Lockhart River 2012

Well its been a few months since the last post, so I have a few photos and stories to catch up with.
After school finished we had a week in Lockhart with Charlotte. Bryan our next door neighbour kindly invited us out boating and fishing with him. We got to explore Lockhart River, Claudie River and to have a very rough trip back across the bay, getting very wet!

Charlotte with her first fish.

Motoring back down the Claudie to get away from an electrical storm quickly approaching.

Two old fisher women!

Ron looking the part of a real fisherman!

Camping at Old Site Part 2.

                              Whilst exploring the area lots of interesting things were found.

A tractor that got caught in the tide many years ago.

Very interesting rock formations on the beach, like a honeycomb.

Standing on the point at Old Site. 

Ron teaching the young boys a thing or two!

A visitor to our camp, a Burton's legless lizard.

Sunrise over Old Site.

A plaque to commemorate the years that the Old Site was settled.

This is all that is left of the original St James church.

Down on Cutters Creek beach. Very hot here and lots of debris and bouys on the beach.

A view of the country on the way home.

You might be interested in having a look at the following you tube sent to me by the family of the man who built the original church- very interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c37f3WVPeFw&feature=youtu.be

October- Camping at Old Site Part 1

In October a group of us went to camp at the Old Site. This is about a 3 hour drive south of Lockhart. Withe the permission of the elders we drove down and camped overnight at this very beautiful beach. The drive down was also very interesting with lots of changes in vegetation and wildlife to be seen on the way.

A carpet python found on the road on the way down to Old Site.

On arriving at Old Site we quickly set up camp as it was extremely hot.
So despite seeing a croc cruising off the beach, we all went for a swim!

It was like sitting in a luke warm bath, but at least you cooled off when you stood in the breeze all wet!

Later when walking along the beach we found more evidence of crocs, in their slides and a very ominous dark creek, great for crocs.

Croc slides.

Croc slide over the sand bank into a mangrove creek.

See part 2.

Fishing at Lockhart River.

The dam near the Lockhart River farm.

Afternoon walks.

Another shot of my favourite rock.

Claudie River

Well we finally went out for a day of fishing and picnic, but unfortunately the wind came up and the fish were hiding!

Nipa palm growing on the banks of the Claudie River.

The remanents of the old Claudie Airstrip from WWII days.

Bitumen remaining from the apron of the Claudie Airstrip from WWII, now over nearly 70 years old.

September holidays

September has been one of those months for Ron and I. We have both had the flu a couple of times and have had trouble shaking off the cough, so health wise it has been a bummer. To make things worse Ron went out to Cairns and had his wallet stolen at the Raintrees shopping centre. As if this wasn't bad enough, he was carrying my wedding rings in his wallet to take them to the jewellers for repairs.... and yes they were stolen too! So all in all September has not been our best month.
But life goes on and as the girls didn't come home for the holidays Ron and I have had a very quiet one getting over our flus and have a little look around Lockhart, but no camping as we didn't feel well enough to do that. So here are a few photos from the holidays in Lockhart.

This is a very nice lagoon we found a few Kms out of Lockhart, unfortunately a gust of wind game and my faithful old hat now lies at the bottom of the deep dark lagoon - I wasn't about to jump in to get it in case of big lizards!

 Another day we decided to take a drive in the new car and go to

Portland Roads "Out of the Blue" Cafe for lunch.
We also continued around to Chilli Beach for a drive.

Chilli Beach was covered in coral spawn and was extremely smelly and messy!

The thong tree at Chilli.

One extremely large sea almond tree on the south end of Chilli beach- its a beauty!!

August September

Well it has been a long time since my last post, so there are a few photos to catch up on. Firstly a few more to add to the photos Kahleana last put up. Here are a few of the other things we did when the girls were visiting. When out at Wheymouth Bay you can see across the strait to Restoration Island.

An old barge abandoned on Restoration Is.

The house of the sole occupant 'Resto Dave"

 

Restoration Island

 Kahleana and I did some bushwalks, looking for various reptiles for her. Here are a few photos of the areas and flora we found.

Gordon Creek in Iron Range.

An attractive flower growing on the trunk of this tree.

Some very large fungi in the forest.

Kahleana at the entrance to a mine shaft in the Gordon Creek area.

Relics from the mining days in Iron Range.

Unusual fungi on walk to waterfalls.

 Another day out was to the waterfalls, which are now quite low.  This area was all under water on our last visit here in April.

Charlotte sitting on the rocks at the waterfall.

Charlotte sitting on my favourite rock at Quintell Beach.

The girls on Quintell Beach, July.

One of the many creek crossings on the old site road, notice what is up in the tree!

One of our regular animal visitor, this guy is always somewhere in our kitchen at night.

A spotted python caught in the neighbours yard. Later released in the bush.

More to follow on the next blog.