Wednesday 2nd September

We had our customary slow start - decided that driving out to Cape Melville was just a lot of driving and was not worth it given we did not have a couple of nights up our sleeve to stay there if we liked it. So we did the walk along the river instead - Sue had a lovely experience with a red winged parrot - Mal thought it was an Eclectus Parrot but he was wrong. We sat down by a small lagoon and watched some forest kingfishers with their blue overcoats looking for a feed - a small egret at the end of the lake was the inspiration for Mals black and white drawing of an egret landing.

By the time we arrived back it was already quite hot - we had the luxury of a cool shower - aaaahhh the mobile luxury eco resort (code named Vicki).

Mal got into his drawing of the egret and Sue downloaded photos. We met Paul who was camped next to us - a very pleasant chap - he is an environmentalist - works at SeaWorld on the Gold Coast looking after the penguins - he was in a former life a tour guide on the cape - so he knows where to go.

We were procrastinating about leaving the source of endless water available at Kalpower Crossing - but when three camper trailers pulled in as neighbours we decided it was all over populated and packed up - the neighbours were really nice - just it was time to get away from all the development at Kalpower - you know the neon lights and casino and traffic lights and limos - so we drove down to check out catfish lagoon - no limos here - and then drove into the Normanby River at Old Faithful waterhole -

Nobody here but us so we settled down with the fish jumping, the crocks lurking, the orioles calling, the (manucode) trumpet bird honking and the cockatoos screeching beside a fire softly crackling.

The birds went to bed but the crocs kept lurking and the frogs plonked and donked as we fell asleep.

Thursday 3rd September

Civilization flew over in an aero plane somewhere off to the right and the birds whistled, screeched, harmonized and chortled.

Mal spent most of the day just feeding the campfire and working on a painting he is working on. Sue walked up to campsite one and found a beautiful double barred finch, a whistling kite and some glorious photos of some bee-eaters.

So all in all a fantastic day in paradise.