Our 2025 Trip to Cairns and O'Reilly's, Queensland
Navigating these pages: In the following itinerary, there
are several columns describing the day. Text within [brackets] in
the heading line explains the purpose of the link to the
corresponding item.
- Day(Trip)
-
shows the ordinal number of the day of travel, and in
parentheses, the day of the Trip. Note that I number the
starting day with 0-origin indexing, whereas travel
companies use 1-origin indexing. I do this a) because I am a
computer scientist, and b) the "first" day is usually not part of
the trip.
- Date [Photos]
-
Clicking on a link in this column will take you to the
corresponding photo album page for the day.
Due to space considerations, the original photos are not
stored here (only the "medium" and "large" sizes). If you
want to see the originals, please visit one of my other
servers at ajh.co
- Time
-
All times are local times, with offset from UTC (if known) in
parentheses. Where a range is given, it shows the hours of
travel for the day. This can give anomalous timings when
travel across time zones is involved. Where a change of time
zone is involved, offsets from UTC are given in parentheses.
A single UTC offset indicates the local time for the day, and
if multiple UTC offsets are given, these indicate the UTC
zones travelled. Calendar dates are always local to the
starting time zone, trip days are elapsed night times.
- Activity [Blog]
-
What we did that day. This is usually a link to a later part
of the page, describing in more detail what we did that day.
Sometimes this is two parts: What they said, and What we did.
This is to record what was planned, versus what actually
happened.
- Locations [Track]
-
Where we were that day. Where this is a link, it will take you
to the track for the day. These are separate html pages. Not
all days were tracked, and these days will have no link to
open. Sometimes the voyages and walks are shown separately;
others are combined. My discipline in running the tracker is
not exemplary - often when I turned the tracker off to save
the battery, I would forget to turn it on again. I have tried
to note such occasions where possible.
- Accomodation
- Just to show we didn't sleep on the streets.
- Steps
- for the day as recorded by my Garmin watch.
- Notes, To Pay, Due, Documents
-
Bookings, Maps and various Travel and Financial Documents.
For privacy reasons, these documents are not loaded to the
public server.
Within the diary entries, the date heading is a link to the photo
page (as for the itinerary). The day of the week/ordinal number
is a link back to the itinerary, and the day's title is a link to
the track (as for the itinerary).
These pages are under construction, and may have anomalous
entries. Note that the pages will change over time as I edit in
travel progress. Note also that when the document refers to
'John', the author is assumed, unless stated otherwise. Entries
in red still require attention. Where an entry is preceded by a
© symbol, it means that the entry has not been fully
completed.
Items listed under Documents are not publically available.
Access to private documents is restricted.
Itinerary
Trip Blog
Due to some disasters with my IT systems this week, the last
few hours before we left were a bit frantic, as I tried to
repair what damage I could. This blog is part of that frantic
attempt! The latest glitch is that I am unable to even copy
this file to my web page at ajhurst.org, due to some
permissions error that I cannot begin to understand,
especially when I am all stressed out about it.
A quick video call from Nathan reassured me that we should be
able to retrieve something from this disaster, even once we
are in Queensland. Here's hoping, with fingers crossed.
Chance would be a fine thing!
Guri turned up on the dot at 12:15, and we set off for the
airport. An uneventful ride saw us checking in at 13:05, and
we repaired to the "Pope Joan" bar/bistro for a spot of lunch.
I had a salmon bagel (with yesterday's bagel), while Barb had
a chicken schnitzel. Then to the gate, but there was no
hurry, as the plane had only just landed, and people were
still getting off.
I am constantlly intrigued by the boarding rules at airports.
Qantas had a new system, whereby passengers were divided into
6 groups, 1-6, and we were told that we could only board if
our number (or a lower one) had already been called. But they
got it wrong in two big ways. First, they made it clear that
groups would be called in numerical order. Duh. Then they
called groups 1 and 2, which were clearly the business class
passengers. Oh well, no surprises there. But then they
called groups 3-6 all together! Excuse me? What was
different? I was going to point out that calling groups from
the front of the plane to the back of the plane was clearly
stupid, as that meant access for rear passengers was already
constrained by the front passengers. So calling the groups in
order was the first big mistake. But then calling all economy
class passengers together did absolutely nothing to ease the
congestion! Just what planet do these Qantas (non)logistics
people inhabit?
The flight itself was uneventful. Little turbulence in the
3hr5mn flight. We did get served a snack of some hot samosas,
and I will admit, they were the best snacks I have ever had in
economy class. I spent most of my time reading the next Joy
Ellis ("They Disappeared"), while Barb slept a lot of the time
(except while eating samosas).
