way to the east coast.
Day 3 in our lexicon has a specific meaning. Gayle and I have done many a road trip and on the odd occasion harsh words have been spoken. After a while it dawned on us that mostly that would be on day three. We can have a day 3 on day 2 or on day 4 or any day on the journey really.
Barkly Homestead is a pleasant road house in the middle of absolutely nowhere. The surrounding country is a beautiful green at the moment but it won’t be in the dry. There is a bar. Gayle and I are off to have a beer. So far no harsh words but she does get violent after a few drinks. Wish me luck.
It was the Croc Motel in Kununurra that was pet friendly. It was also clean and comfortable although there was a faint aroma of damp. The units are arranged around a courtyard where someone is doing much better with their Heliconias and ferns than I am in Broome.
Given that today would be somewhat shorter we took time to go birding in the Celebrity Tree Park on the banks of Lake Kununurra. Very enjoyable. Best bird goes to Comb-crested Jacana with Tawny Frogmouth a close second.
Then onward ever onward. Still Highway 1 but now called the Victoria Highway. That part of the Great Northern that we traversed yesterday and the Victorian together form part of the Savannah Way – I think we are overdoing the names here. But, anyway a new day, a new state, a new time zone and a new speed limit. Northern Territory, clocks forward one and a half hours (yes, Central Australian time is a bit weird. I haven’t encountered anything but whole hour shifts any where else.) and the beast could now be unleashed at 130kph (80mph) if you dared on a narrow, wet, flood affected surface.
The rain began around lunch time and continued on and off for the rest of the day. There were waterfalls coming off the escarpments in fairly spectacular fashion and the rivers were up. Plenty of water about.
Victoria Highway NT
Two important rivers are behind us now, the Fitzroy on day one and the Victoria today. In recent years both of these have flooded causing delays that lasted weeks. It’s good to have seen them in the rear view mirror.
Manbulloo Homestead is on the Katherine River and the birding is good. Tomorrow is a big day, long way to go, so there will be little time to enjoy it here. Must come back.
Day 1 – Broome to Kununurra, 1,050km (656 miles) via Highway 1 aka the Great Northern in this neck of the woods. Destination Broome (eventually) via every mainland state. The big loop. Starting in the hottest month of the year and in the wet to boot. Is this madness or is there a motive?
There is a motive. We have bought a new caravan. We have an appointment to pick it up in Caloundra, Queensland 10am January 28. That’s a mere 4,721km via the northern route. Add another 1000km to take the southern route via the Nullarbor. There is no middle way – the Buddha would be disappointed. Either way can be closed by floods and both were open this morning. The whole of the continent seems to be wet and wild at the moment. We are leaving behind an intense low pressure system that may well be the west coast’s first cyclone this year. A flood alert is in force.
We are two days behind schedule because some electrical work on the car couldn’t be completed in the time allowed for it. Our itinerary has some redundancy built in we may still make our appointment.
Until we pick up the van we are a man, a woman and a small dog in a tent. Tonight though we are cheating. The rain has been bucketing down this afternoon and we have been able to find a pet friendly motel. That won’t always be possible. My crystal ball sees a few soggy nights in our future.
Bird watchers around the globe have been out chasing a big day to get their year list off to a good start. Me too. I was introduced to a competition of sorts by birders on Townsville Common. It’s simple. Your list has to be bigger than the number of days elapsed in the year. Easy at first, it gets tougher as you get deeper in the year. When you fall behind you’re out. I call it the Calendar Game and play just against myself. I have lost every year since the Big Panic changed my travel habits.
So on the first of the new year I got ahead of January and February. I have a road trip coming up so the list should move along well for a while.
While having a look at Broome’s Entrance Point a couple pulled up near me and asked, had I seen it? Not only had I not seen it, I didn’t know what it was. They’d found it on the oval in town and alerted the bird watching community. I was the last birdo in town to reach the oval … not long after it had gone. The alert had come through on my watch, which was at home charging.
It was a gull. It had been very happy to hang out with other gulls especially around anybody who looked like they had food. Next stop all the other places that I knew gulls congregated starting with Town Beach …
Americans will be wondering why the fuss? A Laughing Gull, so what?
It’s the first record for WA and new for my Australia list. Thank you Clare and Grant.
Not Charles, the city, although it does have a Charles Darwin University and a Charles Darwin National Park. The latter serves mainly for the conservation of biting insects. Avoid Sandfly Point at all costs. I’m en route to Singapore where I hope to walk the Wallace trail in one of their fine parks.
I had time enough to do a little birding. One highlight was an Azure Kingfisher near Buffalo Creek another was the Chestnut Rail. The dip of the day was the Laughing Gull recently seen at Mindil Beach. I wonder where it is now.
Azure Kingfisher
I will post the odd snippet as I go. If I get any good photos I will elaborate on my return.
I took the chance to spend a couple of nights at Windjana Gorge. This is accessible from Broome via the sealed section of the Gibb River Road and the shockingly bad unsealed Fairfield-Leopold Downs Road. I left the caravan at home rather than shake anything else loose from it and took the trusty AusTent.
The Kimberley is famous for its many, very beautiful sandstone gorges but this one is limestone. During the Devonian, that’s 419 MYA (million years ago) to 350 MYA plus or minus a few minutes at each end, this area was beneath a shallow sea. Lime secreting organisms were busily creating a reef that we now see as the Napier Range. The Fitzroy River has cut through the range giving us Geike Gorge, Windjana is the work of the Lennard River and Barker Gorge owes its existence to the Barker River.
Windjana is in a National Park. There is a campground with flush toilets and showers. No drinking water is provided. It’s a top spot for Freshwater Crocodiles and Agile Wallabies. If you are really lucky you may see a Short-eared Rock-Wallaby. The scenery is spectacular. The bird watching is great.
Little CorellaSandstone ShrikethrushAgile WallabyWhite-gaped HoneyeaterShort-eared Rock-Wallaby
On previous visits the Freshies were basking out of the water. On this occasion they were harder to find. This may be a seasonal variation. Spot lighting at night soon confirmed that there were plenty there. Early in the morning I found one lying at the water’s edge.
My visit was timed to be close to New Moon. There was a bit of cloud the first night but the second night was clear …
On the way home I put a rock through the sidewall of a tyre. I put on a hat, had a drink of water and set about finding the requisite apparatus. I was about to let down the spare from under the ute tray when a road train pulled up. How was I going? Clearly I had had better moments but in life’s rich tapestry this was no tragedy. The only available Australian answer to the question is Good Thanks. A second road train pulled up. The discussion group had expanded to three, but the first truck driver was now winding down the spare, the second driver asked me to make sure the hand brake was on. By the time I’d done that he was undoing the wheel nuts.
Then the third road train pulled up. The discussion group was now four men and a dog. Me and the dog were the only ones not working. Truck driver number one was jacking the vehicle up, number two had the wheel off the moment it cleared the ground, number three put the new wheel on, number two tightened the nuts, number one let the vehicle down and then wound the injured wheel up under the tray. QED.
Thank you, guys, thank you. Outback truckies are the salt of the earth.
bobmcgee 