Birds and wildlife in and around Lockhart

Ron has been nagging me to put up some more photos of the the birds and animals we see up here.
So I am finally getting around to it!

This was stumpie a feral free range boar, but alas he has gone the way of all little piggies now!

Ron's trash bird the Palm Cuckotoo, of  which we haven't seen many of late.

A crab of some sort at the beach.

Grey goshawk at Portland Roads

A very large spider, one of many in a communal web.

Shining Flycatcher at Portland Road.

Lots of these dragonflies have been seen.

A red dragonfly

A praying mantis- yes it is Ron's head!

One of our favourite visitors at home.

Blue winged kookaburras are plentiful

Snoozing in the trees.

The Waterfalls

After a short drive of about 20 mins and a 15min walk through the bush we arrived at the beautiful waterfalls. Some nice still pools to swim in and also heaps of falls to get under.
Very nice.

The waterfalls looking upstream

Looking down the falls

Easter Holidays in Lockhart

The sink hole and the detour

 Well we have now been on holidays for a week, and I am feeling very relaxed. Ron and I got away for a couple of days to stay at the Beach Shack in Portland Road. We had been told the road was closed due to the road being a bit washed out and a bad sink hole. However locals were allowed to travel on it, so long as we didn't expect the police to come and get us out of any bogs. So Ron being the old bushie said no worries.. and off we went.

The detour around the detour

Finally arriving at Portland Road we moved into our very picturesque accommodation. It was a steep climb up to the house so after a couple of days doing this we were almost super fit! It is advised as being rustic get a way, which does sum it up pretty well.

The Beach Shack

The path up the hill!

The top one is where we stayed.

The lovely open verandah

Open plan house

The view from the loo.

Our view of the bay.

Unfortunately the weather was slightly overcast so I didn't get any good sunset or sunrise shots.
We went for some walks on the beach, a drive around to Chilli Beach, (about 10km away) and relaxed and read.

Ron collected some oysters off the rocks! They were abit sandy and gritty to eat.

Back in Lockhart I have been getting cultured checking out the local art work. It is quite a big business here with a number of the artists exhibiting all over Australia and some overseas. There have been a number of art works sold to Aust. galleries and in Aust museums.
There are a number of books about the local artists and as Ron and I have been doing lots of reading  up on the history of the place we bought some of the books.

Carvings out the front of the arts centre

Painting by local artist on the outside of building.

Another painting on outside.

Some of the art inside. So much to look through to choose by piece as a keepsake!

Many of these paintings are hundreds or thousands of dollars, a bit out of my league so it will be rummaging through the cheap baskets for me.  Could take a while!

Well tomorrow it is hopefully a trip to the waterfall with some of the other teachers and partners.

April 10 2011

Yay, last week of school before Easter holidays. At the moment we are having our wet! It has rained or been overcast everyday this week. We have managed to go to the beach, but can't go anywhere else much because of the rain and the wet roads, which become impassible. So my photos are of a few things close to town, on the sealed roads which is about 10km of road! For those of you planning a trip to Lockhart and haven't got friends to stay with!! this is the only local accommodation at the airport. 

IronRange Cabins

Iron Range Cabins, right at the airport

Tropical downpour in Lockhart

A friendly little Sunbird in our front garden

Ron and I are off to Portland Road Beach Shack for a couple of days over the Easter holidays, so long as the road is open, but it will be nice to get out of the community for a couple of days! Watch out for the photos!