Wildlife interaction on Australia’s North West Coast -1 Coral Bay

My last day in Coral Bay was spent in and on the Indian Ocean and the Ningaloo Reef.

This was close interaction in the marine environment.

With:

Eels,

Stingrays;

Turtles;

Reef sharks sleeping in coral caves; and

Myriads of little reef fish.

The coral with its colours and shapes is just beautiful.

But the big interaction with whales.

Interaction with whales is carefully prescribed to protect the whale and the humans.

We were lucky enough to get to swim with these beautiful creatures.

The skill of the skipper was excellent. We motored along side the whales as they swam. Then we told to get ready as the boat sped forward.

Suddenly the boat slowed and we slipped off the back of the boat as this gentle giant of the sea swam past below us.

We also swam with Manta Rays.

Sorry friends no photos of these encounters as the piecemeal adventurer turned part time frogman was too busy manoeuvring himself and remembering to breath while in a state of high excitement to work a camera.

So sorry you will just have to go to Ningaloo Reef and do it.

Into the Northern Territory- more hot springs, how can life be so hard!

I was running short of supplies to find a supermarket.

Nearest supermarket – 550km by mainly sealed roads or 334 by mainly dirt roads.

So it was back on the dirt roads again and refreshed by the healing waters of Boodjamulla it was time to make big distance.

A stop at Riversliegh (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riversleigh_World_Heritage_Area) the world heritage fossil site.

Through river crossings

And onto the city of Mount Isa.

Refreshed from my swimming at Boodjamulla is time was time to make miles.

Some Covid outbreaks in Queensland influencing my decision to get west while I could.

I covered the just over 1,600km to Mataranka hot springs a 2 and a half days.

Met up with some fellow bikers on the way

Joined up again with the beautiful Savannah woodlands

And celebrated being back in the Northern Territory with a soak in the hot thermal waters of Mataranka on a moonlight night.

And how could I resist a dawn swim!

The steam rising of the thermal water in the cool morning air.

Border entry into Western Australia is very strict with a requirement to be in the Northern Territory (classified covid low risk) for 14 days before entering.

Nitmiluk National Park was my next stop and where I have spent most of my current time in the Northern Territory.

My next few posts will cover this amazing piece of Australia.

Boodjamulla National Park -oasis on the Queensland /NT border

From the Oasis that is the Gregory River there is a rough dirt road that runs west into the desert.

Boodjamulla NP and Adels Grove are oasis neighbours on the spring fed Lawn Hill Creek

Adels Grove is a large campground oasis flanking both sides of the stream.

There is small bistro, lots of camping and cabins, swimming holes, bushwalks and wildlife.

Quite amazing for somewhere so remote.

Adels Grove has an amazing history. Planted as a tropical botanic garden in the 1920s.

Remnants of those original planting still flank Lawn Hill Creek

Approx 8km upstream from Adels Grove is Boodjamulla National Park and spectacular gorge.

The gorge can be enjoyed by kayaking in the 3km of gorge open to the public or by walking the top of the gorge.

The waters at Boodjamulla are healing in Waanyi dreaming.

When I arrived at Boodjamulla the months on the road was telling on my body.

Indeed a week bathing in these waters were healing.

Burke and Wills, Burketown and Gregory Downs. It’s remote out there.

Sitting comfortably in Fannie Bay, Darwin, its time to recap on the wild ride across the remote country just south of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Not far along the road from Normanton to Burketown is the Burke and Wills Monument.

The trees at the camp were scarred as proof of the camp.

The last camp of explorers who perished in an attempt to explore this harsh land.

There were in the exploration party. Only one survived because he was found and saved by local aborigines.

The monument to this day is a warning to respect this land.

Travelling west along this section of the Savannah Way land is dry and dusty and the rivers, torrents in the wet season are just strings of waterholes that as summer progresses will disappear.

This can be seen clearly at Leichhardt Falls.

Where I stood on the dry rocks over which only a few month ago water roared and photographed the waterhole no longer flowing and turning green as it stagnates.

Arriving Burketown I’m again reminded that water in the desert comes from the ground as well as the sky.

Water has been bubbling out of the mound spring in Burketown at a temperature of 68c since before history.

The hot water and the minerals it carries from deep in the earth painting the mound and surrounding landscape.

The old post office is now the tourist office. Unfortunately, there were no places left to do the balloon ride over the desert so I had to settle for the sunset river cruise.

Gregory Downs is little more that a hotel

And a small shack that sells dry good, some locally grown vegetables and …

Espresso coffee and home made apple and cinnamon muffins!!!

What an oasis!

As was finding the Gregory River. A spring fed watercourse in the desert and my first introduction to the spring fed rivers of North West Queensland.

More about those next blogs.

Goldfield towns of the Savannah Way

I’m staying at the Club Hotel in Croyden as I write

Indulging in a cold beer in the lush green beer garden.

But I’ve jumped too far ahead.

The discovery of gold was important in bringing colonial development to this remote part of Australia.

After leaving Einasleigh my next stop was Forsayth.

Built as a mining town its now a tourist destination with the Savannahlander train running to Forsayth from Cairns.

I could even find an espresso and hummingbird cake. Rare in the outback and a treat for a city boy piecemeal adventurer.

Georgetown is home to Ted Elliot Mineral Collection.

An amazing collection of fossils, gemstones, petrified and fossilised wood and minerals of all types.

Georgetown also has samples the distinctive Queensland outback buildings.

Croydon was very successful gold mining centre so successful special train line built from the port town of Normanton. Now jokingly called the train from nowhere to nowhere the Gulflander is a tourist ride.

Croydon’s Historic Precinct contains a number of official building from the height of the 1870s gold rush.

The road to Einasleigh and Forsayth are off the main Savannah Way so include some unsealed roads till Georgetown.

The travelling is beautiful

Through savannah woodlands,

Across river causeways, where the rivers roaring floods in the tropical wet season is reduced to a feeble flow.

But still hold water in lagoons full of water lillies and birds.

And one can see a magpie goose on the wing

On the way to Croydon the Steinbock clocked over 22,000km since I purchased it in January this year. It’s been a crazy 6 months of travel.

Next the landscape changes again. The Gulf Country – the Gulf of Carpentaria. The rivers are big estuaries full of big salt water crocodiles. Normanton, on the croc infested Norman River is my next stop.