We booked tickets on the shuttle bus to Palm Cove (rather
expensive, at $40 each), and at 18:30 the bus left, with a
rather chatty driver, who hailed from Adelaide, but now lives
in Port Douglas. He dropped us at The Sebel, the resort where
we are staying for the week, and we met Steven at the
reception as he was trying to book in. It was after 19:00, so
the recption was shut, but we did find our tickets and keys in
the safe nearby, and let ourselves in. Steve gave me a can of
beer, and pointed us in the direction of the main group, up on
the second floor, and going hammer and tongs with the
thousands of +2 generations. Not that I knew a lot of the +1
generation faces, as it had been so long since we had seen
them all.
Needless to say, there was lots of chatting, renewing
acquaintances, and drinking beer and wine. Adults went to bed
at about 22:00.
A somewhat slow start to the day, since there was no alarm
clock to get us going, but we managed to do our usual cup of
tea, and read the paper, once we got the wifi working. Paul
rang us at 08:50 to invite us upstairs, and I went up while
Barb had a shower. But I could not remember their room number
(205), so I had to wait for Barb anyway.
There were some left-over croissants, so we did get some
breakfast, which we consumed while talking - unlike last
night, where we consumed pizza and wine while talking.
Several of the party needed to do some shopping, so Candace
offered to ferry Anne, Barb and a couple of others over to the
shopping centre. I meanwhile went down to the swimming pool,
where gen +2 were all in swimming and malarking around. I was
tempted to join them, but did not quite get enough motivation,
and was happy to just watch them all frolicking. Barb rang at
some stage to say that they had lost Candace, and just had to
have another cup of coffee, so I went and got a magazine to
read. The shoppers did return at about 11:30, and Barb and I
retired to our room to catch up on some minor housekeeping
(like this blog).
The rest of the day was spent around the pool, with all the
kids and all the adults jumping in (me too!) The water was
very pleasant, at least after the initial shock, and once I
had swum the width of the pool, and satisfied honour, I was
content to just lounge around, slowly getting the wrinkled
prune look, and chatting with Barb and Anne.
Dinner was a collection of pizzas, and sitting around on the
balcony drinking and talking. The weather and temperature was
just perfect - as they say "beautiful one day, perfect the
next"! Pam, Grant, Zoe, Matt, Herbie and Rafe all arrived
from the airport in a taxi about 20:30, and as most of the
children were, or had been, bundled off to bed about then, the
rest of the adults also fizzled away, especially as some of
the adults were off to do hot air ballooning on the morrow.
In the morning, Barb and I slept in until after 7, oblivious
of the 04:00 start by the hot air balloonists! Barb
got up and made a cup of tea, and we had out usual slow start
to the day, reading the paper and having cups of tea. I
really should have been writing this blog, but the vagaries of
having to deal with writing into the computer when my usual
environment had been all buggered up by the traumas of
Saturday froze my mind against such mental exercises that
early in the morning. Balloonists, eat your heart out!
(Well, I think they actually didn't.)
Somewhere between 09:30 and 10:00 we did get mobile, and
headed off towards the Esplanade in order to explore Palm
Cove. It was about a 10 minute walk to get to the north end
of the Espy, and a much longer time to stroll along until we
came to a likely looking cafe, called Espresso and Co.
Next door to the cafe was a pharmacy, and they had lots of
hats on display outside the shop. As Barb and I had forgotten
to bring our hats, we decided to buy new ones, as further
protect from the sun, which was insisting on shining
throughout the day.
Then to the cafe and our real purpose. After studying the
menu, we discovered an interesting beverage called
Screaming Monkey! It was 2 shots of coffee, a scoop of
ice cream, honey, a banana, and topped up with milk, and then
whizzed up as a smoothie. We just had to try it! And it
really was as good as it sounded, although it wasn't really
coffee, at least in my opinion, as it was far too milky and
bananary.
While the others resting after their new potable pleasures, I
decided to go and look for a belt. I didn't mention earlier
that on setting off from the Sebel, I nearly lost my shorts,
as I had forgotten to bring a belt for them, and I could not
be bothered to swap the belt from my trousers. (which
incidently, are not likely to be worn during our stay in
Cairns, as the days were forecast to be sunny and 30 degrees
everyday this week.
I had to walk nearly half the length of the rest of the
Esplanade before I found a shop, called Rip Curl, that did
indeed sell belts. It wasn't really intended for my
demographic I suspect, but they did have a size that would fit
me. $30, it was, which seemed reasonable enough. So a speedy
purchase, and an even speedier attention to possible wardrobe
malfunctions, saw me setting off back to the cafe.
