What is Went worth?

Quite a bit as it gives us a half-way (about 850km) break on our trip to Port Lincoln!

We got away at 6:30 which was pretty good as it meant we'd get to Wentworth in good time.  The weather was fine for driving as we set off, with cloud and wind but no rain.  Here is the situation near Jugiong.

Going along the Hume we noticed a car overtake us with no number plates, which seemed a good way of avoiding speed cameras and similar infringements on liberty.  A little further we found said car again with the driver discovering that the Plods do not approve of such strategies and were having a conversation, which I suspect could do very bad things for their average speed, bank balance and future driving plans.

 Autumn has arrived in Wagga as shown by the foliage!

 Round about Wagga we noticed a lot of cars coming towards us in pulses which seemed a bit curious.  An interesting roadside sign promised "Balls baits and bullets" in Narranderah.  On the outskirts of the town we discovered the reason for the pulses: roadworks, fixing up problems that only the Roads engineers were aware of, at the intersection of the Newell and Sturt Highways.  Only about 5 minutes of delay

Once out heading towards the Hay Plain we noticed lots of motorbikes, including many three-wheelers towing trailers, coming towards us.  This continued for the rest of the day.  (That got solved the next day somewhere near Renmark where a sign talked about Ulysses MC AGM.)

Out on the Plain we encountered, as tradition requires, droving.  It was a tad un-traditional in that all the stock were Aberdeen Angus rather than Herefords or mixed breeds.

For many years we had crossed the Plain with no sight of anything to do with cotton.  On both our last two traverses we have seen heaps.  Perhaps we were a little earlier this time but it seemed to be everywhere in vast acreages.  No wonder the farmers are in an uproar about restrictions on irrigators in the Southern Murray-Darling Basin.  This image is a paddock of bolls.

Some harvested rolls: we crossed with many trucks carting these off to ...?

This snap shows: a line of bales in a paddock; the brown stems left after picking,; and a small amount of the whit stuff that always seems to accumulate along the roadside in a cotton area.

We wondered if the cotton was responsible for the dearth of emus.  At one point we thought we might not see any for the trip but a few - perhaps 7 in total were spotted towards the end of the trip.  There were very few birds around except Ravens.  A few Black Kites and Kestrels, 1 Pied Butcherbird and a couple of Black-shouldered Kites.

In my view the Plain ends at Balranald.  On what we saw, so does prosperity.   While the houses still looked OK quite a few businesses in the town looked to be closed (permanently, not just on Saturday afternoon).  On the highway out the other side we encountered another lot of road works that delayed us again.  I know roads have to be maintained but no-one here seemed to be working except the driver of the pilot vehicle.  All the others seemed to be sitting around talking about obesity - or at least demonstrating it.

This also gave the caravans a chance to bunch up and make driving slow.  While this is a further tradition I had thought it had been dispensed with as on our recent trips vans moved along reasonably quickly.  Perhaps the Hume Highway is different to the North South roads such as the Newell?

Somewhere around this point a truck was kind enough to spit a rock at our windshield.  I didn't notice a new chip so carried on.

On getting close to Wentworth we called in at a fuel station in Dareton.  It had closed but as a friendly local explained (there were no instructions on the pumps) there was a terminal on the wall that allowed one to get fuel.  It merged that as is often the case in rural aral areas the advertised price for diesel was for the dirty stuff that trucks use and car diesel was about 2 cents a litre dearer.  Grrrr.  It then emerged (again no instructions) there wasn't a pay-for-fill option.  However you could put in an amount of $400 and they'd only take what you used, with the remaining amount staying as an open order for 7 days.  Trust us - sure wouldn't.  them we'll get fuel somewhere else, of need be in Renmark the next morning.

As it turned out we got fuel in Wentworth as a servo operated by a human.  After shifting minimal kit into our room at the Central Motel (which allowed the small dog in the room - HUGE  bouquet) we went for  walk around the riverbank.  This is the  Darling, which merges with the Murray nearby.

There seemed to be a lot of water in the Rivers:presumably there has been good rain from cyclones in the head waters of the Darling in Queensland.

A statue of John Egge an immigrant from China who seems to have been one of the biggest traders on the River.  Or, in a flood, the main street of Wentworth which he sailed his boat down!

