Advertisement
Published: June 24th 2015
Edit Blog Post
Roughing it at Silky Oaks
Our deck sports a sitting area, a bistro table and a day bed with mosquito netting We had a relaxing morning, with breakfast overlooking the river followed by packing up at a leisurely pace. John took another quick swim in the river, but asked Sonia to come along and spot for crocs. After checking out of our cabin, we decided to hang out for a bit in the beautifully appointed library (and use their WiFi) before hitting the road. The drive to the Jabiru Lodge in the Mareeba reserve was about an hour and a half, starting with a steep winding climb into the mountains. The terrain changed from rainforest to grassland, dotted with thousands of termite mounds, some as large as boulders. Unlike in the rainforest, wallabies and kangaroos are common in the grasslands. At the lodge we checked in and moved into our two eco-tents. The tents were rustic but nice, each with beds and a private bath as well as enough electricity (driven by solar cells) to power some LED lights. Back at the lodge we had some snacks (having not really had lunch) before heading out for our afternoon safari. There was a boat tour of the lagoon where we learned that the wetlands are man-made as part of a massive dam project
Brush Turkey
Sonia has been stalking these since we arrived. to provide water for agriculture. The man-made wetlands are very similar ecologically to naturally occurring wetlands on the inland side of the “Great Dividing Range” and were an effort to bring wetlands closer to Cairns so they could be appreciated by more people. We did see some unusual birds on the thirty-minute loop around the lagoon, but the pace was a bit slow for our taste. The boat tour was followed by a 4-wheel drive safari around the area. Again the pace was a bit slow, and the focus entirely on birding, so the vehicle did not stop for wallabies or other non-bird wild-life, or to take in some of the fantastic views. We did enjoy seeing a pair of Jabiru and a few wallabies, before returning to the lodge for hors d’oeuvres and wine. The evening air was lovely and the word ‘peaceful’ is inadequate to describe the environment. During the hors d’oeuvres hour, Sonia struck up with a conversation with a young Australian man who was travelling by himself and was setting up to take a series of time-lapse sky photos overnight. We asked him to join us for dinner and exchanged stories and information about our respective
Jabiru Eco-Tent
Our eco-tent is certainly rustic compared to the luxury of Silky Oaks, but it's not exactly "roughing it" countries and travels. Dinner was a buffet selection of four entrees for the eight guests spending the night on the reserve and had the feel of a home-cooked dinner. After dinner, we headed back to our tents to settle in for the evening. Clear skies made for excellent star viewing and Sonia was quite taken with the alignment of the moon, Jupiter and Venus. With the help of an iPad app we found the Southern Cross as well as noting the haze of the Milky Way. We also managed to spook some strange small creature that scurried up a tree trunk and stared back it us with giant eyes as we shined a flashlight at it. There was some anxiety about the potential for spiders inside the tents (Andrew has spotted a big one in its web, and later noticed that it had gone missing), but we decided it was best not to think about that too much and we were asleep surprisingly quickly to the sounds of the Australian wilderness.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.068s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0431s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb