The Whalers Way

Our first foray this morning was to the Reserve at the end of Dolphin Way.  Probably not the most successful walk ever, mainly because the small dog took the lead and the track isn't that obvious (understatement).  Our routes out and back diverged quite a bit as shown by this eBird track.

Very few birds were around in the bush here for reasons not known to me.  As we got back to the house (about 800m North of the Reserve) a pair of parrots flew into a small tree.  On checking, they were Mulga Parrots. I returned with my good camera and got some pix.  By that stage they have into a Pomegranate tree.

Our main plan for the day was to go to the Whalers Way South of Port Lincoln.  It is the red line in this snip from Google Earth.

We called in to the Port Lincoln Visitors Centre and picked up the key to the Reserve, paying our $30 entrance fee.  All excellent, unlike the street signs in Port Lincoln, which were non existent for the major roads I was looking for.  However, we didn't get lost and soon passed Lincoln National Park: I'm sure Its a lovely place, but canophobic as are most places in which a State Conservation mob are involved.

We stopped by a historic marker to where Flinders found water.

This sign is at the entrance to the Whalers Way Reserve.

Dogs are allowed on leads!!  I suspect their public liability insurance premiums (or their lawyers fees) are quite high: the gate is about 30 km from Port Lincoln and the Reserve is full of cliffs accessed by a reasonably rough road.  This is not to grizzle but to suggest the Parks Services could learn a lot from this.  Our route is very visible as the dirt road in this image.

Here is the first Inlet, Whalechasers Chasm.  It should be noted that the wind was extremely strong, adding to the range of things that could go wrong (but didn't).

I think I have mentioned cliffs.

There were also flowers available.  This Melaleuca sp. was flowering in profusion throughout the Reserve.  It was attracting a lot of New Holland Honeyeaters and in one area a flock of Dusky Woodswallows. (presumably feeding on the insects that were feeding on the flowers).

I have no idea what this is, other than a white flower.

A Correa sp.

All vegetation here is quite low which on thinking about it is to be expected on a limestone area exposed to the Southern Ocean (next land going South is Antarctica) and prevailing winds that have possibly not been interrupted since:

• Port Elizabeth (South Africa) if coming straight West - Google Earth suggests 10,000km; or
• Southern Argentina with a small amount of South in the breeze - add another 7,000km.

A flowering eucalypt ...

.. with interesting seed capsules.

Another eucalypt ...

.. which has dropped the flower caps on the ground.

A colony of fur seals (really sea lions) were stacking some zeds at the mouth of a cave.  Even knowing they were likely to be there the distance was quite a lot - both vertically and horizontally.

The cave is at the centre bottom of the island in this image.  Presumably there was some sort of fault which has allowed the sea to cut that channel.

Emus were available.  This image also gives an idea of the height of the vegetation.

More cliffs!

It was suggested that the pool at the bottom of this slope was a possibility for swimming (presumably in Summer).

I think this swimming is contraindicated by this sign.  There were quite  few signs about beware of freak waves in this area.  In WA they are a little more direct: King Waves Kill!

As we drove out a good flock (at least 27 birds) of Cape Barren Geese were seen grazing.

As we got close to our house (having dropped the key off at the Visitors Centre) we found 4 more geese sharing grazing with part of a huge flock of Galahs.

After getting back to the house I was going to take photographs of the Cormorants on the island in front of the house but the wind was so strong the telescope would have shaken continually (especially with my phone acting as an aerofoil).  So I had a glass of wine instead.

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Animals of Northern Trip

Butterflies

Orchard Swallowtail
Ulysses Swallowtail
Cairns Birdwing
Varied Eggfly
Bordered Rustic
Common Jezabel
Red-banded Jezabel
Common Grass-blue

Other invertebrates

Plecia sp.
Huntsman spider

Marsupials

Eastern Grey Kangaroo

Agile Wallaby

Lumholtz Tree-Kangaroo

Red-necked Pademelon
Musky Rat-Kangaroo

Long-nosed Bandicoot

Northern Brown Bandicoot

Coppery Brush-tailed Possum
Common Brush-tailed Kangaroo

Lemuroid Ring-tailed Possum

Striped Possum

Yellow-bellied Glider

Sugar Glider

Feather-tailed Glider

Reptiles

Red-throated Rainbow Skink

Gecko

Other Vertebrates

Spectacled Fruit-Bat
Little Red Fruit-Bat

Dingo (former, on the road to Charters Towers)

Feral pigs
Echidna (former, on the road somewhere on the way home)

The saga of The Rat

I have covered parts of this in various daily posts but thought it was an important enough part of the trip - in terms of the number of days it affected - to get a full post of its own.