A memento of the old days.  I'm not sure if this paddle steamer moves or is just there to look good!

Although we have been to Wentworth before I do like a good War Memorial.

After the early start and a longish drive an early and solid night sleep.

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A warm day is a good day!

We decided to go along Petersons Creek (aka the platypus walk) this morning.  We passed the usual bunch of cattle, who were as usual curious about Tammy.  She pretty much ignored them: I think her brain rejects dogs of that size.

Shortly after crossing the Swing Bridge and the sign honouring Geoff Treacy (the originator of the clean -up project, and as it turns out a resident of the house across the street from us) we crossed with a couple of walkers.  The older of the two advised - with I think a French accent - that there was a platypus in Frawleys Pool.

And so, after a few minutes waiting, there was!

After passing the Pool I took a snap looking down into it.  The small bridge is on the far end of the pool.

We then decided to go to Nerada Tea Estate to buy some leaf and to checkout the Tree-Kangaroos which are theoretically verminous there.  First up we stopped at the Curtain Fig Tree to show Frances the Wompoo Fruit-Dove.  My snap today is better than the original!

As we passed through Malanda we noticed a sign to the Falls so swung in.  There was a quite interesting sign about indigenous beliefs and funeral practices.

The falls had been improved a bit.  Here is after ...

.. while this gives a clue about before.

When we got back to the car it seemed to be losing some fluids, so given the issue with the sump seal we decided not to muck about with unnecessary distance but go home.  I checked for drips when we got there and could find none and the oil level looked good when I checked the dipstick!

Rather than hang about the house all day - nice as it is, we have done that a few days - we walked down to the Tinaburra boat ramp.  A ravening idiot was there.

Never have I wished so hard for a large log to be 2cm below the water surface.

A large bird call was rather evident.  Initially I thought it was Bush Stone Curlews but then saw 5 cranes flying along.  As the call was still evident I checked the banks about 400m away.  There were some 20 Brolgas as I thought.

On checking the photo, the red goes well down the neck so they were in fact Sarus Cranes.  Woo-hoo.  Or in fact "WOOO - HOOOO" as I hadn't used them as bird of the Day on the previous sighting!  I have now!!!!!

Walking back down the Avenue of Honour we noticed a gent digging up a few weeds.  Frances congratulated him for being part of the Yungaburra park maintenance community.  Thus far we have recorded:

• The Landcare group who look after Peterson Creek;
• Another group who tend to Williams Park;
• The folk who look after the gardens down the middle of Eacham Street;
• The ladies (of the CWA?) who maintain the hanging baskets in the village centre; and now
• The volunteers who maintain the Avenue of Honour,

Well done that village!!

As we walked back I noticed these two ladies with a distinctive yellow satchel.  Census Collectors doing what is needed outside major urban areas, delivering the former trees (ie hard copy forms).

I wondered if they were going around in pairs due to the controversy currently in hand but apparently this was just a training process.  I wished them luck - they noticed my 1996 Census cap - and passed on.  In terms of the controversy, this message from Bill McLennan pretty much summarises the major stuff-up ABS have brought upon themselves.

When taking the small dog out for her final comfort stop I was aware of rustling in the bushes.  My headlight caught some eyeshine and the flash on my camera got a Coppery Brushtailed Possum.

• Bird of the day: Sarus Cranes get the individual and flock tick!
• Vegetation of the day:   The growth in what used to be Geoff Treacy's house block.
• Memorable moment: Spotting the cranes
• Comment of the day: Bill McLennan's conclusion on the Census; " The ABS doesn’t have the authority to collect ‘name’ in the 2016 Census on a compulsory basis."
• Pie of the day:.  Not tonight Josephine..
• Troppo moment of the day. The idiot on the jet ski duetting with a burglar alarm going off on a house near the dam.

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A less good day

As the Pajero was getting close to service time I decided to get it done here at the Mitsubuishi dealers in Atherton.  It was a cramp that they were fully booked for about 10 days but I put it in.  They reckoned it would take about 2 - 3 hours and could drop me off at Hasties Swamp and pick me up again.  Excellent.

It turned out dropping me off meant I drove out with one of their guys who took the car back.  I did birding.  Here are a few ducks:

Here are a lot of ducks.

Here are ducks on a log!

