We traveled north from Emerald and met up with some other friends that came over feom New Zealand. Then over the next few days we camped and checked out the four wheel drive tracks along the way. We did the Old Coach Road track which went out to Maytown. An old gold mining town in the late 1800’s. It had a store, a doctor, a butcher, a school,and all sorts of things you would need back then in a town. Pretty much fully equipped. But it was so hot, we could barely believe people lived there. All that was left was some of the building support beams coming out of the dirt and a replica of a store or house. It was also hard to imagine a horse drawn anything making it out there… the road was so rocky and rough.
Then we did the Old Telegragh Track, which used to be where the telegraph line went up to the cape. You could still see lots of the galvanized steel poles along the way, all twisted and bent.Lots of rough roads and creeks to cross.
Some things we saw were a dingo crossing the road and an emu with five babies crossing the road. We couldn’t get a photo of either, but that was super cool. We also saw some green ants, meat ants, a neat yellow spider, a lizard, a gecko and some interesting plants. It’s very tropical up here… and dry. There are crazy termite mounds everywhere and we are always on the lookout for snakes if we are walking in tall grass. I keep my boots on. Don’t want any surprises, but none of us has seen one yet as there are many poisonous ones up here.
Some of the other birds I’ve identified have been:
- Magpie-lark
- Brown Goshawk
- Rainbow Lorikeet
- Cattle Egret
- Kookaburra
The Kookaburra sounds like a group of laughing monkies! You’d never guess it was a bird unless you already knew it.
Next we will make it to the cape and then head back down. Hope to see some crocks, but not too close!
Katherine, you must have a very tough car (jeep?) to go over those roads. You saw so many interesting things. The third picture looks like maybe an ant carrying a very large yellow caterpillar (compared to him). Is that it? It looks like little boy is having a great time too. Love, Nanu
The yellow thing is a spider! It looks like it’s holding a yellow surf board on its back bit thats his body!! We have a 4 wheel drive vehicle.