The story began on August 4 as I delivered the Pajero to a dealership in Mareeba to get some important work done.  The main street of Mareeba is limited to 40kph and there are quite a few pedestrian crossings.  Each time we approached a crossing with peiople on it they'd point at the front of the car and look worried.  I assumed this was because fluids were leaking (part of the reason for the work) smiled, and carried on.

The next day we turned up to collect the car (all work done) and the mechanic commented on the big rodent in the car.  He then explained that when they were working under the car (on 4 August) they had suddenly found a large rat looking at them.  They got a bit vocal at this point - to the extent that the receptionist went to see what was causing the fuss.    However the rat disappeared and they didn't know where it had gone: was it somewhere in the car or somewhere in the workshop?  ( I suspect that the rat was hanging 20 on the front of the car and that is what the folk in the Mareeba street were pointing at!)

It was suggested the rat was a White-tailed Rat Uromys caudimaculatus and had invaded the car from a rainforest.  We had seen warnings about them around Lake Tinaroo and were aware that

"The Giant White-tailed Rat loves to chew all sorts of materials such as plastic, rubber, electrical wires, leather, tin and canvas. They will often bite cans open and consume the contents. Some people even believe the rats can read the labels! They have been known to damage and disable vehicles too by biting through fan belts and water hoses."  

This was not good if it was still evident.  See also this story from the ABC.

On the way home we stopped at a roadside stall and bought a sack of Atherton spuds (nice fresh spuds at a good price).  This was left in the car overnight. on 6 August we started to pack things up and I noticed that the sack had been gnawed, as had a spud.  Obviously Mr Rat was still in the car.  The sack was moved to a secure area in the (rat-free as far as we knew, and still know) camper.  The remains of the munched spud were donated to the bantams.

So we called in to the supermarket in Yungaburra and acquired some Ratsak.  This was placed around  inside the car the next night.  In the morning it looked as though a few bits of bait had been nibbled but there wasn't a corpse.  So we headed off on our way home.

Our first overnight was at Alva Beach.  More Ratsak was distributed.  On the 8th I inspected the baits and they appeared to have been untouched but a few rodentish turds were evident.  As we got in the car to drive off Tammy started digging into the back seat: she knew where ratty was!  Unload the entire car and there was the target between the back seat and the tray in the boot.  Tammy was inserted but looked the wrong way and Rat departed for parts unknown.

So we drove off towards Mackay hoping that it hadn't chewed through anything.  Never had warning lights been studied so closely.  Of course, our noses were also twirching in case it had croaked behind some bodywork - in view of O'Reilly Law (which basically reads  "Murphy was an optimist") it was bound to go somewhere inaccessible to die and subsequently rot.

On getting to Mackay without a major system failure or an olfactory explosion, I eventually found a Bunnings (Coles, K-Mart and Woolworths all failing to have rat traps) and they provided some suitable spring-loaded devices.  Frances had suggested buying 2, but I got 3 to cover all parts of the car!  They were baited with cheese and spread around the car.

On the morning of the 9th the cheese had gone but the traps hadn't fired.  No ratsak taken.  Drive on, to Rockhampton again watching the warning lights, and sniffing frequently  That night I tried some peanut butter on one of the traps, which might induce trap firing.  No siree!

By this stage I was beginning to get desperate about how to get rid of the damn thing.  Suddenly I thought about using a glue trap.  We tried a couple of spots on our way to Goondiwindi but they only had mouse sized glue traps which wouldn't slow this beast up.  More cheese consumed in Goondiwindi but the next morning the Home Hardware store in Goondiwindi had some large, rat-sized glue traps.  When I explained why we needed them I was asked to ensure I took the rat away with us.

So the next (last of the trip) night a couple of glue traps were put out when we set up in Wellington.  A little after dark I looked through the window into the boot and the trap there had been overturned.  On opening the boot area the rat was still attached to the trap.  A couple of minutes of (I regret to say, enjoyable) violence then ensued with the result that the Rat was no longer a problem.  Finally.

My belief is that it wasn't in fact a White-tailed rat but just a fairly large black rat (Rattus rattus).  Alan Gillanders has subsequently identified the beast from a photograph, as a Fawn-footed Melomys (Melomys cervinipes) and noted that they can be very destructive. It doesn't seem to damaged anything other than munching some of a dessicated specimen which Frances was bringing home for scientific and artistic study.  The damn rodent effectively messed up 6 days of our trip (and a potato)!

Ding-dong, the rat is dead

With the assistance of a glue-trap our rodent companion was captured last night.  It was then dealt with appropriately.  A full write up of the saga is here and Ratty is there:

As I type, at 6:44 on 12 August at Wellington NSW it is well below freezing.  Please explain why we left Yungaburra!  Apparently the overnight low was -2^oC.  We forced ourselves out to start packing and completed this by about 9am and were on the road soon after.