An Intermediate Egret showing the limited extent of yellow skin relative to the eye.

Finally, some Chestnut-breasted Mannikins posed for a snap.

All good stuff but after 3 hours I hadn't heard anything (they had my phone number) so rang them.  It turned out the tappets needed resetting so it was going to take another 2 hours.  Not happy but I thought I'd walk back to town.  By chance one of the 5 people I know in the Tablelands was driving by and gave me a lift for a couple of kilometres from where I could walk the rail trail.

When I got back the car was done, but they had to find the paperwork.  When this eventually appeared there was the usual recitation of what was done.  Yadda yadda yadda.  Then the bombshells.

• There was a leak in the sump which needed fixing asap.
• The front discs needed replacing asap.
• This would take a full day.
• They were fully booked for the next 10 days.

I explained that we were out of accommodation after Saturday.  That was obviously my problem.  So I asked if there was another place nearby which might be able to help (this wasn't volunteered by them).  Yes, Mareeba.  Rang them and they can do it on Friday and Reddings can lend me a car.  OK not too bad.  The another two bombshells (which came up incidentally when they said we could keep the loaner over the weekend.

• They need to keep the car overnight (on Friday) to let the seal set.
• The service department isn't open on a Saturday so I wouldn't get the car back until Monday!

I explained that we were out of accommodation after Saturday.  Despite already having explained that it seemed to be news to the person I was speaking to.  The f-word got used a few times!!  Back on the phone to Mareeba: OK drop the car in at lunchtime on Thursday and pick it up Friday afternoon.  Reddings will get the loaner to and from Mareeba.

The essential problems are that 

• there was no attempt to let me know any of the problems during the day. In contrast all dealers in Canberra that I have dealt with ring while working on the car with all sorts of details to get clearance;
• there was no realisation of the timing problem I was facing; and
• they are so tightly scheduled they had no capacity to respond to an emergency (which from my view this is).

Yes, they have been good with the loaner but really their "business" model is appalling in its disregard for customer impact.  (After we got home I got a newsletter blurb from Reddings saying that the Mareeba branch was closing and everything was being done in Atherton.  On thinking about it, and being hopeful, what this meant was the ugly incompetent idiots in Atherton knew they were being sacked and the nice people from Mareeba were taking their place.  If there is any justice ....)

To complete a toenail of a day I then found the place I was intending to stay two nights out from home was canophobic.  Everything else in the area of Miles mentioned on caravanning sites read like a disaster but I then came across a farmstay a bit North-East of Miles that will do the job.  Finally some good news.

• Bird of the day: Square-tailed Kite.  Flock has to be ducks.
• Vegetation of the day:   Lignum around the swamp.
• Memorable moment: Finding out the car problems: memorable doesn't always mean good!
• Comment of the day: "Most of vermin round here have two legs - and walk upright." Comment by the Reddings guy at the swamp, after a discussions about wild pigs.
• Pie of the day:ay.  Back to Brumby for another pretty good effort. 7/10.
• Troppo moment of the day. My reaction to the issues at Reddings was a classic definition of going troppo, unfortunately.  

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Plenty of places to go birding!!

The iron roof was pinging a fair bit overnight and again this morning.  That was reflected in the small dog being very uninterested in going for a walk this morning.  So she got returned home and Frances and I walked on our own.

This huge yellow flower was interesting, but a nonny mouse!

 This blurry photo - due to rain not poor focusing  - shows a male Scarlet Honeyeater (I refuse, with passion, to call them Scarlet Myzomelas, whatever the hell that means to anyone except a taxonomist) on some Grevillea.

Note the raindrops on the foliage!

I had a very pleasant chat with Alan Gillanders (of Alan's Birding Tours) in which he mentioned seeing 2 Barred Cuckooshrikes fly out of the Mathers Rd Fig tree (planted 26 years ago by his wife).
I ascertained that I hadn't missed them by much and took off to visit a site listed in the Birds of the Wet Tropics which had a lot of good stuff.

This is Rose Gums Wilderness Retreat and was on the far side of Lake Eacham.  The drive there was livened up a lot by seeing a Pale-vented Bush-Hen running across the road and along the verge.  A big lifetime tick!  It was travelling pretty well so I didn't get a snap.  A Forest Kingfisher was more obliging.