I met Barb and Pam walking along the Espy, so I did not have
to retrace my steps all the way back to the cafe. Instead, we
headed for the southern end of the Esplanade, where we knew
that there was a supermarket, and we were very much in the
market for supers (or whatever it is that they do sell in
supermarkets). Anne wanted to get some cash-out in small
notes, but the assistant would only give her $50 notes. So
she took the $50, and then immediately tendered it for some
more purchases that she then made! (several Rueben buns.) The
assistant was not happy (why, I do not know), but did not
really have any choice but to take it and tender the smaller
notes that Anne wanted, as change.
Then back to the Sebel, where we ate our lunches, which turned
out to be quite fresh and tasty, and then spent the afternoon
relaxing by the pool, while the kids played. At various
stages, various adults entered the pool as well (myself
included), but we very decorously refrained from jumping and
leaping about, such as the kids had been doing.
Dinner was oysters and prawns! The original plan was to go on
a PrawnStar launch cruise, with a similar modus operandi to
the cruise that Barb and I did back in Oslo on MidSummer's
Eve. However, Lisa had some connection through a friend that
meant she could purchase bulk seafood at "mates' rates", so we
had a couple of dozen oysters and 5kg of school prawns, which
slowed down even the keenest of seafood eaters (Pam was NOT
one of those!) A few beers helped things along.
Then we (children of Ray and Joan, and spouses) retired to Pam's
room for a cup of tea, and reminisced about old times, before
retiring to bed.
We had so much relaxing fun yesterday, that we decided to rinse
and repeat. So Barb, Pam, Anne, Grant and I set off to walk
to Espresso and Co., and were joined by most of the
rest of the Keightley Klan over the next few minutes.
Fortunately, although the place was fairly busy, we were able
to find enough seats together, and the noise of the children
blended in with the general ambient noise! Barb and I had two
more screaming monkeys, but bearing in mind the fact that the
previous day I had felt that a SM was very nice, it did not
satisfy my coffee addiction, I ordered a long black as well.
Although I had had breakfast at the apartment, I decided that
the toasted rye fruit bread with marscapone, stewed pears and
walnuts was warranted, and very nice it was too.
After breakfast, we (Anne, Pam, Barb, John) did our usual walk
along the Esplanade, stopping at Numi's for ice creams. Barb
had a single mango sorbet, and I had a double combination of
salted caramel and white chocolate with raspberry and
macadamia nuts. Very yummy! Pam had the mango sorbet as
well, but she is not a mad keen ice cream person (they do
exist!), I had to finish it off for her. It was a tough call,
but I rose to the challenge.
More hard work relaxing by the pool. We all knew what was in
store for us, so we had to work hard at the relaxing part. It
turned out that Lisa had bought not one box of oysters and
prawns, but TWO! So dinner was much the same as last night.
Mond you, there was some attempt at scrabbling some salads
together, so if so moved, we did not have to feel too guilty.
But it later turned out that Barb did have a bit of a price to
pay.
OK, so the Espresso and Co. has become such a hit that
it is now the morning meeting place for the Keightley Klan!
Barb, Pam, Anne and I (and somewhere, lurking around the
place, Grant) were late arriving, and the rest of the party
was in full swing. Meredith was in fine voice, but most of
the kids were at a separate table, and generally being seen
and not heard.
We ordered breakfast (including the now mandatory Screaming
Monkeys, mislabelled by Anne as Squeaking Monkeys), but as we
were late and the place was so busy, our food did not arrive
until after everyone else had left! Barb had the same as me
yesterday (toasted rye fruit bread, marscapone, stewed pears
and walnuts), and I had baked eggs. Not shaksuka, but a much
cheesier and beanier version, was a more solid texture and
less tomato. It was nice, but still a very solid breakfast.
At this stage, the price of prawns became painfully obvious,
at least for Barb. She had developed gout! There was some
talk about how she might have caught it from me, but
curiously, my gout was not much affected by the heavy protein
load. But it did slow down our walking a little.
Which did manifest itself with some strolling along the
Esplanade. Kids of course gravitated to the beach, while
Anne, Pam, Barb and I sat at a vacant table and chatted, and
did not talk about gout. Grant had mysteriously disappeared
after breakfast, and Pam said he would have gone back to the
Sebel to 'work'.
After allowing breakfast to settle, we got up and walked south
(slowly!) towards the Numi Ice Cream "Eat More Ice Cream".
Barb and I had the licorice ice cream, and very nice it was
too. Ice creams consumed, we headed further south to the
supermarket, not so much to buy anything, as to ask the people
there where "The Tavern" was, the venue for the party tomorrow
afternoon. "Just up the road" was the reply, so we walked in
that direction and found The Palm Cove Tavern, a fairly large
establishment, and very obvious!
