Australia: NSW – South Solitary Island

The link below is to a media release concerning an eradication program for the House Mouse from South Solitary Island, off Coffs Harbour in NSW, Australia.

For more visit:
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/media/OEHmedia14072801.htm

Glass House Mountains Road Trip: Day 1 – 11 August 2013

Due to what was seemingly constant illness since November, I cancelled my planned trip to Uluru (Northern Territory, Australia) and brought forward my holidays in order to spend time getting well. From the moment I cancelled the trip I was healthy, until the very last day of work when I again fell ill and had to stay at home for the first week recovering. I then decided I should at least go on a road trip for a few days during the second week and do something useful with my annual leave.

So a very hastily planned road trip to the Glass House Mountains and Australia Zoo (Queensland) was thrown together in a matter of hours and when I couldn’t sleep I decided I might as well be up and off on it – that happened at 3am on the Sunday morning and I was away by 4am. At the end of the first day I was completely exhausted – however I had arrived in Beerburrum, with both Australia Zoo and the Glasshouse Mountains just down the road, which allowed a sleep in the next day with plenty of time for exploring as well.

Without getting too far ahead of myself though, I should cover the first day of the road trip, which did involve a lot of driving – which I think is an essential ingredient of any journey termed a ‘road trip.’ My road trip took me up the Pacific Highway, with a number of quick stops along the way (including Coffs Harbour, Macksville, Maclean, etc). The featured photo is of an old sugar cane barge in the Ferry Park, at Maclean in New South Wales. I took that shot while taking a pit stop at the Visitor Centre located in the Ferry Park. The journey north also included a drive through Surfers Paradise and the Gold Coast, as well as Queensland’s capital – Brisbane.

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Tree Day: Park Beach Reserve – Coffs Harbour

The link below is to an article reporting on a site for tree planting on National Tree Day – 29 July 2012. The site is at Park Beach Reserve, near Coffs Harbour.

For more information visit:
http://www.coffscoastadvocate.com.au/story/2012/07/19/branching-out-community-support/

Check In: Day 2 of Holiday

I have had a most interesting couple of days on the road and in the bush. Currently I’m in a motel room at Woolgoolga, near Coffs Harbour on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, Australia. ‘Hardly the wild,’ I hear you say, and you’re quite right – it isn’t. The weather was beginning to change I noticed on the final leg of my day’s itinerary, so I decided to hide out in a motel room for the night – good decision, it’s pouring outside.

I won’t give all away – I’ll leave the main description of the holiday to the website – but just some of the ‘downlights’ of the first couple of days for this post.

I didn’t arrive at Cathedral Rock National Park until just on dark, but did get the tent up prior to darkness arriving – when it did, it was dark! The campfire took an eternity to get going as all of the timber was damp and by the time I got it started it was time for bed – all-be-it an early night (7.30pm). I had decided to not spend the money on replacing all of the gear I needed to replace for camping, following the loss of a lot of gear over the years due to storage, etc. I hadn’t done much in the way of bushwalking or camping for years due to injuries sustained in my car crash and a bad ankle injury, so I left it all a bit late. I figured that for this holiday I’d make do and replace the gear with quality gear before the next trip. In short, I’ll get by – but it would have been nice to have some good gear just the same. It was a very cold night let me tell you – and long.

When I reached the heights of my first walk today, standing on top of Cathedral Rock National Park, my digital camera decided to die on me. I knew there was something wrong with it during the ascent as it was really chugging away taking pictures. I did get a couple of reasonable panoramic shots on the top of Cathedral Rock before it died, so that was good. I took stills with the video camera I was using, so it wasn’t a complete loss. When I completed the Woolpack Rocks walk I made the trip to Coffs Harbour to seek a replacement and got one for a reasonable price. It’s just another compact and so I will also buy a digital SLR prior to my next trip I hope. My previous SLR was basically destroyed when the camera cap came off during a multiple day bushwalk and all manner of stuff got into it. It wasn’t digital so I didn’t bother repairing it.

So tomorrow – off to Dorrigo National Park I hope and several lengthy walks I haven’t done before. Hopefully the rain will clear.