Pine Creek and Edith Falls

Sunday June 12  RJG

At the Batchelor caravan park, the frogs were a little too friendly....going to the toilet was always a bit of a challenge. One actually jumped onto my back while I was in the act!!

This Green Tree frog (about 12 cm long) looks like a plastic model, but I can assure you he’s real. He was very reluctant to move when requested. There were a couple of other species who also had quite an unhealthy interest in toilet activities. I think the water in the bowl attracts them.

Heading back to Katherine from Batchelor, before we go west to Kununurra and the Kimberleys, we again stopped at Pine Creek. This time we stayed for about 3 hours, wandering around the town looking for the rare and elusive Hooded parrots who like this area. Unfortunately no luck again...but did speak to another birdo who had seen a small flock of 9 yesterday.

I like Pine Creek. They have an old railway museum and a collection of mining equipment left over from the gold rush days of the 1870’s.

I think these bottle trees are boabs.

They have converted the old railway cutting into a series of ponds which they call the Water Gardens.

The Hooded parrots sometimes rest in the trees around the Water Gardens during the hot time of the day, so it is a very pleasant place to spend some time and have lunch.

We’ve noticed some trees that have round fruit, a bit bigger than golf balls, but don’t know what the are yet.

Everywhere we go we see the ubiquitous Magpie larks, these mud nests are at Pine Creek

 and Rainbow bee-eaters, also at Pine Creek.

Then off to Edith Falls, as we didn’t call in there on the way up. The visit was to serve two purposes, firstly to see the falls, which were small, though beautiful as you would expect,

and also in the hope of seeing the Gouldian Finch and Hooded Parrot, which are both known to frequent this area. Failed again!  There is just too much water around, and the birds are too widely dispersed.

Beautiful wattles around the falls

When we checked into the caravan park at Katherine, C bumped into Kate Cummins (Glad Jones’ daughter) at reception!  Amazing co-incidence.  She and Bruce have been visiting their son Alistair who is working on a cattle station on the northern edge of the Tanami.

They came around to our site and we had a BBQ dinner. Another late night I’m afraid! They didn’t leave til after 9!

Bit of a problem with the 7 point plug on the van, so have arranged for an auto sparky to call in and fix it on site. Enterprising man has a sign on the amenities block.

Tomorrow we’re off to Gregory NP then on to Kununurra.