Caroline and the Kookaburra.

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DAY 331



The morning was just the start of a “Normal” day for us but it turned out so much different and if anything quite sad really, we wonder if we are a bit too soft to deal with the harsh effects of this country.

I was up about 7.00am with Caroline not that far behind me, making the bed and getting ready for the tent to be folded away, we had spoken to our friends Gary and Karen last night over Skype and we made a smart arse quip about if it rains then we will not be back from Cape York until May 2010.

Well, it rained last night, it woke me up at 3.15 and we both heard the pit, pit, pit sound of rain on the trailer. It kept me awake for, um well, about 2 seconds, if it was the start of the wet season which would be very unusual at this time then we would have to turn around and high tail it back South again, hoping the rivers and creeks would not be impassable, don’t you just hate saying things that are likely to come back around to haunt you?

It rained another couple of times in the night but when I awoke it was all nice and dry but quite a cool cloudy morning, in many respects quite a relief from the sun and the heat.

We had some breakfast and Caroline had some paperwork (electronic) to deal with before we head off as we are not certain what internet access we will get over the next day or so, we also spoke to the Wallaby Wanderers over Skype this morning, they are having a great time in Derby and had great fun at tunnel creek which is excellent, you may remember that we did this with Andrew and Kirsty way back on 6th June 2009. We look forward to reading their blog about it, apparently they were there at some ridiculous hour like 6.30am!

I dropped the pressure in the tyres by about 10 Psi as we knew the road conditions would probably be rough (understatement of the year) and seeing someone with a flat tyre yesterday just made me think that it was perhaps more sensible.

We packed the trailer away then had a shower, Caroline used the Men’s shower block as the Ladies was quite dark, dingy and cramped, clean though, but the Men’s was in much better condition and as there were no other male campers around, those that were here earlier had left long before now. I said that I would hammer on the door to warn her if anyone was coming. I think it is fairly well male dominated here as there are a number of men in the vicinity that come here for a long stay while they are working.

I finalised everything on the trailer while Caroline went to pay for the site, when she came back she told me that she was chatting to one of the locals outside the shop, she says it is 98% humidity at the moment, the documentation we have indicates that the humidity should be at 66% which would be more normal for this time of year, I think again about the rains and hope that it does not come early.

We hit the road at exactly 10.00am heading for Bramwell Station, Camps 5 No 928, which is a working station and in fact Australia’s most Northerly working station, which means we have roughly 230k’s today all off road, with the exception of a few bitumen stretches.

We virtually hit the dirt straight away, and settled down in to the groove, nice and steady, some places were smooth as a baby’s bottom whilst some places were very corrugated and rough as guts. The scenery changed so much and it is very easy to see why the Cape York Peninsula is cut off from Queensland and thus the rest of Australia in the wet season.

We were driving along listening to Fleetwood Mac on the Ipod and on the drivers side I caught something out of the corner of my eye, which was blue, and I thought that it looked like a Kookaburra, I explained to Caroline what I thought I had saw, and we decided to turn around, she had seen something too.

50 mtrs back up the road was the most beautiful blue winged Kookaburra sitting on the side of the road there were a couple of loose feathers around it and it did not look well at all.

Caroline squatted down and quietly spoke to it and the only thing we could think of to do was to try and give it some water. It just sat there looking forlorn and its beak was resting on the ground, Caroline tried to put water in its mouth but to no avail, he was short of breath and looked in a bad way.

I know we are “city” folk but we love the outdoors and all of her wonderful creatures and there was no way on gods earth could I find it in me to despatch the creature but what options did we have?

We spoke about putting it in a box wrapped in a towel and taking it to Bramwell Station, I could just imagine them saying “Well what do you want us to do with it? We are a station not a vet.”

The outback is not a place for sissy’s but we just love animals so much we hate to see them in pain or distress, it would be so much better if the bird could tell us what the matter was but it obviously couldn’t. Looking down the road we see a road train coming kicking up a bow wave of dust so we huddled around kookie so it didn’t get showered in dirt, as the poor thing was suffering.

We drove off, we just could not do any more for it, tears trickled down Caroline’s face and we both felt like we had been punched in the guts, but I honestly did not know what else we could do. In some respects I think we failed the Kookaburra, but what could we do? If we were near a city or town we would have picked it up and taken it to a Zoo or one of the Wildlife rescue places that often advertise themselves, but here, there is nothing and although we feel guilty, how could we really have been able to help, more than comfort it in its final hours. I think more so I was hoping that it was just stunned and would recover itself and fly away, but really its breathing was quite laboured.

With our hearts heavy we drove in silence and just watched as the road changed a couple of times again and on the right hand side of the road, the tree’s and the bush had been burnt for many kilometres and on the right tree’s were still smouldering.

We came to the T-junction, Weipa straight ahead and turn left for Cape York. The strange thing is at this junction we see a gate for Picaninny Station, which also happened to have a sign saying Australia’s Wildlife Conservation. We could not believe it, however there was no number, no sign indicating if you could drive in, or indeed anything indicating how far in it was. Caroline looked down the road, it went for miles in the distance, the trouble is out here you could drive for 100kilometres or more down a track before getting to where you want to be. We tried the internet just in case there was a signal, but to no avail, I know to most of you sat at home in comfort this may not mean much but we both felt helpless and sad for this Kookaburra that we could not help.

Distances ticked by and we eventually arrived at the Wenlock river, people there were bush camping, there were signs saying “Danger Crocodiles” but they had their bathers on and were obviously swimming. I really don’t think that we would take the chance, no matter that this is not the wet season, who knows if one is hanging around inland?

