It rained on and off all night long, but when we got up at 3:45 AM we could see a few stars. We all took off at 4:30 and drove back past the town of Mareeba to one of the observing sites on the Mareeba Wetlands entrance road that we thought would be good up when we explored on Monday. We saw lots of cars pulled off on the side of the highway and people stumbling around organizing gear in the dark. We stopped beside a sugar cane field and watched as dawn broke. We could see six hot air balloons rising in the distance - what a way to see an eclipse! But there were large black clouds on the eastern horizon and cirrus above them, so we were pretty worried. As the sun came up we had trouble figuring out exactly where it was behind the growing clouds. We finally hopped back into the car and headed south a mile or so and pulled off by a field of horses where about 20 other cars were parked. Suddenly the clouds dissipated and the cirrus evaporated and there we were with the sun slowly shrinking into a smaller and smaller crescent! As the light dimmed and the air grew noticeably cooler, the horses started to run across the field, gathered together and stared at us.
Then we saw the “Diamond Ring” when just one tiny bit of sun is left visible,.. and then at 6:38 AM the sky went dark and the beautiful corona flared out around the blackened sun!
It only lasted only 1m48s but it was unforgettable and we were all thrilled! Frances, especially, as it was her first eclipse. Now it can be cloudy and rainy we won’t care!
We returned to the Resort for breakfast and then had a couple of hours “at leisure” - a rare event on our vacations. I took a ride across the stream on a wooden seat worked with hand-pulled rope and managed not to fall in, and then Hil and I walked around the large cages where Rosy is rehabilitating wild and rescued injured parrots.
We took off at 11 retracing our steps back to Mareeba and turned south, stopping in Tolga for lunch at a very stylish café/gallery where we had spring pea soup and leek & chicken pie and grabbed a few Xmas presents. We continued onto to Mt Hypipamee Park where we met Alan Gilander of Alan’s Wildlife Tours. Bob had emailed him a list of bird that he needs for his Life List so we set off in search of them. Alan led us off into the rainforest a short ways and showed us a Golden Bower Bird, a lovely yellow-orange bird who builds a very large bower of carefully-laid sticks and decorates it with lichen in order to entice the very plain female to mate with him! I acquired several leeches on the walk and tried to get rid of most of them! We drove over the hilly southern Tablelands through pasture land and patches of rainforest, without much luck as the woods seemed very quiet.
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| Golden Bowerbird |
We ended up at Alan’s house and he showed us tiny Brown Quail, Scarlet Honeyeater, and a Scaled Lorikeet among the gaudier and pesky Rainbow Lorikeets.
He then took us to a local park through which a little river runs and there in the water was a Platypus!! At Last! He was only a little over a foot long and was paddling across the muddy water. They use their bill to sift the sand for shrimp and worms and stuff the food in their cheeks, and then surface and grind the material between their bill surfaces. We also saw the much rarer Water Rat, a very nice sleek rodent that looks like a small otter.
We stopped at Nick’s, a Swiss German restaurant that also serves pizza. We ordered two and they finally came at 7:20, and, as we were to meet Alan at 7:30 for spotlighting mammals, we had to stuff it in and run!
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| Curtain Fig Tree |
Alan had about 8 other people with him which made for too big a crowd, but we joined the caravan and drove the short distance to the famous Curtain Fig Tree Park that we had visited earlier in the day. Years ago a strangler fig had enveloped a tree which toppled over onto another and eventually the roots, which the fig constantly drops earthward, enveloped both, forming a huge curtain of roots, very impressive!
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| Rainbow Lorikeet |
There was a steady light rain by now but we walked around as Alan spotlighted a beautiful Green Ring-Tailed Possum, and showed us various geckos and spiders. By then it was 9 PM and we were all pretty exhausted and had an hour to drive back to Cedar Park, so we left, stopping once so I could get rid of a leech that I could feel coldly sliding around my leg…pretty creepy in the dark! We finally got home and collapsed into bed! A pretty exciting 48th anniversary!!
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