Golden Bouquet Tree
Blow Down area
Golden Orb spider
Hi all ..
From a hot and sticky beach front caravan park at Weipa. We said farewell this morning to the trade wind breeze and showers of Chili beach. We awakened at 6 to showers and threatening clouds which lent urgency to the packing. We paused to photograph a large orb spider and hit the road at 8:00.
Heading out we passed the blow down area. In 1963 50 tonnes of TNT was detonated on a tower in the rainforest to simulate the terrain after a nuclear blast. Soldiers then entered the area to evaluate moving through the flattened jungle. The area has not regenerated in nearly 40 years.
We also stopped at the "Smuggler Tree" a fallen Bamaga Satin Ash killed by Cyclone Monica. The tree has metal spikes in the trunk used by smugglers to climb the trunk to steal eclectus parrots from their nests in the 30's. Some of the spikes have now been stolen. We did sight 2 eclectus parrots but they were too high in the sky to shoot. Lunch was adjacent the Wenlock River crossing in an idyllic setting.
After lunch we listened to a recording of a talk by Len Beadell regarding the establishing of Woomera Rocket range. Very funny and interesting.
We arrived at Weipa hurrying to set up in front of an approaching thunderstorm. Weather very hot and humid.. A big rush to shower ,swim, wash clothes etc as we are only here one night. The laptop battery went flat so the blogs from now till we return to Cairns are hand written for retyping later (groan).
cheers Simon
B-Double Crossing
Wenlock River lunch
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