Thick Black Line. An odyssey

Another great day. I feel so lucky that so much has gone right for me.

Leaving Cania Gorge I called into the picnic area at the S end to check out a burrow in the creek bank I'd spotted yesterday - I'm sure it's a platypus hole, and it's been smartened up recently. But still no sighting.
It was a nice morning - dew on the grass and the sun just coming up over the Gorge wall, so I decided to do the 300m Picnic Area walk. It runs along the creek, but most of the time you can't see the water through the vegetation. Most of the time. I can't believe my timing was so fortunate ... I saw a male platypus swim across the creek - that's a 10/10 sighting - utterly natural 😆

I'd decided to take another slightly-out-of-the-way route down Highway 75 to a place called Boondooma Homestead. En route an eastern grey kangaroo (like those at Cania) bounded across the road about 200m in front of me. 4 hops, and no looking RLR. Again that's a cast-iron wild sighting, and not so close as to cause me any worries. When I picked up the van in Cairns I realised the reason they offer rollover insurance is because people swerve to miss kangas. I didn't take it (more expense 😯) so they told me not to swerve!

This evening I'm at Boondooma Homestead which is a C19 cattle property - if it was in the UK it'd be owned by the National Trust. It's gradually being restored and furnished. One of the guys i met was brought up there. It's been an interesting and friendly stop, and I was the only overnighter - they can take 700 vans for large events!Read more