Family Trips

In the morning, Maxim (our newly acquired French friend) informed us that the road to Carnarvon was blocked due to flooding. We called the Takarakka Bush Camp where we booked (and prepaid for) a site for three nights, and they informed us that although the road was still officially closed, some vehicles have already made […]

We took a road which seemed rather forsaken from Eungella south to the Queensland Gemfields. This area has towns with telling names like Emerald, Rubyvale and Sapphire, and is an attraction for people who wish to do some fossicking – the official term for non-commercial precious stone hunting. This kids seemed really excited by the idea of […]

Following a leisurely breakfast and an unsuccessful search for the local platypus in its pond, we headed up the steep, winding road to the Broken River section of the Eungella National Park. Despite it being around midday, we managed to see a platypus in one of the three viewpoints close to the Broken River parking lot […]

After a short stop at the nearby mall, to get fuel, bread and coffee, we started the long winding road to Eungella National Park, this time with Lilach behind the wheel. Our destination was “Platypus Bush Camp” in Pinch Hatton gorge. It had been a bit hard to understand what our campsite would look like […]

The morning was clear, and our previous night’s fears of a possible flood seemed silly in knowledgeable retrospect. During the night I caught a small Green Treefrog (Litoria Caerulea) in the campsite restrooms, and move it to the nicer facilities within our motorhome. It was very cute, though still young and therefore not exhibiting the […]

After a morning tour of Paronella Park, we drove to the Mena Creek hotel slightly down the road for brunch. I camped at some dubious spot near the hotel/restaurant, and asked a man who parked nearby whether this was a reasonable place to park. He smiled and said “You’re all right mate. Park wherever you […]

Our plans to have our muesly breakfast on the short were interrupted by Etty, the local cassowary matriarch, which came by to patrol her territory. While I ran to fetch the camera Lilach kept the kids at a safe distance. This, however, left the fruit exposed on the table. So when I returned I found […]

Before leaving the Cairns area, we wanted to visit the town itself once more. We had lunch on the wharf, in the cafe we already knew and liked, then spent some time in the nearby “Fig Tree Playground” – a small playground by the wharf, built entirely on and around a giant strangling fig. From […]

We woke to the song of the birds in Mt. Hypipamee. Well, I guess they had been singing for a while when we woke, but it sounds good. Anyway, soon afterwards another car arrived and parked next to us. In it were two men we saw the previous night – an eco-tour guide called Alan […]

The Crystal Caves in Atherton is a unique private collection of crystals from all over the world. The proprietors are a dutch couple who moved to Australia long ago after falling in love with rock hunting in its outback. Since then René Boissevain has been collecting crystals all over the world, and the display boasts the […]

After breakfast, Tamar found a large tree frog in the ladies rooms. In fact, it was not merely large, but a Giant Treefrog (Litoria infrafrenata). I was called to catch it, since it was located at the top of a dividing wall, out of Tamar’s reach (how she came to see it there is a […]

After an early birding walk, Lilach took the kids to a nearby Car Museum maintained by an elderly guy called Tom Prior, while I stayed behind for some maintenance chores. I met the man later in a local hardware store – pretty easy to recognize thanks to the name-tag on his dirty overalls, but pretty […]

We got some suggestions from Ian – the owner of the Eco Lodge – regarding points of interest around Chillagoe, and booked a tour to the Trezkin Cave – one of the Stalactite Caves in the Chillagoe-Mungana National Park. The cave was nice, with interesting horizontal stalactite formations, in addition to the more regular vertical […]

On our second morning in Granite Gorge we paid another visit to the wallabies, photographed some birds, said goodbye to the Lace Monitor and the Gallah kept on the balcony of the reception building, and headed west to Chillagoe. https://youtu.be/EEJoe6mKiKc&rel=0 Chillagoe is a largely deserted mining town on the edge of the outback, about 140km […]

On our first full day in Granite gorge we had plenty of opportunities to meet with the locals – a large group of Mareeba Rock Wallabies that occupy the nearby gorge and are so used to people that they feed off people’s hands and allow themselves to be petted. A slightly longer walk around the gorge […]

After a relaxed breakfast, we explored the beach a bit more, and the kids prepared “giant sand cupcakes”, decorated with bits of shell and coral. On our way south we stopped at a place promising a live butterfly and insect exhibit. The live specimens proved scarce – a couple of stick insects, a tarantula and […]

We woke up to a beautiful tropical morning, surrounded by lush coastal rainforest vegetation and the calls of many unknown birds. I took an early stroll to the nearby beach, and discovered that the noisiest of the lot were Orange Footed Scrubfowl. These patrolled the track, looking for food amidst the fallen leaves and squabbling […]

After two nights in Cairns we headed straight north to Daintree –  the heart of the Australian “Wet Tropics”. The vegetation changed along the way, with various palms, tree ferns and a multitude of other rainforest trees becoming more and more dominant. We crossed the Daintree river on a ferry and drove to the highly […]

We somehow managed to pack all our belongings into the baggage allowance aboard the regional flight to Cairns. On the flight we received envious stares from passengers who did not have a day pack full of carefully prepared sandwiches. Or maybe they just thought we were too noisy – who knows… After finding a cab that […]

Our morning ritual in Sydney included going down to the excellent Organic Republic Bakery just around the corner, for a freshly baked rye sourdough, two cups of “Flat White” (order a regular cappuccino and you’ll get lots of cocoa on top), and a croissant or Pain au chocolat for the kids. Daniel, who at 6am was […]

On Sunday we had yum cha (namely, “drink tea”, also known as dim sum) lunch at the Palace Chinese Restaurant. The dumplings ranged from ok to very good. Tamar occupied herself by practicing the use of chopsticks, with some guidance from one of the waiters, and actually managed to eat a whole bowl of rice […]

On Saturday we headed south to the Royal National Park – the World’s second declared National Park, established in 1879! We followed a quiet circular path through the subtropical rainforest, and soon heard the unmistakable sounds of Superb Lyrebirds – the emblem of the NSW National Parks Service and perhaps the world’s best vocal mimic. We soon […]

We spent most of our second night in Sydney trying to ensure the neighbors can get some sleep. That day I decided to change tactics and take a short siesta with the kids. The plan worked very well, except for the “short” part. We woke up in the late afternoon, much revived but disappointed by the fading daylight, […]

After a reasonable 26h transit through Hong Kong, we reached Sydney on the early morning of Tuesday, August 16. At the airport we decided to be super honest, and declared that we had some nuts in one of the bags. Thus we had to stand in the long line for customs declaration. A friendly Sikh family […]