Every year we like to do a 3 week fly/hire car trip to a destination far away from our base in Melbourne. It makes a nice change from towing our caravan, camper trailer or boat around. The past 2 years we've flown up to Darwin & travelled through Kakadu/Adelaide River/Pine Creek/Katherine. This year we flew to Cairns, spent a week in that area then had 2 weeks on the Atherton Tablelands in two separate locations. This wasn't new territory for us as we've visited it a number of times since back in the 80s, our last trip was in 2010. After flying Virgin Airlines to Cairns & picking up our hire SUV, a brand new Mitsubishi Eclipse Across, we spent a week in each of the following places:
Kuranda - Kuranda Rainforest Park (cabin). https://www.kurandarainforestpark.com.au/
Lake Eacham - Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodges. http://chamberslodges.com.au/
We did day trips from each of these places virtually every day of the 3 weeks, mainly doing wildlife photography but also enjoying just about anything else along the way too.
Farewell Melbourne.
Nearly there.
Our first week in & around Cairns concentrated mostly on natural areas like Cattana Wetlands, Mt Whitfield National Park, Smithfield Conservation Park, Mossman Gorge, Redden Is./Barron River Mouth & Centenary Lakes. We also crossed on the Daintree River ferry to drive the Cape Tribulation road enjoying the bushwalks along the way. On the way up the Captain Cook Hwy we saw Police & SES searching for clues to the unfortunate murder of Toyah Cordingley at Wangetti Beach just a few days previous. Back in the 80s we'd done many of the tourist attractions in the Cairns region such as the boat trip to Green Island & the train trip up to Kuranda so we didn't bother repeating them.
Waiting for the Daintree River ferry.
Daintree River mouth.
Butterfly 1.
Jacana.
Magpie Goose.
Mangrove Forest.
Bush Stone-curlew.
The next week was spent in Kuranda. Our accommodation was at the end of a no through road well away from the hustle & bustle of the masses of tourists. We did enjoy the network of walking tracks around Kuranda though, particularly Jumrum Creek & Barron Falls elevated boardwalk. The birdlife/wildlife around our cabin was also great. The onsite BYO restaurant Kuranda Veranda has great cuisine at a reasonable price, we enjoyed it twice. Our day trips included Mt Molloy, Mary Farms, Lake Mitchell & bushland reserves around Mareeba. As we always do on our trips up north we spent mornings out in the bush & afternoons cooling off in the pool.
Forest Kingfisher.
Metallic Starling.
Lewin's Honeyeater.
Butterfly 2.
Female Sunbird.
Brown Fruit-dove.
Our last week was spent in the southern section of the Atherton Tableland near Lake Eacham part of Crater Lakes National Park. We walked the 3km & 5km tracks around Lake Eacham & Lake Barrine, our favorite walk was the 2.5km Heritage walk in Wongabel State Forest which we did twice. We also did two walks in Malanda Nature Conservation Reserve, as well as visiting Hastie's Swamp, Mt Hypipamee National Park, the Curtain Fig Tree & Hallorans Hill in Atherton. We also went to the Nerada Tea Estate for a lovely Devonshire Tea & to have a look at their resident Tree Kangaroo.
Saw-shelled Turtle, these guys are known as bottom breathers because of their ability to breath through their bum. Pretty handy trick that one.
Spotted Catbird.
A mosaic of fallen rain-forest leaves on a small creek.
Female Victoria's Riflebird.
Male Victoria's Riflebird.
The weather for the whole 3 weeks was un-seasonally hot & dry, the humidity wasn't too bad at all though, compared to our two Darwin trips in the last few years. Overall we had a fantastic time. We're already planning our 2019 trip, fly to Broome, hire an SUV, 4-5 nights in Broome & the rest of the 3 plus weeks travelling along the Great Northern Hwy to Darwin.
Thanks for reading/viewing.
Cheers Keith & Judy
-- Edited by Desert Dweller on Tuesday 13th of November 2018 04:52:20 PM
sandgrooper1 said
01:03 PM Nov 15, 2018
Hi DD,
Great photo's supplied.
Thank you.
AL
Kisha said
07:06 PM Nov 15, 2018
Hello to both of you, you guys are sure living life to the full, and that's a wonderful thing. Thanks for sharing all the interesting photos, top class photography to. I like it that you look and see as many don't, I especially found the mosaic of leaves on the creek bed interesting and unusual with their beautiful colours captured so naturally. Well done both of you. Take care. Regards Kisha.
Torro said
10:45 AM Nov 19, 2018
Thanks for your travel blog and great photos, I'm interestered in what camera gear you use for your photos?