 I got to Rose Gums and went to reception to ask if I could go birding there (expecting the answer to be "Yes, here is where the goodies are.")  Instead I scored "No, we are an accommodation business."  I expressed some surprise at this as they were in the book and was told "There are plenty of other places to go birding." I have suggested to the author of the book that he removes references to this site from any later edition. I am advised that this was a very unexpected reaction and possibly due to the owners being away.  However I suggest to any readers of this blog that they enquire closely before staying here if they have birding on their mind.

On the way out I finally got a photo of a Cattle Egret on a bovine!

When I got back to Yungaburra Frances was just heading out for a walk with Tammy, in celebration of the rain stopping.  I went along and as we headed back past another tree full of figs,  There was a moderate sized dark bird in one of them.  Yes!! Barred Cuckooshrike - another lifer!

Back home I managed to get my first reptile image of the trip.

Thanks to the Atlas of Living Australia I am game to call this as Carlia rubrigularis the Red-throated Rainbow Skink'

Some entities took it upon themselves to improve the acceleration of said skinks!

• Bird of the day: Barred Cuckooshrike won over Pale-vented Bush-hen as I got a far better view of the former.  The ubiquitous Masked Lapwing won a prize in the flock category
• Vegetation of the day:  Fig trees along Mather Rd.
• Memorable moment:  Not really: a quiet day.
• Comment of the day: See title of post>  I couldn't believe this attitude from a place apparently flaunting their environmental tourism credentials.
• Pie of the day: Quincan cafe again.  They had run out of steak pies and I took Vegetarian Pie as a second prize.  It was quite tasty and lotsa filling but just not as good as the meaty sample from Saturday.  I rate it as about 6.5, mainly because it wasn't to my taste.
• Troppo moment of the day.  This was tough as one could give the receptionist at Rose Gums a third award on the basis that she must have been out in the sun too long.  But it was still raining!  So no award today.

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Hopefully leaving the naff weather behind

Having borrowed a Polari term from The Princess Royal here are some words from the BoM:

Wet weather isn't expected to let up this weekend and Canberra meteorologist Sean Carson said what he consider to be "rubbish" weather on Friday would turn "feral" on Sunday. 

Friday was certainly rubbish, and Saturday wasn't much better.  In fact, Saturday achieved a status of at least rotten, with 15mm of rain in the evening.  At least there wasn't any snow.

Indeed Sunday turned feral, with snow starting about 7:30.  Here is the veg garden.

 As we drove out, Widgiewa Rd was appalling with about 5cm of snow settled.  I was not looking forward to the next 200km.  However when we got to the Plain there was no snow.  Getting in to Bungendore the hills of Kowen were well white.

 Right.  Having got that out of the way let us get back to the usual extrema of "XXX of the day".

Bird of the day:  Blue faced honeyeater, scavenging in a litter bin.  The big flock goes to Australian White Ibis.
Flower of the day: Acacia dealbata along the Hume Highway
Garden of the day: One at Fingal Bay with layers of Pandanus, cordyline etc.
Geological feature of the day: Cuttings in the sandstone going down to the Hawkesbury.
Outstanding Weather feature of the day; Snow!
Council behaviour of the day: This is a new category and could be a bouquet or a brickbat.  As I have said "Council", the latter is more likely.  Today the award goes to Port Stephens Council for banning dogs from most everywhere but not emptying litter bins so that rubbish is all over the place.

The drive to Sydney was fine.  There were few trucks but more cars than usual.  An annoyance in Sydney was the servo we heading for being shut, leading us to go to another which didn't offer a discount.  Then we found others which did, but didn't seem to be listed on the 'net.  Also the place we chose had a pump that cut out too soon, so we left about 10 litres early.

Whatever: we got outtathere and across the Hawkesbury.

After some farnarkling through Newcastle we got to the Port Stephens area.  The first thing seen here was a sign at Williamtown saying there was an "incident"and we should divert back to the Pacific Highway.  As this diversion was about 50km I decided to ignore the sign and see what the incident was.  I suspect it was a sign getting caught by a gust of wind as nothing else was evident.

On on towards Nelson Bay.  At Bobs Farm we spotted Murrays Brewery which had go some big wraps in a book on Australian beers.  One of their brews is called Moon Boy - I don't think Fred is a brew!