Since we were heading that way, we elected to follow the road
around back towards The Sebel, eventually reaching the place in
time for lunch, which we did not have, since we were still so
full of breakfast!
You guessed it, the afternoon was spent sitting around the
pool, some swimming, some just sitting. I read a book, and
did go in for a short dip later.
Dinner was in room 205, and consisted of more prawns, more
oysters, more sausages, more beer, more wine, for those in the
market (not Barb!) One of the girls (Erika) cooked up a nice
"potato bake", which was very popular all round, adults and
kids alike.
I had plugged my USB stick of Paul's photos into the TV, and
once technophile Matt had sorted out some of the arcane
features of the system, we were all able to reminisce and
laugh about the photos of Paul from 1 to 70! Paul thought it
was a bit too much like a funeral tribute, and kept saying
"I'm not dead yet!", but nobody took much notice of his
protestations. Then we switched across to Gina's tablet, and
saw some of her vintage photos. Of particular note were the
number of grandchildren who were quite amazed that Paul was
once a 10-year old like many of them! A good time was had by
all.
There was breakfast poolside organized by Lisa this morning,
with a cooked breakfast of fried eggs and bacon, together with
various fruits and other cold breakfast delights. Not being a
great fan of eggs and bacon, I elected to take a bowl of
muesli with me, and ate that poolside.
There was intent in the plan that the children should also
partake of the cooked breakfast, but whether they were of like
mind to me, or just simply preferred splashing around in the
pool, not many took it up. Until, that is, when Erika and
Stephen arrived with bags of lollies, chips and other kids
delights. Then there was a great attendance all round the
food table!
Once the lollies had been distributed, we swung into the first
of birthday party modes. It is Clare's 5th birthday on
Sunday, and as most of us were disappearing off to Fitzroy
Island tomorrow morning, Alice shifted the planned birthday
celebration to this morning. Lots of cake, and more goodies
being distributed, revitalized the enthusiasm of both adults
and children!
After that, most of the adults elected to visit the Esplanade
again for coffee. Where else to go but Espresso and
Co.? Maybe the monkeys had abated their rukus to only
squeaking, but there were still quite a few takers on the old
Screaming Monkeys!
Several of the adults did express some thought of taking up
Steven's offer of a lift home, but once Steve did turn up,
only the gout afflicted (Barb and I) did join Steve (who also
suffers from gout, so he was full of empathy for us). Then
some quiet rest and reflection until it was time for the big
event.
The big event was at The Palm Cove Tavern, and Pam, Grant,
Anne, Barb and I all set off to walk there. Part of the way
there, Grant decided he needed a rest as his back was playing
up. We waited for a bit, but he urged us to walk on, and he
would catch us up. We had gone perhaps 400m or so, when Steve
drove past, and stopped to offer us a lift. Remembering that
Grant had been left behind, we urged Steve to turn around and
go back to find him - which we did, as he was just leaving his
place of rest. So we all arrived at the Tavern together.
Erika and helpers had done a great job of kitting up the place
for the big event. There were ballons everywhere, including
string that spelt out "HAPPY BIRTHDAY", and boxes with big "1
9 5 5" and "7 0". The open bar was running, with beer, wine
and soft drinks", so everyone got stuck in. Lots of fun and
frolics followed, especially with the kids who got to work
with all the cardboard cutout face decorations (moustaches,
spectacles, hats, etc.), accompanying it all with popping
balloons and squeals of laughter.
Before too long, food arrived, and the children all downed
gimmicks and tucked in. But the adults had no need to fear,
as the foor kept coming, and the beer and wine kept flowing.
We all ate too much, especially as there were more oysters and
prawns (for those that liked them).
Much later in the piece, cake appeared, and we all sang happy
birthday to Paul. By then it was getting dark (after 18:00)
and the mood became a bit more subdued. But it was not until
well after 7pm that people started to leave. Barb, Anne, Pam
and I all walked back - Grant got a lift with Steve as he was
still a little sore from his earlier efforts. But it was
clear that we had all had a good time, and there was much talk
of "we should do this again, SOON!"
Once back at the Sebel, I think most of us just folded. We
did, as we had a taxi coming to pick us up at 09:30 on the
morrow, for a trip to Fitzroy Island. More on the morrow!
We had ordered a taxi to take all the non-car equipped people
to the Cairns Wharf (Bay 20) to catch the Fitzroy Flyer
to Fitzroy Island. It was quite a walk from where the taxi
dropped us, so Barb and I rested while the others went on to
find the right place, and then ring us to tell us where to go.
