Mataranka day2

Idyllic weather – cool nights, warm days, but not too hot! When we walked to the springs before breakfast there was mist/steam over the water and looked beautiful. We saw a small turtle in the water and lots of little fish.

There are lots, of what we thought, were small kangas killed along the road – but we found out that they are Agile Wallabies...only the size of a joey, which seem to cross the road at dusk.

We spent a day exploring the area further - went to the Mataranka Resort and Rainbow spring. There is a rather narrow creek meandering through lots of palms, which is a spectacular setting, but the spring pool and the resort area, is disappointing.

Apparently when there are too many Little Red Fruit Bats - sometimes over 200,000 – they strip all the vegetation. So to prevent this happening, some tall sprinklers have been erected to discourage them from going there in excessive numbers.

Many of the walks in the area are still closed due to flooding of the Little Roper River. There is debris in trees about 3 m off the ground, and sections of shallow water on roads. Several people were fishing for Barramundi – didn’t see any caught.

One new wildflower was a yellow hibiscus type flower – very similar to the Desert Rose in form.

We see lots of Brahman cattle. very different from Angus!

We spent a couple of hours at a wetland and saw some great birds.

Bird highlights : Black Bittern and the Shining Flycatcher....an exciting area for new birds.