Granite Gorge

Earlier this week as Tish was languishing in bed with some form of horrid lurgie we decided to make a dash for freedom and headed off to Granite Gorge near Mareeba to feed the Mareeba Rock Wallabies...
Tish insisted we went as she was feeling so rough that she just wanted to sleep and I think she quite welcomed the peace and quiet!
Granite Gorge is quite scenic (in places, other parts of it a bordered by a mango farm) and is reminiscent of the Northern Territory

and the walks on the whole were gentle (or so we were told)

I have been here several times, mainly to look at a certain key bird species and so we had not done the full walk before...
The views were indeed spectacular and offered some great photo opps

There were lots and lots of rocks

this one looks like a giant turtle

this one is called Turks Head

yep Grandma ROCKS!!!!

The first part of the path is where the Rock Wallabies are, and armed with several bags of food for them we headed off. There were none to be seen at first but at the first rustle of the food bags opening they popped out from under the overhangs where they had been sheltering from the heat

They are very friendly and gentle creatures on the whole although one of the Mums gave her Joey a right thumping when it tried to get out of her pouch!

From here we headed off and fed the turtles

Not quite as cuddly as the wallabies but still pretty good.
It was from here that we then headed off on our walk expecting to find a gentle path...this was not the case and we ended up with some impromptu rock climbing

the red line marks part of the route that we ended up taking. We would have turned back but I am not sure that I could have got them all back up one of the slopes so we decided to carry on..
We all got round safely but I have to say I will not be doing that part of the walk again anytime soon.
The birds were rather disappointing - the Tawny Frogmouth nest failed and although they were still in the area they are not sticking to anyone roost tree so we did not find them and even more surprisingly the Great Bowerbirds bower had vanished completely.
We did see these though

my first Australian tick of the year two pairs of Helmeted Guineafowl - part of a large self sustaining "wild" population.

Kuranda Butterfly Sanctuary

We took Mum up to the Butterfly Sanctuary at Kuranda over the weekend

we are in the middle of a heat wave so I am not sure how sensible going into a humid greenhouse was but never mind.
There were as you would expect butterflies everywhere

although as the light was not always good some of the photos gave a different view of them

this is a male Cairns Birdwing.
They were quite happy to land on people..

Cameron was quite taken with this one

Hamish mastered the art of coaxing them off the interpretation signs

All of us were fascinated by the spectacle

We also went through the lab area where they hatch all of them out. Mixed in with the butterflies were a few of these

the Hercules Moth - the largest moth in the world

Belated Happy New Year

Suddenly realised that have not blogged since Christmas so first of all Happy 2014 to everyone!
The period between Christmas and New Year was a quiet one - Tish was working nights over both holiday periods so we had nothing major planed.
I took Mum and Xanthe into the Botanic Gardens in Cairns for a wander round

the boys didn't fancy walking through the plants - been there done that....
We showed Grandma the local Froggie..

On January 1st I took the children out for a walk in the morning..
after visiting their favourite sandcastle

we moved on to one of the local parks

where they plotted my downfall I think - very serious talks going on here.
We called in at the play park for a while, but had to wait as there was a queue for the swings ..

we ended up on the beach

We did in fact return late afternoon and went for a swim inside the Stinger nets but did not take the cameras!

Christmas Part II

Later in the afternoon when the sun was less strong and the UV load had reduced we set up the water slide that the children had been given.
Unfortunately our mains water pressure was not quite equal to the to the task but a great time was had by all

We had our Xmas lunch on the deck again this year - much cooler but a few mossies around so we did move inside as the fans blow the citronella out

The crackers had the normal bits in them

Tish in her finery....

 HAPPY CHRISTMAS