It was still quite a way from where we caught up with them (at
The Blu Marlin Cafe), and so we trudged on, in the fierce FNQ
sun, with no shade around on the wharf, or what there was
already, fully occupied by others trying to avoid getting
toasted as well!
Eventually, 11:00 came and we were all boarded under the broad
umbrella of "Ryan Keightley and the Keightley Klan", all 19 of
us (several people had elected not to come, particularly those
that suffered from sea-sigkness).
The crossing was a little choppy, and the crew did go round
offering sick bags to anyone who owned up to needing one. It
was pretty much a non-event for those of us who had braved
such events as Cyclone Angelo, and Barb and I quite enjoyed
the trip.
On arrival at Fitzroy Island, we collected our snorkelling
gear, and headed up along the beach to where we had been
recoomended was the best snorkelling by the ship's captain.
The only problem was that the tide was out, and the immediate
waters adjacent to the beach were full of rocks, and the beach
itself was littered with fragments of coral. Walking across
all that in bare feet was heer agony! Once in the water, I
sat down and put on the flippers (sorry, "fins"), and then
proceeded to bump myself backwards in a sitting position
across the rocks! My bum was slighly more accomodating to the
rocks and coral than were my feet.
In deeper water, I was able to flip over, and sort of swim in
the by-now metre deep water, but it was by no means plain
sailing/paddling. However, I was rewarded by lots of brightly
coloured fish swimming around, and very much a tropical waters
kaleidescope. Pity I did not have a waterproof camera!
I spent, I don't know, perhaps 20-30 minutes swimming around,
before I felt the need to get out. Getting out was sort-of a
reversal of getting in, with the added difficulty of standing
up in the shallows while still wearing fins. Have you every
tried it? Don't! I came to the conclusion it was impossible,
so I pulled the fins off, threw them to shore, and then stood
up. But then back to the environment of having to walk all
over those rocks and corals. Arrrgggh! Fortunately, Gina saw
my difficulty, and came to my aid, and we jointly managed to
get me standing up.
Just then, Barb appeared, having also decided that she had had
enough. She had also found the difficulty of standing up in
these circumatances, so I offered to give her a hand. She got
halfway, and then our grip slipped, and she face-planted on a
rock! One blood nose, a cut lip, and a grazed knee, all
contributed to exciting the sharks from miles around with the
extra blood in the water. Again Gina to the rescue, and not
only her, but two stangers who saw the whole event came
rushing to our aid. Together we were able to help Barb (and
myself) from the water. Oh dear!
Back on the beach, the fun continued when Pam felt faint and
had to lie down. She thought she might have been sitting in
the sun too long, so it may have been a bit of heat stroke.
She lay down on a towel in the shade, and we plied her with
water, and she did eventually recover enough to start the walk
back along the beach, with most of the rest of the group - or
at least, with most of the adults.
It was when we got back to the snorkelling gear return place,
and sat down to recover a bit, that I discovered that my
wedding ring had disappeared! Oh hell! It must have fallen
off while I was scrabbling around in the sand and rocks while
snorkelling. I know from past experience (the MacKenzie River
in the Kimberley) that cold(er) water shinks my finger enough
that the rings= becomes loose. Unlike the Kimberley
experience however, I did not notice it go, and so it now lies
buried in the sand somewhere in the shallows off the beach on
Fitzroy Island!!
We had some spare time before the ferry left at 1700, so we
repaired to Foxy's Bar for a beer or two, and some top-up
food. Barb didn't want anything, so I ate a serve of fish and
chips myself, and felt a little bit piggish. But it was very
nice, good chips, and lovely crisp batter on the fish!
The ferry back was a little sobering without my wedding ring,
but Barb was very consoling, and told me not to worry. "I'll
buy you a new one when we get back" she said, which cheered me
a little. Still, nearly 55 years it lasted!
Dinner proper was a little desultory, as everyone was in a
state of partly haven eaten, and only picky at what was on
offer, which were mainly left-overs anyway. A few goodbyes
were said, as Erika and family were leaving early tomorrow.
She had left her bookings a little late, and had to take what
was on offer! Then an early night.
Barb had booked a taxi for 0930 in the morning, which was a
quite reasonable hour for such embarking on travelling. Anne
came with us, as her flight was leaving about 50 minutes
before ours, and there was just enough time for her to proceed
without too much undue haste. In the process of checking
bags, etc., we did not get a chance to say goodbye to her, but
that had partly been expected and we had done "provisional"
goodbyes anyway. So a half-hour or so later, we were away on
flight JQ893, and a 2 hr 15m flight to Coolangatta. I was
rather intrigued that the airport code was OOL, clearly short
for Coolangatta, and that was what was on the bag ticket
"CNS-OOL", but every other reference to the airport was to the
"Gold Coast Airport". A little confusing to uninitiated
(non-Queensland) travellers like us.