Possum3 said
11:13 AM Nov 19, 2018
As usual fantastic DD, some on there that are new to me - Keep it up, we love to watch.......
Desert Dweller said
03:14 PM Nov 20, 2018
Torro wrote:
Thanks for your travel blog and great photos, I'm interestered in what camera gear you use for your photos?
Hi Torro
We use DSLR cameras, Nikon & Sony/Minolta. We both have Sigma 150-500mm & Tamron 150-600mm lenses. These are our wildlife/bird setups.
For general photography we both have Panasonic Lumix travel cameras.
Along with us each having binoculars, the whole lot takes up all of our ''carry on'' luggage allowance on our flights (7kg each).
It's an expensive hobby when both of us do it. We're not interested in making money out of it.
We're happy if folks enjoy looking at our shots.
Cheers Keith & Judy
Torro said
03:34 PM Nov 20, 2018
Thanks Keith and Judy,
I also use Nikon, don't have the telephoto lens you use yet. Am thinking of buying the tamron for trip to the west next year. I need to upgrade Kathy's camera. I was thinking of the panasonic lumix Tz110.
Thanks once again, great trip photos.
Chris
Dougwe said
05:04 PM Nov 20, 2018
Another good trip and report DD, well done.
Desert Dweller said
06:22 PM Nov 20, 2018
Torro wrote:
Thanks Keith and Judy, I also use Nikon, don't have the telephoto lens you use yet. Am thinking of buying the tamron for trip to the west next year. I need to upgrade Kathy's camera. I was thinking of the panasonic lumix Tz110. Thanks once again, great trip photos. Chris
The TZ110 would probably be a few updates ahead of our TZ70's bought for each other about four Christmas's ago for around $400. We'll stick with our oldies, very happy with them.
Photographic gear, phones & computers change almost monthly, we're not interested in ''the latest & greatest'', we couldn't afford to ''keep up'' even if we wanted to.
This trip was our annual ''luxury, spoil ourselves'' 3 week trip.
Back to enjoying our caravan travels now.
THANKS FOR THE REPLIES EVERYONE. It makes our labor of love all the more worthwhile.
Here's a few more photos.
Cheers Keith & Judy
Butterfly 3
Great Egret
More Turtles
Female Double-eyed Fig Parrot
Radjah Duck
Striped Possum
She meant nothing to me baby, forgive me. Red-backed Fairy Wrens
Scrub Turkey portrait.
Bush Stone-curlew Mossman Gorge.
-- Edited by Desert Dweller on Wednesday 21st of November 2018 05:46:03 AM
Lily2018 said
06:18 AM Nov 24, 2018
Stunning photos. It makes me appreciate what's out there and how little I've seen. Cheers Anne.
Every year we like to do a 3 week fly/hire car trip to a destination far away from our base in Melbourne. It makes a nice change from towing our caravan, camper trailer or boat around. The past 2 years we've flown up to Darwin & travelled through Kakadu/Adelaide River/Pine Creek/Katherine. This year we flew to Cairns, spent a week in that area then had 2 weeks on the Atherton Tablelands in two separate locations. This wasn't new territory for us as we've visited it a number of times since back in the 80s, our last trip was in 2010. After flying Virgin Airlines to Cairns & picking up our hire SUV, a brand new Mitsubishi Eclipse Across, we spent a week in each of the following places:
Cairns - Southern Cross Atrium Apartments. https://www.southerncrossapartments.com/
Kuranda - Kuranda Rainforest Park (cabin). https://www.kurandarainforestpark.com.au/
Lake Eacham - Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodges. http://chamberslodges.com.au/
We did day trips from each of these places virtually every day of the 3 weeks, mainly doing wildlife photography but also enjoying just about anything else along the way too.
Farewell Melbourne.
Nearly there.
Our first week in & around Cairns concentrated mostly on natural areas like Cattana Wetlands, Mt Whitfield National Park, Smithfield Conservation Park, Mossman Gorge, Redden Is./Barron River Mouth & Centenary Lakes. We also crossed on the Daintree River ferry to drive the Cape Tribulation road enjoying the bushwalks along the way. On the way up the Captain Cook Hwy we saw Police & SES searching for clues to the unfortunate murder of Toyah Cordingley at Wangetti Beach just a few days previous. Back in the 80s we'd done many of the tourist attractions in the Cairns region such as the boat trip to Green Island & the train trip up to Kuranda so we didn't bother repeating them.
Waiting for the Daintree River ferry.
Daintree River mouth.
Butterfly 1.
Jacana.
