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Published: December 9th 2006
05/12/06 - 07/12/06 Pioneer River Valley (Eungella national park)
The Broken River Retreat was fully booked for the night so we postponed the platypuses for a night and headed to Stoney Creek Cottage for a farm stay. After pulling up at the farm, one of the owners, Steve dropped us at the cottage in his 4WD, as it was deep into the woods down a long track. The beautiful Mackay cedar wood cottage stands on its own in quite a remote location. It looked like the kind of place that you see in the opening scene of a horror film, where the unsuspecting tourists are arriving to spend the night!
The accommodation consisted of a bedroom and kitchen area with the toiled inside a hollowed out tree, the central feature. The shower is outside in the woods.
We, (Ok - Jen) cooked a simple pasta dinner on the antique looking stove, whilst I collected firewood and then we sat outside beside the fire. The cane toads and mice made far too many ‘night-time scary rustling sounds in the forest’ noises for our liking and we were soon back in the safety of our cabin where we felt less
spooked!
We met our hosts at 07:30 for a morning trail ride with the news that our one hour horse ride was now going to be 2 hours, representing far better value for money but conjuring up thoughts of sore bums and family jewels.
We saddled up; Jen on a grey horse called Montana and mine a chestnut, Sprocket. With a little persuasion on how hard we had to kick the horses to make them move (We just didn’t want to hurt them!!), we were off. Up and down the rocky slopes seemed challenging enough for us as the novices that we were, but on coming to an open field we were taught the correct body position in the stirrups for trotting. Just when I thought that I had the hang of bouncing up and down with the rhythm of the trotting motion, Sprocket decided to break into a cantor, almost necessitating a change of my underwear! Jen had the opposite problem with her horse, actually getting the beast to move instead of just nibbling at the grass. When it did move however, Jen could be seen sliding around on her saddle and bouncing up and down, prompting
Steve to joke about the need for a sheepdog bra. So named because it “crosses ‘em over, rounds ‘em up and points them in the right direction.”
At the end of 2 hours, we returned to the paddock and I was pleased that I couldn’t seem to feel sore nor any stiffness from 2 hours on horseback… then I dismounted and couldn’t seem to walk with my legs together!
We waved goodbye to our hosts and horses and headed for Broken River in Eungella National Park - the platypus capital of the world.
Platypus viewing time is dusk and dawn, when the animals feed and for some reason need to come to the surface to masticate, however the impatience of youth (at 33?) was rewarded s we headed straight down to the viewing platform at 2 pm when we arrived, and spotted one virtually straight away. Platypuses are billed as the strangest creatures on earth, being a water dwelling, egg laying, duck billed mammal and there are very few places where you can see them in the wild (here and Tasmania).
The next morning we were up at 5 am for our last spotting opportunity. We
did see a couple more from the bridge and viewing platform, as well as; a beautiful rust and turquoise coloured, Azure King Fisher (far too fast for a photo), a Blue Faced Honey Eater (almost too fast for a photo, hence the slightly blurred picture), and, a laughing kookaburra (which wasn’t laughing, but did keep still long enough for a piccie!)
With limited luggage space, we have been very self-disciplined with buying souvenirs but our self-discipline waned with the addition of a platypus hand puppet that has joined us for the rest of our travels!
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..fish..
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Two Faced Bunny Heater
Considering that they move so fast, I think your Blue Faced Honey Eater picture came out pretty good! I remember you getting very frustrated at a humming bird in California last year - 2005. It was along the Pacific National Highway, about half way between San Francisco and L.A. The poor thing was only trying to find a little smackerel of something for its lunch, but it wouldn't stay still enough for you to take its picture. ..fish..