We landed at the Gold Coolangatta Coast Airport at midday, and
found our CNS-OOL bag without disaster (several others
didn't!), so JetStar succeeded for us, but was still behaving
like a sh*tStar airline. We collected our Budget rental car
with no dramas too, and headed off to O'Reilly's, with John
navigating and Barb driving. No real problems until we got to
Canungra, where the climb to the O'Reilly Plateau started.
Wow! What a road. I have to say I do not remember the road
at all from last time, perhaps it was because I was in a bus
with other colleagues going to a conference, and we were all
enthusiastically engaged in talking shop. Or maybe it was
because I was not driving, or looking out the window (even
less at the road ahead), but the number of "Blind Corner
10kph" and "1 Lane" signs, together with either sheer drops on
one side, or big solid trees on both sides, meant that the
driver (and navigator) had to pay very close attention to the
road conditions!
We got to O'Reilly's just after 1500, and checked in with
little hassle. The one problem was that the main resort
complex, with recption, dining room, bar, and other facilities
was nowhere near where our "luxury villa" was. That was about
500m back down the windy narrow road! The villa itself was
fine, and well set up, but it was just not handy to anything
you might need, like coffee, food, or grog. One could get
room service by ordering online, but there was a $10 delivery
charge! I guess they wanted to discourage people from
resorting to that. Some resort!
So after settling in, we resorted, and drove back to the
resort and the bar, where a beer or two helped ease the mood.
We were getting hungry, so we ordered some beer snacks, in
this case an antipasto, but the plate of food that arrived
was more like a cheese plate. As we were tucking into that,
the waiter came back, and said "Sorry, but I brought you the
wrong thing" and plonked the real antipasto on our table. He
graciously acknowledged that as we had eaten half of the
cheese, we could keep that plate, no extra charge!
The sun set just on 1800, and as it got dark very quickly (we
were eating outside), we did not linger long, but walked back
to the car (did I mention that the car park was about a quarter
of the way back to the villa?) and returned to our villa for
an early night.
Up bright and early this morning to get to the Bird Walk,
which started at 06:45. We had an introductory lecture before
leaving, by a guide called Kyle, who told us not only about
the rules we had to follow, but helpfully, why the rules were
necessary. For example, he explained that we should not feed
the birds on any other occasions, because the birds would come
to rely upon human feeding, whereas the early morning feedings
by the rangers were approved by the National Park
environmentalists, as they were short in duration, and did not
give enough food to the birds for survival. He said that if
they stopped these bird walks tomorrow (they are planned
everyday), the birds would simply go back to foraging as they
normally do.
There were many birds that congregated around him as he
talked, particularly the various parrots; mainly king parrots
and crimson rosellas, but some regent bower birds as well. He
explained the differences between the male and females of each
species, and their preferences for food. (This was partly how
they were able to control which birds congregated at which
points on the walk.) For example: the parrots preferred seeds
(and they used specially formulated sterile seed, so that the
parrots would not spread the types of plants used for the
seed); while the bower birds preferred raisins and sultanas.
Later on, on the walk itself, he distributed crushed walnuts
to everyone, so that we could attract the different kinds of
rainforest birds.
Once we had entertained the parrots and bower birds, and they
us, we started on the walk itself, which was along a board
walk called the Booyong Board Walk, so called because it was
built through a forest of many Booyong Trees, a butressed
fig-like tree that had very shallow roots because of the
very shallow volcanic loamy soil.
We saw Yellow Robins, White Throated Robins, Log Walker Birds,
Whip Birds, Satin Bowers, and Scrub Turkeys. One satin bower
was of particular note, as it was used in a documentary with
David Attenborough. As our guide said, "now you can claim to
have met a bird that has met David Attenborough"!
It was rather hard getting photos of the various birds, but
they did occasional help by flying down and perching on
peoples' heads or shoulders. I got sat on by several king
parrots, for example. Please refer to me in future as "King
Parrot John".
Having those hadnfuls of walnut peices did help, but one did
have to be somewhat patient, paricularly if one wanted a photo
of the bird! The Yellow Robins did pause longer than the
other birds, which prompted our guide to joke: "The Yellow
Robins like to be robbin' the other birds of the limelight!"
Duh.
It was not just the birds that Kyle commented upon. He
stopped to point out various flora as way. I have mentioned
the Booyong Tree already, but he did explain about the
Strangler Figs as well, and how they contribute to the
ecological cycle.
We finished at about 07:25, and headed back to the resort,
where we went to the dining room for breakfast, and more
importantly, a cup of "proper" coffee. We both had a small
cooked breakfast, baked beans, mushrooms, fried tomatoes, hash
browns, that sort of thing. The toaster was a sticking point.