The drive was basically a drive.  From Wellington to (about) Cowra we were impressed with how green the country was.

 In some places canola had been plated and was fully flowering, giving patches of bright yellow.

More yellow was evident from the wattles beside the road.

As we started to climb from the plains up to the Tableland the green-ness started to decline to the frost-burnt brown of a Monaro Winter.  While there there was plenty of canola planted between Cowra and Boorowa it was only just starting to flower.  This was a sure sign that things had been cool.  Probably not a pleasant time for these sheep to have misplaced their overcoats.

 At least the little lambs were capering well (although Frances noted a few in another paddock that appeared to gone to check on Ratty).

We got home at just on 2pm having paused briefly in Boorowa for a pie.

• Bird of the day: Pied Butcherbird: common through the trip but not in Canberra, so I had been saving the species for this day.  Flock of the day was NOT Superb Parrot, which as usual was unevident , except on various hoardings around Boorowa.  This tick goes to Little Corellas along the Macquarie River in Wellington.
• Vegetation of the day:    Canola near Molong.
• Memorable moment:  Swinging into our drive!
• Comment of the day: None
• Pie of the day: A steak and kidney item from Superb Bakery in Boorowa.  A very good offering indeed.  Everything well done.  It at least ties with the Quincan Cafe in Yungaburra for pie of the trip.  A little small so 9/10.
• Troppo moment of the day.I was so laid back that even a pause at roadworks on the edge of Wellington didn't cause me anguish.  We were also well below the tropics!

Some overall review of the trip material will be has been generated when I have caught up on a few other things!
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On, on while one feels like it!

As we set off I realised we might gt to our planned destination (near Miles QLD) about 2pm.  If we felt like it, and pressed on, we could get to Goondiwindi and make the last two days much easier.

Here is the sign for the park in daylight.

The owner was a very conscientious guy and was trying very hard to do the right thing by the Census.  He had thought that 4 pom backpackers were out of scope and when I said they were in, he went to give them a form at 7:30.  He was astonished that they had already left - apparently the usual backpacker model is to get up at 10:00am (unless checkout is at 12)!

On down the road heading along the A3 towards Mount Morgan/  There were signs about "caravans take extreme care" and "roadworks 30 minute delay" but we got straight through the works.  It was one of the more interesting roads I have driven but with chunderpooch in back, and a nervous Frances in front, I didn't have too much fun.

Mount Morgan was an old mining town which looks pretty well maintained.  This mural is on the theatre.

Here is the railway station (now a museum).

We eventually found our way to a lookout giving a great view over the mine workings.

They had found a large ichthyosaur fossil in the area and we could have viewed that in the museum if we had wished.  We settled for this indigenous depiction of it.

A rather impressive fig tree.

When we got to the lookout a Pheasant Coucal (aka Flying Haystack) flew off and got itself photographed and elected as Bird of the Day.

Some distance down the road we got to Banana Shire  and then Banana township.  The shire was named after the town which was so-called after a bullock of that name.  Shades of Captains Flat!  That explains the bovines on the town sign!

We crossed a number of small ranges, on one of which we were directed to pull over by cops on escort duty.  This is about the most oversized load I have seen.

In fact there we both halves of the house on separate trucks!  At least 3 cop cars were escorting them and we saw another just up the road: it will be costing the house owners a lot to shift it!

We took a comfort stop in Tamoor, with a nice mural on the bog.

I'm not sure how big road trains get, but this one, full of Brahman cattle, was pretty impressive ...

.. especially as it pulled away.

Our next stop was Miles, where we had planned to stop for the night.  But it was, as expected only 2pm and we felt good , so after refuelling and taking a walk along Dogpound Creek (a more PC name that that on one road sign "Chinaman's Lagoon") 

where we photographed some flowers ....

it was on on to Goondiwindi for the night.  As an example of the daftness of grey nomads those in van 1 below were having a chat with those in van 2.  Did they go over - of course not just yell back and forth!

As night fell the bugs came out.  Some friendly ...

.. others possibly not.

I retreated but Frances stayed outside and didn't get savaged.

As darkness really came down other wildlife appeared in the trees along the billabong behind our site.

Much quieter than the night before.

• Bird of the day: Pheasant Coucal.  The flock was again Apostlebird as we saw hundreds of them in groups of up to 15 once we passed Miles.  On the way up it was from Walgett to St George (about the same longitude).
• Vegetation of the day:   Massive amount of lantana around Banana.
• Memorable moment:  The house being moved.
• Comment of the day: "$4 please."the shop owner in Tamoor selling me a sausage roll!  They are usually about $2.50!
• Pie of the day: Non existent.
• Troppo moment of the day. Being deluged by bugs.  It turned out this was barely troppo as we were only about 3km from NSW!