Magpie Goose.
Mangrove Forest.
Bush Stone-curlew.
The next week was spent in Kuranda. Our accommodation was at the end of a no through road well away from the hustle & bustle of the masses of tourists. We did enjoy the network of walking tracks around Kuranda though, particularly Jumrum Creek & Barron Falls elevated boardwalk. The birdlife/wildlife around our cabin was also great. The onsite BYO restaurant Kuranda Veranda has great cuisine at a reasonable price, we enjoyed it twice. Our day trips included Mt Molloy, Mary Farms, Lake Mitchell & bushland reserves around Mareeba. As we always do on our trips up north we spent mornings out in the bush & afternoons cooling off in the pool.
Forest Kingfisher.
Metallic Starling.
Lewin's Honeyeater.
Butterfly 2.
Female Sunbird.
Brown Fruit-dove.
Our last week was spent in the southern section of the Atherton Tableland near Lake Eacham part of Crater Lakes National Park. We walked the 3km & 5km tracks around Lake Eacham & Lake Barrine, our favorite walk was the 2.5km Heritage walk in Wongabel State Forest which we did twice. We also did two walks in Malanda Nature Conservation Reserve, as well as visiting Hastie's Swamp, Mt Hypipamee National Park, the Curtain Fig Tree & Hallorans Hill in Atherton. We also went to the Nerada Tea Estate for a lovely Devonshire Tea & to have a look at their resident Tree Kangaroo.
Curtain Fig Tree.
Macleay's Honeyeater.
Eastern Water Dragon.
Double-eyed Fig Parrot, Australia's smallest Parrot.
Saw-shelled Turtle, these guys are known as bottom breathers because of their ability to breath through their bum. Pretty handy trick that one.
Spotted Catbird.
A mosaic of fallen rain-forest leaves on a small creek.
Female Victoria's Riflebird.
Male Victoria's Riflebird.
The weather for the whole 3 weeks was un-seasonally hot & dry, the humidity wasn't too bad at all though, compared to our two Darwin trips in the last few years. Overall we had a fantastic time. We're already planning our 2019 trip, fly to Broome, hire an SUV, 4-5 nights in Broome & the rest of the 3 plus weeks travelling along the Great Northern Hwy to Darwin.
Thanks for reading/viewing.
Cheers Keith & Judy
-- Edited by Desert Dweller on Tuesday 13th of November 2018 04:52:20 PM
Hi DD,
Great photo's supplied.
Thank you.
AL
Hello to both of you, you guys are sure living life to the full, and that's a wonderful thing. Thanks for sharing all the interesting photos, top class photography to. I like it that you look and see as many don't, I especially found the mosaic of leaves on the creek bed interesting and unusual with their beautiful colours captured so naturally. Well done both of you. Take care. Regards Kisha.
Thanks for your travel blog and great photos, I'm interestered in what camera gear you use for your photos?
Hi Torro
We use DSLR cameras, Nikon & Sony/Minolta. We both have Sigma 150-500mm & Tamron 150-600mm lenses. These are our wildlife/bird setups.
For general photography we both have Panasonic Lumix travel cameras.
Along with us each having binoculars, the whole lot takes up all of our ''carry on'' luggage allowance on our flights (7kg each).
It's an expensive hobby when both of us do it. We're not interested in making money out of it.
We're happy if folks enjoy looking at our shots.
Cheers Keith & Judy
I also use Nikon, don't have the telephoto lens you use yet. Am thinking of buying the tamron for trip to the west next year. I need to upgrade Kathy's camera. I was thinking of the panasonic lumix Tz110.
Thanks once again, great trip photos.
Chris
The TZ110 would probably be a few updates ahead of our TZ70's bought for each other about four Christmas's ago for around $400. We'll stick with our oldies, very happy with them.
Photographic gear, phones & computers change almost monthly, we're not interested in ''the latest & greatest'', we couldn't afford to ''keep up'' even if we wanted to.
This trip was our annual ''luxury, spoil ourselves'' 3 week trip.
Back to enjoying our caravan travels now.
THANKS FOR THE REPLIES EVERYONE. It makes our labor of love all the more worthwhile.
Here's a few more photos.
Cheers Keith & Judy
Butterfly 3
Great Egret
More Turtles
Female Double-eyed Fig Parrot
Radjah Duck
Striped Possum
She meant nothing to me baby, forgive me.
Red-backed Fairy Wrens
Scrub Turkey portrait.
Bush Stone-curlew Mossman Gorge.
-- Edited by Desert Dweller on Wednesday 21st of November 2018 05:46:03 AM