It was one of those conveyor belt things, and the heating was
low power and only worked one side, so it was (of necessity)
set to be very slow, and you had to turn the toast over and
redo it, or it was still raw on one side! It was tedious
enough that we complained about it when the waiter came round
to ask "How was everything?", so we told him, and was a bit
surprised to hear him agree!
We finished breakfast at about 08:40, so time to able slowly
over to the meeting point for the 4 wheel drive tour that we
had booked, starting at 09:00. Our guide, Megan, showed us to
a 15-seat bus, and then proceeded to take us on a tour of the
(mainly historical) features of interest of O'Reilly's. I say
"mainly historical", as it was full of stories about the early
pioneers in the O'Reilly family, and how they manged to eke
out a living. For example, they started with dairy farming
(having been previously sheep farmers), and struggled with the
fact that it took so long to get the milk to market. They
took it out overnight by horse (no cart!), and managed to sell
what had not been turned to butter by the next day!
The early 1900's saw a shift in their focus, and the first
guest house with the name "O'Reilly's" open in 1926.
Interestingly, it became vary popular, in spite of the
difficulties in getting to the place, and by the 60's when a
track/road was opened up, it became the place it is reknown
for today. I (John) did in fact come here in the mid 1990's
for a conference, and they place today looks very different
from the few memories I have of that occasion. I think I must
have been very focussed on the conference (one of the IDEA
conferences - possibly 1996)
We visited a few places, but the best was the Hunter's
lookout, overlooking the "Lost Valley" and "Razorback
Mountain". The rainforest on top of Razorback is so
inaccessible that it has not been disturbed, even in
Aboriginal folklore as a sacred site, so it is pretty special.
Lots of interesting flora around the spot where we stopped as
well, so many photos.
From there, back to the resort, it now being about 11:30. We
found the cafe and had a coffee each, as well as buying a few
food items for breakfast and/or lunch. Then back to our
"villa" for a bit of a rest, then lunch (two minute noodles)
and a cup of tea, before having a shower after a very busy
morning!
We decided to repeat the bird walk again this morning, hoping
for a slightly smaller group, and the opportunity to hear More
of what Kyle had said. But as it happened, the group was only
slightly smaller than yesterday, and consequently we still
struggled to hear everything he said. And Kyle was a little
disappointed in the occasion too, as he commented that there
were fewer birds around today. "Maybe some keen birdwatchers
got up before us, and went through feeding the birds", he
said. Apparently, the birds get used to only one feed a day,
and once they have picked the eyes out of the handfuls of food
offered, tend to make themselves scarce again. But we did get
to see a few different things: a brush turkey mound, a grey
shrike thrush, and a female whip bird.
After the bird walk was over, Barb and I followed a few others
on to the tree-top walk, a feature that John did remember from
the last time he was here. It was just as impressive as he
remembered, and we took a few more photos than he did last
time. We were followed by the make king parrot that had
followed us yesterday, even though we kept telling him that we
had no food left. He was joined by a female king parrot at
the end of the tree-top walk, and we were entertained by the
male perching first on John's hat, then on Barb's, while being
morosely sung to by the female. Why morose, I don't know, but
she was obviously his mate, as the two of them took off
together, not to return.
At the end, and back on terra firma, we were treated to a
display by two logrunners doing their scratchy-searchy thing.
Appparently these birds have quills at the back of their
bodies which they poke into the leaf-litter far enough to
stabilise their bodies, while they scratch about in the
leaf-litter looking for insects. Quite fun to watch, and I
managed to get a short video of two of them doing their
left-leg, right-leg, left-leg, etc., scratching, with leaf
bits going left-, right-, left-, etc. in alternating fashion.
As we walked back to the resort, we chanced upon a male whip
bird, and I was able to get some photos of him. On the
off-chance, I switched to video, and he immediately performed
one of his piercing whip call, just captured in the video! I
was quite chuffed with that, even though I am not a chuff.
Then back to the resort, where we ordered and drank two proper
coffees while admiring the view from the cafe balcony. We
bought a packet of choccy bikkies, then headed back to our
villa for breakfast (around 10:00!), which was some Carman's
muesli purchased yesterday, and another cup of coffee,
this time using the cafetiere provided in the villa.
Some frustrating time ensued as we tried to download all the
photos we had taken, only to be painted into various corners
by the arcane Apple software, that refused to be
user-friendly, and kept thwarting each attempt to copy photos
from one Apple device (iPhone16) to another (MacBookPro).
God, whatever happened to the nice simple environments we used
to have in the early days of Apple? Been perverted by
success, that's what!
