Port Douglas Qld 10 August 2017

Another beautiful day in Far North Qld, so we chose to head back to Port Douglas for lunch and a cruise on the Lady Douglas, which travels up Dixon Inlet which is behind the town.

We have been hearing all about how the winter months are the best for the wildlife, especially birds, which come done south from Cape York as the wetlands dry up.

Sadly, our tally so far, apart from the Jocana on the wetlands in Cairns itself, we have seen: 3x crocodiles, family of Ospreys and Greater Egret. Here's a few shots from todays tour:

Quite a few of these once glorious and idiotically expensive craft left abandoned in the mud. The Skipper was suggesting it's because you can't get full insurance for private craft and when it all goes pear-shaped, it's easier to just cut and run. Port Douglas Qld

Alpha croc - 4m. Resting up after making a meal of a lesser croc - 2.5m the previous day. Port Douglas Qld

Top end of Dixon inlet. Look closely, there's our lone Greater Egret who appears to have the place to himself. Port Douglas Qld

Coming into Port Douglas Qld

We stopped to snap this osprey nest which appeared to have chicks in  residence, when  Mummy Osprey turns up with dinner, a nice big fish. The Daddy Osprey was right behind her, and one of them stayed to tear the fish apart and feed the babies.  Port Douglas Qld

Just north of Cairns, these hundreds of rock piles have appeared. We've seen places with 4 or 5, but this is just crazy! Someone obviously had some time on their hands. Cairns Qld

Albany WA, Kalgan River Cruise, Pelican, White Breasted Sea Eagle, Osprey

Albany WA April 21, 2015
An early start this morning to catch the Kalgan River Cruise. The Kalgan is the river that runs down into Albany, though Oyster Bay and out into King George Sound

We knew we were in for a treat the moment we set foot on the wharf. Right below us were two of these huge stingrays cruising about and our guide started telling us all about them, calling each by their pet name and explaining how one must be at least 40 years old as that was the last time anyone knows of when they used to cut their tails off for safety.

I took pictures of the pelican instead

Pelican. Emu Point. Albany WA

Our guide I must mention is a local and only about 27, but he's been doing this cruise since his father started it 15 years ago. He's been doing it on his own as a guide for 7 years, 7 days a week, 9 months a year. Our craft is flat bottomed and has a glass viewing section. As we followed the channel markers out from the marina, he explained that the theory is that we were following the ancient course of the Kalgan, before the area was flooded after the ice age. Certainly it is natural channel that leads all the way from the mouth back up into the river proper. Through the glass bottom you can see that we are in metre of water and as we cross over the river bed, it drops out of sight, perhaps 15 metres. Our first stop is on the opposite bank where we can clearly see the remains of the water-tanker called the Camel, which was brought here after a collision at sea, saved, and then lost as it burnt to the water line while they were celebrating their efforts to save it. Or so they say. The official story is vaguely the same, but hey, why spoil a good yarn with facts, eh?

Wreck of the Camel. Albany WA

We then crossed over to Green Island, so named because its bright green from the verdant grass, a consequence of it being nothing more than a big heap of pelican pooh. Speaking of pelicans, according to our authority, it is one of only 4 places in Australia where pelicans breed. The story was that when the convicts arrived, one man was put there to grow vegetables and thus the first veggie patch in WA was established. Not noticed by the settlers was that the pelicans left and didn't come back for 150 years. They are certainly there now and you can see many young being baby-sat by a few adult birds.

Pelican on Green island. Albany WA

Pelican on Green Island. Albany WA

Jack, as our guide is known, has all these wild birds that come to his boat for their allocation of 1 - 3 fish. There are pelicans, White breasted sea-eagles, osprey and eagles. Each has a name and knows exactly when to appear and how many fish they get. He maintains that this way, we get to see some wild life and the wild life stay wild as they have to spend the rest of the day doing what birds do - fishing.

One pelican in particular though is his pet. It was rescued by his father from tangled fishing lines and embedded hooks. They had to take it to the vet for repair and then they had to take it home for recovery. A pelican being a pelican, it needs water to sit on and a supply of fish to eat. SO they sat it in the bathtub for three weeks and it was his job to feed it after school. Jack soon noticed that it span around every time he gave it a fish and they soon developed a relationship: he would call 'dance', the bird would spin around on the water, and he would feed it a fish. That was 20 years ago and he and the bird still do this routine today. Imagine that, a dancing pelican.

Knowing all the local birds so well, he has to be careful to make sure one doesn't get ideas bigger than his belly, in one case a pelican named Bruce will pester and follow him all the way up the river, stopping him from feeding the other eagles and hawks, but he is strict. If Bruce won't go away, no one gets fed.

