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Published: July 14th 2009
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Day 79 - Carmila Beach to Mackay
Another weird night of restless sleep, it’s really odd because we were sleeping so soundly to begin with. It might be to do with the fact that we’re going to bed at 8pm if we’re in free camping and there’s nobody else around to have a chat too and the chatting we have done has been mainly about crocodiles! Yep, that would probably account for it!
We missed sunrise this morning but we were up by 7am and decided to walk to the Osprey nest and check for activity. As we approached we could see one bird in the nest and it wasn’t long before it hopped out onto the tree for a bit of preening, and a bit more preening and a bit more preening, and a bit more preening! Obviously somebody else had a long night!
We edged closer and closer to the nest thinking that we’d just be getting a better view of this feathered beauty but we were in for quite a treat although we had to be patient! After about 30 mins the Osprey started screeching, or should we say calling, for it’s partner who was
seemingly on it’s way back from a successful fishing trip! Hopping back on to nest the bird continued the screech and then we could clearly hear mini screeching too! So there was a chick (or chicks) in the nest, how exciting! Poised with binoculars and of course the camera we waited for the meal to arrive. We caught sight of the 2nd Osprey (we’ll say it was the male for the purpose of the story!) and he did a fly past with his large, prize catch and then delivered the meal from the opposite of the nest. Fantastic to watch, but difficult to photograph despite it going on under my nose! Grrrrr, live and learn! Still, you don’t see that everyday and it was worth getting up for! We were still unsure of how many chicks were in the nest or indeed how big they are so we sat it out for a while longer to watch a bit more activity! We didn’t see the male return but soon after the feed finished the female left the nest and the quantity of chicks in the nest became immediately apparent! One very distressed chick squawked, carried on and screeched for the
next 10 mins before finally realising that Mum was not going to return on request! The chick seemed hidden in the nest for sometime and then, as a quick check, Mum flew over carrying her own fish feast but choose to eat it elsewhere and therefore not to share! We moved our position at this point and found the chick was clearly visible from our new position. We wondered if today might be the first flying lesson day or at least the build up to it in encouraging the chick to be on it’s own more and more. There was Brahminy Kite flying nearby but nothing threatened the nest and to be fair the chick is quite a size so would hopefully be too big for any of the other birds of prey. We made our way back through the creek as it was about the time for the tide to turn and you wouldn’t want to walk back through a creek at high tide that you knew was a croc hideout!
We packed up camp and left the glorious sun of Carmila Beach to head further north to Mackay. Passing a multitude of Sugar-cane fields, I lost count,
it’s easy to see what one of the main commercial outlets is here! We passed a few campsites which we’d earmarked to stay at but Mackay is bigger than I was expecting and we weren’t keen on staying right next to the main highway so we had a quick trundle around the city, over the bridge with far too many cranes and out the other side! We eventually settled on the Central Tourist Park where several of our fellow campers from Carmila Beach seem to have landed too! It’s great meeting the grey Nomads, especially after they’ve had their 4 o’clock Happy Hour shot of scotch, they’re hilarious!
We got the washing done and went to see if we could finally sort our UHF radio ariel out. We’re booked into Autobarn on Friday with an expected fix it cost of $55 so fingers crossed that sorts it out and DASH will then be live on UHF channel 18 for all the road trains to tell us to move over and get out of their way!!
We hit the local Dan Murphys too, the best deal on alcohol in most towns these days! A 4 litre box of Coolabah
wine has generally been costing $13.95 in other outlets but here is $8.95. Dar’s on the Carlton Gold but bought a back up box of Mild just in case. We have to be careful if we’re intending on going anywhere near any ‘dry areas’ (northern Aboriginal territories) as alcohol is banned and if you’re caught entering these areas with any there’s a $30’000 fine or a 6 month custodial sentence. We’ve heard numerous stories about people that have been caught and are now facing court appearances. Our next door camper John told us how he buried his stash before going to Cape York! He reckoned he had a box of stubbies, maybe 6 bottles of wine and a bottle of scotch so he dug a hole this side of the territory line and buried the lot! It was still there when he came back through - result!
We’ve been thinking about getting a roof rack for the Terrano but having found that could set us back nearly $700 from Autobarn we do some housekeeping and re-organisation instead! The 2nd spare wheel is taking up loads of room in the back of the car and that’s what we wanted to
put on the roof put instead we’ve put the back seats down and shifted the boxes around. That way we’ll have room for another jerry can of fuel and some more water for when we’re travelling across the top.
While that was going on I was doing the housekeeping in the van and courtesy of the Carlton Gold boxes we now have proper under-sink storage units for all the cleaning stuff which has freed up a ‘veggie rack’!
It was great to catch up with Mum and Dad Howells tonight. Glad to hear that all the family are well and congratulations to Esther (and of course Ian) on the birth of their son! It was on the way back from the phone call that we found the title for todays blog, on the back of a motorhome - where else!
Love to all
Dar and Sar
PS - Congrats to Ray for getting 2nd place at this weekends Mini Nationals! Nice one gang!!! We're loving it!!!
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