Lunch was two packets of two minute noodles. Barb's packet
had two lots of flavour powder in it, so that to make things
even we chucked the two lots of noodles and the three lots of
flavour all in together, and it actually came out quite
flavoursome - unlike yesterday!
The afternoon was spent reading, and John took some time to
start writing a program to eliminate duplicate photos,
occasioned by the frustrations of the morning! He did get it
working, and by dint of much forensic computing, we slowly
resolved how best to deal with Apple brand photography.
At 17:00, we headed off to the Rainbow Bar for a beer (John)
and Mocktail (Barb), followed two big pizzas, a Carnavore
(meat lovers) for John, and a Vego (vegetarian) for Barb.
They were 12 inch pizzas, and we could only manage a half of
each! No matter, they will do nicely for lunch tomorrow.
After dinner, we had a relaxing spa bath out on the deck,
although the night sky was not that attractive, as there were
nearby bushfires, and there was a rather large pall of smoke
over the horizon. Nowhere near us, thank heavens, but it was
still somewhat disruptive. Then to bed.
Up bright and early again to get to the Early Morning Bird and
Board Walk. Kyle again was our leader, and we had been such
regulars for the last 3 days that he invited us to show
everyone how to feed the bower birds. We obviously were not
good role models, as when Kyle gave some food to a young
indian girl next to us, she flinched as soon as a bird flew at
her, and refused to have anything to do with them after that!
The walk today was quite different to the last two days, as
the group rather fragmented, especially a) when we stopped to
look at a pair of brush turkeys working on their mound, and b)
the spotting of a lyrebird singling and scratching away in the
nearby bush sucked half of the group away.
The turkeys were interesting, as the female was preparing to
lay her egg(s), and was furiously digging a hole to bury them
in. Meantime, the male stood by, doing nothing except getting
in the way of the female's frantic digging, and not in the
slightest interested in looking after his potential progeny,
but far more focussed on progenitoring some further siblings.
Meanwhile, the lyrebird kept up a continous cackophony of
sounds, scratching around, and fluffing up his tail.
Unfortunately, he was about 5m into the forest, which meant
that the view of him was impeded i) by all the trees and
saplings about, and ii) by all the people moving around trying
to get a better view, and just creating a worse view for the
people behind!
Then we did the tree-top walk again, this time taking a little
more time over it to admire the views, as there were fewer
people around. Back to the villa to eat the last couple of
two-minute noodles (we saved the pizzas for dinner), read
books for the afternoon, and then in the evening devour the
second halves of the pizzas from last night. No bar tonight,
but we did watch the sunset again from the back deck of the
villa.
Since we did not have to be on the road until 1000, we had a
slow start to the day, slowly organizing everything into bags,
cupboards, dishwashers, etc., in order to be able to walk out
of the villa pre 1000. It all went according to plan, and we
were away at 0941.
But don't forget that big windy narrow road! By agreement,
John drove, after Barb made him promise not to go too fast.
We didn't. In fact we stopped for quite a few photographs.
The traffic was very light by comparison with Sunday, which
was fortunate, as there were quite a few roadworks in
progress. We did see a firetruck zooming up the hill past us
with its lights flashing, but as there was only one, we did
not think it was more than a one-el lama.
The biggest thrill was encountering a utility with its own
flashing lights, who stopped us, and warned us of a wide load
coming up the hill. Not such much wide, as long. It was a
flat-top truck, with a very long telegraph/electricity pole
atteached to the top. It protruded several metres beyond the
truck at both front and rear, so we pulled over as much as
poss to let him pass! Fortunately, we encountered him on a
wider section of road, but if it had been on one of those
10kph blind corners, he might well have side swiped us!!
We stopped for a pee at the bottom of the hill at Canungra,
and we delighted to see a cute wooden (Anglican) church, with
banners along the side saying in 3m high letters "HOPE IN
JESUS"! It was sufficiently attractive that there were a half
dozen old ladies clearly doing a painting class, painting
various versions of what they saw. A quick chat with them,
and we were off again, this time with Barb driving.
We reached the Gold Coolangatta Coast Airport at about 1230,
and dropped off the rental car, no problems. A beer and
mocktail (Barb still has the gout) at the bar, and then
boarding at around 1500. A straight forward flight with only
a little turbulence saw us landing at Tullamarine around 1710,
or 1810 Melbourne time, and our taxi as organized by our
friendly Guri was waiting for us. A relaxing drive home to
Fran Court where Beth was waiting with a lovely dish of
chicken cacciatore, followed by chocolate cake made with the
juice of our own mandarines awaited! Bewdy Beth!
There's only one word left to say.
Bed.
