Day 14: Mon 9 May - Charleville

Day 14: Mon 9 May - Charleville 

7 – 23°,  An overcast day and much milder morning, but we still both slept in until 7am. The first and major activity for today, after breakfast, was a visit to the Bilby Centre colocated with Railway Station and Information Centre to learn about the plight of the Bilby, and Charleville's highly successful Bilby breeding and release program. Charleville is home to the largest Bilby breeding program in QLD with the facility producing more than 50 babies in the past couple of years, helping to insure them against extinction across Australia. Our passionate, enthusiastic and knowledgeable young guide Lisa was fantastic. We learned so much about these very cute marsupials, and even got to see two running around in their nocturnal house. It was a wonderful experience and well worth the visit.

Coffee at our new favourite coffee shop and bakery in town followed, then while Noel and Wendy went grocery shopping, Greg and I rode 4km out of town to a local Date Farm, and stopped at the Cemetery on the way back. A walk around a cemetery gives a fascinating insight into the people that came before. We returned to the van just as showers began, but they didn't last long.  We decided that we will leave tomorrow for Wyandra towards Cunnamulla. The rest of the day was taken up filling water tanks, refueling and with rain expected for the next three days, we packed away everything we could for our morning departure.  We had another couple of walks along the dry river and the levee in the afternoon, wrapping up the day's activities before our daily evening planning meeting (aka happy hour), then dinner.

Co-founders of the Save the Bilby Fund, the late Peter McRae and Frank Manthey, OAM

Our very passionate guide Lisa telling us about the plight of the Bilby


Facts about the 25sq km fenced area in Currawinya National Park to assist the recovery of the Bilby 

Facts about the Greater Bilby - incredibly they have one of the shortest pregnancies of any mammal on earth. Just 12-14 days. 

One of two Bilbies on display - either Barry or Melinda

Outback Date Farm, a family run enterprise in Charleville which we were happy to support by purchasing some delicious fresh dates

Outback Date Farm

A walk around a Charleville cemetery, dating from the 1800s

Termites taking over this headstone

Charleville School artwork

Warrego river levee artwork

A very dry Warrego River in places

Meet Hazel - Noeleene's new travel companion
















Comments

  1. Steven BMay 10, 2022 at 7:05 PM

    Reminds me of when Dad use to take us out to the Gem Fields and at night the Bilbies use to come up to the camp.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KIMBONOMay 10, 2022 at 7:34 PM

      Yes, I remember seeing them, but never knew what they were.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 58: Wed 22 Jun - Port Douglas to Cooktown

Image
Day 58: Wed 22 Jun - Port Douglas to Cooktown Towed 265km (5,124 towed this trip) 20 – 26°. Partly cloudy all day with light winds in Port Douglas, winds becoming stronger and gusty in Cooktown. The forecast is for winds gusting to 60km/h for the rest of the week in Cooktown, apparently not unusual at this time of year. We drove away from the Big 4 in Port Douglas just before 8:00am, and had a good run back up Mt Molloy onto the Mulligan Highway north to Cooktown. There was very little traffic and road conditions were fantastic  all the way - some of the best this trip. There were a couple of steep but short climbs along the way, but no problem - I'm very happy with the towing, handling and fuel economy of the Wildtrak. Even with about 10km of steep climbing today, pulling almost 3 tonne, we averaged less than 16lt/100km for the trip. We also had a very strong side wind which pushed us around a bit for the last 50km. After 155km, our first stop was for coffee at the Palmer Riv...
Read more

Day 36: Tue 31 May - Gladstone to Yeppoon

Image
Day 36: Tue 31 May - Gladstone to Yeppoon 151km Towed [Total driven this trip 3,626km - 3,300km towed]   15 – 27°. We woke to an overcast and mild morning, and a lovely pink sky. We packed up, said our goodbyes, and got away from Gladstone a little after 8:30am, and it was a good feeling to be back on the road again. It was only a short 151km drive to Yeppoon which we did without stopping. The wind which picked up slightly around mid morning had eased by the time we arrived in Yeppoon shortly after 11am. Our stay for the next 5 nights is at the Blue Dolphin Caravan Park - it's quite small, a bit dated, but very clean, and the caretakers are lovely. It suits us due it its central location and easy access to everything we need while in Yeppoon. The large concrete slab is a bonus too. After setting up, we locked the van and headed down to the beach for lunch - burgers overlooking the beach and stunning blue water. Next on the agenda was a visit to Capricorn Gardens Aged Care Facility ...
Read more

Day 61: Sat 25 Jun - Cooktown

Image
Day 61: Sat 25 Jun - Cooktown 21 – 27°. An overcast morning, clearing to a mostly sunny day. Winds still annoying at 26km/h, gusting to 41km/h (but it felt much stronger at times). Another huge day starting with a challenging  2 hr  morning walk to the top of Mount Cook with Greg, then we all went for a 32km drive out of town to the iconic Lions Den Hotel, stopping at the Black Mountains on the way. On our return we stopped for a walk at Keatings Lagoon, a wetland  5 km out of Cooktown  just off the Mulligan Highway. We got back to the van at about midday, had some lunch and a snooze, then I set off on a bike ride to a few more local sites around Cooktown and along the foreshore. When i returned, I carried out a few checks on the van in preparation for our departure to   Mareeba tomorrow morning ( We'll be pleased to see the back of these strong gusting winds) . We topped of another great day with lovely dinner at the RSL.  Views over Cooktown and Ende...
Read more