 It seemed very popular - including with Oriental tourists.  They were doing a US beer-style promo which explains the design on the pallet.

I ended getting 4 Dark Knight Porter (a good example of the style - lighter than a stout but tastier than a lager) and 4 Whale Ales (a very pleasant US style Pale Ale).

The camp seems good - the operators are very efficient and helpful and the scenery is great (seawards).

It is less great landwards, looking more like Gungahlin than anywhere nice.

As noted in the awards section above the Council seem good at banning things such as dogs,all spelt out on a sign, but less good at environmental stewardship, such as emptying bins.

The wind is very strong and it isn't hot: but at least it isn't snowing.

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Hell is in Hosanna

Bird of the Day:   White-headed pigeon, 6 seen on our morning walk to Stokers Siding would have been a winner but already used so Australian Figbird wins.  Big flock award goes to Cattle Egret with many paddocks between Stokers Siding and Corindi Beach graced with 20-30 of this spaces.

Plant of the Day:  Poinciana gets a nod as we are starting to move out of its territory!

Scene of the Day;  Beach at Lennox Heads with many surfers in the water despite the “powerful surf”warning.  A lookout, a little towards Ballina got a few ticks due to the hordes there looking at the surf and the hang-gliders (plucking up courage to launch).

Art of the day;  Windmill house in Ballina

Typically Australian thing of the day:  Being referred to as 'Darls' when buying fish and chips (excellent they were) at Corindi Beach.

Maximum Temperature 21 Minimum temperature  7

Distance traveled  with camper  280 without camper  0

I finished yesterday's post promising a review of the statement  ""We'll just be having a pleasant evening, not getting drunk or anything."   A pleasant family evening for this bunch of bogan degenerates seemed to involve the kids running around screaming until about 10pm and the parents - or at least the chronologially adult members of the group - got fully schickered.  An  appalling night..   Frances comments that arrogant prats claim they are 'family' and anything they do is OK.  Total  losers – Emily and others at Hosanna on 19 July: you know who you are.

I recall that Charles Manson referred to his gang as The Family: obviously he has set up a franchise.

Here is the tasteful scene they left behind.

We walked in to the village again, even though we felt knackered.  Why should Tammy miss an enjoyable part of her day just because some some humans cannot behave with reasonable consideration for others?  This did let me photograph a Poinciana flower!

As we re-entered we noticed their sign talking about the tranquility they offered.  Utter bullshit.  In the reception area they talk about 'Christian values' : presumably these the values of intolerance and utter disregard for others practiced by Christians such as the inquisition.  Bah: I will be passing on the tale of this night to anyone that asks my opinion of this dump (or indeed anyone that I think might spread the word that hosanna is a North Coast word for vermin).

Anyway, to quote Donald Sutherland in Kelly's heroes "Enough with the negative vibrations".

Just past Byron Bay massive work is going on with the Pacific Highway.  It looks as though the solution is to take a huge tunnel through a hillside.

This beach is at Lennox Heads: a settlement that looks as though it should have a War Memorial, but we couldn't find it!

This rather strange garden was on the beach-side road at Ballina.

The memorial in Ballina was next door to the RSL and rather impressive.  I had asked a lady in the street about the location of the Memorial and she knew about Rolls inside the Club but didn't mention this one about 40m from where she was standing!

On down the road towards Corindi (pronounced Corind-eye) Beach.  We passed through Broadwater, where the sugar mill looked to be in operation.

The rest of the drive was focussed on getting down the road past Grafton and getting the camper set up before dark.  The drive wasn't bad, apart from a number of small towns limited to 60 kph.  There seemed to be quite a few overtaking lanes and other drivers seemd to behave sensibly and courteously (unlike .....)

The park at Corindi is right on the beach, which meant that the howling wind was very evident.  For the first time we put up one of our extra walls to shelter us from the wind.  It didn't take long and worked brilliantly.

A very nice touch was owners giving us a welcome bag for Tammy, including a biscuit bone for her and a couple of small plastic bags for dealing with the after-effects of same.  They were a bit apologetic that the amenities block was being refurbished but had set up temprary arrangements nearby.  It did mean we had the pleasure of tradie noises from about 7am to 5 pm, but we weren't around much between those times anyway.

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