We drive past 1000’s of termite mounds and some are absolutely huge, certainly bigger than the touristy one on the way to Litchfield National Park, where we saw the Cathedral & Magnetic Termite Mounds, in the distance we saw a Willy Willy, which is like a mini Tornado, it appeared and travelled across the ground and we were hoping it was going to cross the road but unfortunately it just disappeared, from whence it came, it was absolutely amazing, its chimney was really high in the sky.

The other strange thing we again saw today were two dead wild pigs, lying together as we saw yesterday, we just find it odd that 2 are lying together.

Shortly after the Wenlock River we get to the Moreton Telegraph Station, which is historically significant, we may stop here on our way back.

Onwards we drive arriving at Bramwell Station at 1.45, 230k’s from Coen where we started this morning, we turn in and drive down what we are told is a 10k track but it is closer to 15k’s.

Pulling in to “Reception” which is the shop, Caroline hops out and does all the sorting out, I see a horse wandering over our way so get out of the truck to greet it, the horse wanders straight past and goes to the reception and stands there with its head in the window, obviously ordering a cold drink, as the sun is so hot.

The lady tells us there is no power, and we can pitch the trailer under one of the shady trees so we pull the Patrol around and unpack again.

By now its is 2.30 and we haven’t had any lunch, so we rustle up a sandwich and a cup of tea, the horse wanders over and I have a couple of carrots in the fridge that have not quite gone past their best but hey you have to be kind to horses so I decide to give the carrots to the horse, who by now has parked himself behind the back of the Patrol where I am.

I break one of the carrots in to 3 and let the horse have each piece one by one, then he has the rest and I have to push past him as he is blocking my path, I sit down whilst he noses into our bins, but I know he will not find anything to eat in there, however he finds the washing up bowl and Caroline tells me he has eaten the washing up sponge, that is bright yellow and sure enough you can see him trying to chew the sponge.

Caroline is concerned but I tell her he will let it go once he has decided that it doesn’t taste very nice, on and on he tries to chew it and after about 5 minutes he sort of spits it out in disgust and walks off, we find that it is also in two pieces.

We sit in the shade and Caroline plays on her DS doing her Brain Training and I type up notes for today’s blog and generally have a relax.

At 6.00pm we rustle up our evening meal, we have a couple of Kangaroo steaks that need cooking and soon get those polished off.

Early evening we notice Kangaroo’s are coming in from the bush and are grazing about 100 meters away, we hope they will get closer, but we wont tell them what we are having for dinner tonight as it may upset them. How hypocritical is that when we are so sad about the Kookaburra yet we are eating Kangaroo steak.

We still feel so deflated about the Kookaburra, if we had been somewhere like Cairns we would have been able to get it to an injured animal centre, but we were just too far our Speedo tells us we are 867k’s from Cairns.

We forgot to put in the blog yesterday, that Caroline went to the toilet at Hann River Roadhouse and looked out of the window in the toilet to see an Emu looking in. She said it was a bit of an old mangy thing as may have been a resident of the roadhouse for a while.

Sitting here this evening, Andy is now reading his book, dinner is eaten, washing up is done and I am trying to finish a bottle of red wine (tough life eh!), Andy tells me he can see lightning in the distance, I wonder if it will rain again tonight as it was quite windy this afternoon.

There are some station workers sat in the bar area, they have all had their evening meal and we see 3 cows wander up to the bar and “mingle” before deciding that they were not going to be served and then wandered off, we can now hear them crunching fruit that has fallen to the ground from the trees.

At about 8.00 the generators go off, and the whole place went silent all you can hear are the grasshoppers or crickets making a noise, we are not yet in pitch black, the moon is hidden behind some clouds and we have our 12volt lamp plugged in, I am just finishing off the blog ready for publishing when we eventually get to some civilisation and internet.

We are about the only people still up and about; the moon is full and showing itself intermittently from behind the clouds.

We will read for a short while but bedtime will soon be upon us, so until tomorrow bloggers!

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Photos

Caroline and the Kookaburra
The poor Kookaburra was injured, we just did not know what to do

Poor Kooki
He would not lift his beak off the floor

Blue Kookaburra
We felt so helpless, but in the middle of no wear, what could we have done

Human Shield
W shielded Kookie from the dust, to help him.

Tough Track
From Coen to Bramwell Junction, you can see why the road gets cut off whenit rains

We tried
In vane to find people and get in, to get Kookie some help

All Burnt
The bush was burnt, but new growth was starting to shoot.

Cheyenne The horse
Ordering a beer with Bear the dog, as his side kick

what a journey
This road is impressive,in the middle of no wear, the wheather damages every wet seanson and cuts off the "Top End"

Caroline & the Tremite mound
Just imagine these little creatures built this

The wenlock River
Crossing the Wenlock River

Cheyenne
The sponge eating horse. he just spat it out in disgust, and Caroline grabbed her camera.

Comments

[Darryl and Sarah]

You couldn't have done any more
I'm crying with you Caroline, that's such a shame for the poor Kooki. They're so beautiful but he didn't look well at all did he. We came across a Wallaby on our way into Edith Falls that had obviously been hit by a car but was still alive and dragging itself away from the road. Sadly because it was outside the national park the rangers felt there was nothing they could do and as we weren't near a wildlife rescue place we too had to leave it. :-( PS ironically on our blog for yesterday you'll see a parrot in a slightly worse state than the kooki, there was definately nothing we could do for it! Take care love and hugs from both of us x x x

[Mum and Dad]

Animal day
Hi.....How so very sad finding a very sick kooki and there was nothing you could do to help.....It was a good job the pigs were dead as what could you have done for them!! We loved the story about the horse Cheyenne and the photo of the horse and Bear the dog.. We are always getting sick birds of all kinds in the garden..a friend said that the other birds tell them to fly to us for help. Try not to be sad as you did all that you could for it. It is getting colder here you would not like it just keep following the sun in OZ. Love Mum and Dad xx