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Published: March 13th 2009
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I’ve realised that many of the highlight for me when I’ve been travelling have been seeing the wildlife of the country I’m in. A leaflet in the hostel travel shop had my name all over it (not literally of course): Gone Wild. I booked.
I was the only true tourist on the little bus that picked me up. There were four of us all together, myself, a Dutch girl working in a Hostel and an older couple who ran some accommodation units in the town. It’s out of season so the company had taken advantage of the quiet by inviting local tourist workers out to sample this fairly new trip. Our guide was Warren.
As we drove through the countryside Warren pointed out the different types of forest we passed and spoke knowledgably about the plants themselves. We stopped at a view point over Cairns then headed, via a fruit shop where I had my first Custard Apple, on to our first true stop, Granite Gorge. As we drove along the track towards the gorge Warren said that it was a perfect place to spot wildlife especially frilly lizards. “When we see one I’ll pop out and catch
Frilly Lizard
Warrenthe tour guide in full 'Steve Irwin' mode it”, he said. I thought for a second I was on tour with Steve Irwin! All eyes were glued to the trees searching for frilly lizards. And true to his word when he spotted one he jumped out the bus , grabbed it and brought it back for us to see. It was a sorry looking sight. To be honest it wasn’t the best specimen, it was rather skinny and scraggy looking but none the less it was a frilly lizard.
We parked at the gorge, collected some food and walked down to the boulders. Over 300 Rock Wallabies live here and they're happy to be fed by visitors. They were incredibly cute and felt tiny compared to the kangaroos I’d fed before. They certainly knew why we were here and made a b-line for the bags of food. I was lovely having these wild animals feed out of my hand. They were beautiful little creatures coming and going as they pleased back and forth from the rocks.
We drove on through the countryside as a storm brewed in the skies above. Again this road was known for spotting wildlife. We were told to look for Kookaburras (he
held up a picture)and we did, all eyes scanning the trees. Warren spotted one, slammed on the breaks and we all ohh-ed and ahh-ed over the bird. Further on we spotted the blue winged variety and again the breaks were applied and we all stared out the window. It was great fun. Sometimes when I’m travelling something interesting flies by the window and I secretly wish I could stop and have a better look; this little tour was what it was all about. En route to our next stop we spotted pheasant, more wallabies, black swans and sea eagles.
Bonadio Mabi Wildlife Reserve is a large area of land given back to nature by the Bonadio family. Here we met Mark who gave us a short Birds of Prey and animal show, letting us hold an owl on our gloved hand and also meet a Spotted Quoll. His animals are rescued from road accidents mostly and he uses them for the show and education. The show finished and Warren told us he’d spotted a Tree Kangaroo nearby. We jumped in the van, binoculars in hand. Right enough, in the top branches of a tree was a Tree Kangaroo. Before
it got dark we headed down to the river for a bit of Platypus spotting. They are notoriously elusive but thanks to Warren’s beady eyes we did indeed see one. Well if he hadn’t been there I would have thought it was a log. It surfaced then dived for a few minutes appearing further upstream each time (so I knew it wasn’t a log after all). Fantastic.
Dinner was the highlight of the day. We had dinner in a barn filled with picnic tables, a barbcue and two of the side walls open to the forest. Warren set out the table and left us with crudités and wine as he cooked up some samples of Kangaroo and Crocodile for us to taste. Delicious. The steaks then went on and as they cooked he put out some food for the forest dwellers. Rotting fruit for the possums and pellets for the pademelons (it sounds like a made up name but they're a small marsupial, like a little wallaby). They came, appearing from the trees, clambering down, they dined beside us. None of us could eat our dinner. We sat transfixed as these little creatures ate 6 feet away from us.
It was incredible. I even fed some a little bit of banana, a favouite of theirs and it let me stroke it. I'd paid $20 to pet a tame possum in Australia Zoo but here I was petting wild ones! As they say, I was thrilled beyond belief. “This is by far the best dinner entertainment I’ve ever had Warren”, I said. He got out his guitar and sang Waltzing Matilda for us. I think the possums thought that this was the best dinner entertainment that they had ever had too.
The finale to the day was a 20 minute walk into the rainforest at night. It was well and truly dark by now and I was beginning to wonder why I had ever thought it was a good idea. I was now plastered in suntan lotion form the day, insect repellant and now I was told to spray my toes incase I got a leach on them! Torch in hand we started out. My torch didn’t stray far from my feet. Any bit of dirt on them was potential leech. The girl in front of me was squealing about creepy crawlies. The woman behind squealed too, “Spider!” “That’s
a leaf”, reassured Warren. We all laughed but none of us were settled until we got out of the forest. Thanks to Warren’s super-duper torch we did see a Bandicoot though.
It was a fantastic tour. I overdosed on cute Aussie animals, some I’d never even heard of before, some I felt privileged to see. Warren was so enthusiastic and knowledgeable it made the tour a delight. A fantastic day out.
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