Osprey. Albany WA

White Breasted Eagle. Albany WA

White breasted sea-eagle. Albany WA

Pelicam. Albany WA

Juvenile white breasted sea-eagle feeding on his fish. Albany WA

Aways up the river we pass the speed boat club and sanctioned speedboat area, and then Honeymoon Island. Honeymoon Island was originally named Elbow Island but came to be called Honeymoon after a young couple spent their honeymoon there. The legend has it that they were there a week. During that time they planted two Norfolk Pines which grew to be big fine trees and a baby tree was self sown between them. The man went to war and didn't return. His tree withered and died. Her tree was eventually struck by lightning and she died shortly after, as did the tree. A few years back, he was telling the yarn when an old lady piped-up and claimed that she was the daughter and that third tree was her. She came on his cruise every Christmas for a few years, and then one day he noticed the tree dying. The tree and the daughter were both dead within the week.

Around the corner we got all excited at the prospect of seeing the Giant Kingfisher. We all got a laugh at the actual bird that we found

Giant Kingfisher. Albany WA

Further up the river we blow, finally reaching a land that has a bus waiting to take us to Montgomery winery, about 1km up a dirt road. Wine is tasted and bought and we are taken back to the boat where a hot cuppa and a piece of hot damper await us.

Montgomery Winer. Albany WA

The return time is filled with yarns, homespun philosophy and his recital of some poetry that he and his father have written.

Soon enough, we re back at the dock and thanking Captain Jack for a most enjoyable 4 hours on the water.

If you come to Albany, don't miss this.

The Low Isles

Day 6

Another boring day in paradise. Another cruise out to a reef. This time the Low Isles, which is about 10km off the coast. Today we are on a 60ft cat which is the last word in luxury, must have cost $2mill at least. The low isles are a proper coral cay, a reef forms then turns into a small island. This one has a lighthouse and keepers lodge, and at low tide you can walk to the other cay that forms the small horseshoe shaped group. In the protected lee of the horseshoe, another reef forms and this is the one we are on today. There are two options: tag along with the 1 hour snorkel tour or take the tinny into the beach for a smaller tour. I took the 1 hour one, Judy elected to take the boat. They keep everyone in a group on this reef as there are a few hundred snorklers paddling about from the 10 or so boats moored in the bay. Today we have the added bonus of 300 extras from the Pacific Dawn which is anchored just of the headland.

The weather is perfect and the sea is calm. Apart from a lower visibility due to the wash, which you don’t get on the outer reef, conditions are ideal. The reef looks healthy, perhaps more types of coral than we saw the other day, but fewer fish. Our guide was great; he kept scooping up some exotic creature and showing us, or pointing out the stingrays, crayfish and turtles. They are really hard to see until someone points them out. Judy was lucky enough to see a ‘cleaning station’, where bigger fish pull in to be cleaned of algae by the two resident cleaner fish and a big male wrasse with his harem in line behind him.

Both groups met on the beach and Dru our guide took us ona short tour of the island. The Ospreys nest is a feature; it got so big that when it rained it brought the tree down and ended up on the sand. The island caretaker built a platform up another tree from a pallet and took the sodden mess of a nest out onto the beach, pulled it completely apart and laid the sticks and twigs out to dry. Within 2 weeks the osprey pair had completely rebuilt the nest using all the dried out material. Now that is recycling! Dru’s party piece is to gather us all around a table in the shade of the lighthouse and produce a timber box out of which he pulled any number of shells and giving us the complete rundown on what type of creature it was and all its habits. As this fellow, who we may have thought of as the skipper of the boat and snorkel leader, gets into his stride it’s evident that he is much more, probably a marine biologist, as his range and depth of knowledge about birds, reefs, corals, shells and fish is nothing short of amazing. As a bonus, he collects shells, and he collects them all right here on this island.

On the short walk back along the beach, they casually point out yet another shark cruising the shoreline, not more than 1m from the waters edge.

I chose to swim back to the boat to build up my appetite for the luncheon that awaited: the usual chicken, ham, pastrami, prawns and a range of salads.

After lunch there was to be another tour, so we suited up and hopped into the water….

Cue the soundtrack from Jaws…

We were swimming with two black-tipped reef sharks. They were there, so close you could touch them, but as Dru had so rightly warned us, these ones see us as a threat and will, and did, leave us alone. Apart from the sharks, there were a couple of huge bat fish and a bunch of other ones that I couldn’t identify.

When the tour got started, the girl leading it took off like a croc to dinner time and we bailed out, swimming leisurely back to the boat. I amused myself by jumping off the side of the boat into the water, until the other crew member suggested I try the roof! Far out, sooo much fun!

On the return trip, a whale and calf were sighted and followed for a while until we finally had to return to the wharf, where the guests for the dinner cruise were waiting already; seems we were about 45 minutes late but I don’t think anyone on the boat, including crew, cared that much!

Low Isles, Qld