Outside the kitchen window.....

It never ceases to amaze me - the wildlife that wanders around our garden. at any given time. This morning I have seen sunbirds, a spangled drongo, a female wallaby with joey in her pouch, a pair of orange-footed scrub fowls, a group of figbirds and ofcourse the usual brush turkeys. This is the first time I have ever seen the scrub fowls here - I am sure they are all through the forests but not something you see everyday. I suspect it is the lovely mango's as the wallaby had a great time up there eating them.

The place is alive with sound of dropping mango's and the smell of their rotting flesh, the sweet smell of the yellow Cassia flowers and the red colours of the Poinciana. I will miss this place.

A Wildlife Wonderland

Once we had dried out a bit from the wet, we took our friends the Fields for a bit of a sightseeing exploration and had ourselves a taste of the wonderful local wildlife. Our favourite Trevethan Falls, made famous nationally for the front cover of the Weekend Australian, was bursting with water and impossible to get too close to or even attempt swimming in the pool below it.

So we tried a bit further down stream and came across the rare and usually nocturnal Tree Kangaroo - two of them - that went bouncing up the trees with their long brown tails hanging down and then sat there watching us. They look like real teddy bears with their little brown ears and bear-like snout. And amongst this amazing sight were the beautiful blue Ulysses Butterflies darting around in the sunshine. Just amazing. The on the way out we ran into (or almost over) old man Lace Monitor - a huge old one by the look of things who then sat in a tree and watched from on high.

After that we headed to Archer Point which is just stunning and it was a clear blue day with vibrant colours. As we stood at the lighthouse watching the world go by we discovered that the sea below us was full turtles and a few dugongs taking their fill from the sea grasses below. Just a magical sight.

To finish the wildlife adventure we headed off to the reef the next day for a spot of fishing and some snorkelling. Cooktown is the closest town to the reef and it doesnt take long to get out there amongst the coral and lovely fish. Toby and his friends Tom and Charlie put down some handlines and not long after Toby had caught something pretty large. After almost taking his hand off with the line he handed it over to the Capt'n who waged battle with what turned out to be a very large shark! As toby is only slight, it was a good thing he didnt end up overboard! After that one of the rods caught something big and fast so we all had a go at reeling that in and managed to land a lovely big Spanish mackeral. Sean went spearing for cray fish and got a huge one so it was a lovely seafood feast that night!