Late lift off on the last day due to rain at Weipa. We were going to land at AWC’s Piccaninny Plains Sanctuary to visit, but the late departure ruled that out.
We fly out of a wet Weipa over Coen, Yarraden and Piccaninny Plains all in the Cook Shire.
Then Lakefield (a really large area) and the Cape York Developmental Road until we reach Mount Carbine close to AWC’S Brooklyn Sanctuary. We land to refuel at Pennyweight Outstation, located on Brooklyn.
After refueling we headed back over Mareeba, where Bungie the Pilot lives and we fly over his helipad and then back to Port Douglas.
This morning we leave Haggerstone Island, then see downed aircraft, crocs up and close, Captain Billy Goat Waterfall and finally we land near a WW2 wreck of a P39 Aircobra which crashed on its way to Papua New Guinea. Flying up the coast we see bauxite deposits, sands, rivers and finally hover over the tip of Australia. Then an aerial trip around the Torres Strait, we did not land as you can wait for hours before customs turn up (they work on Island time). Last stop Punsand Bay Campgrounds to stay.
In Part 2 the images are from the surrounding Flinders Ranges, rather than Lake Froome. You get to see the extraordinary variety of rock formations of different colours and textures.
On average the images were taken from 270 to 380 metres in the air. The GPS Datalogger also gives you altitude.
Enjoy, Viva Cristo Rey. Click on an image to see the slideshow of images at full resolution.
The hardest lighting conditions The Doc has had on a helicopter trip was at Lorella Springs Station in the Northern Territory. The pilot was Nick, who also took The Doc around Arnhem Land and Kakadu.
There was low light, overcast and the moving helicopter meant many missed shots (blurred due to movement).
Lorella Springs is a working cattle station, and the flight went over the Lost City – one of many using that name in Australia, out to the Roper Region of the Gulf of Carpentaria, following Rosie Creek.
Part 1 was taken with a Canon 1DX camera. Coming in Part 2 are the Pentax Medium Format images. Click on an image to see a slideshow at full size. Viva Cristo Rey.
Part 2 of the Point & Shoot images from places like Munjina Lookout Road, Albert Tognolini Lookout, Karajini NP Visitor Centre, Warlu Way, Kalamina Gorge Trail, Hamersley Gorge Road, the Roebourne – Wittenoom Road at Chichester, Deep Reach Picnic Area on the Barrimirndi Trail, Panorama Lookout at Roebourne, Python Pool Trail at Millstream, Miliyanha Campground at Kanjenjie, Snappy Gum Drive and the Tom Price-Karratha Road. Lots of panoramas this time around.
How does The Doc know these names years later? All his images have GPS co-ordinates put into them, plus he adds keywords. However another source is using those GPS co-ordinates to Reverse GeoCode the images, this process puts location data into the photo. The Doc just copied some of that information from the images into the blog post.
The Doc also carries around a Point & Shoot camera and these images are from that camera. They are what The Doc calls “explorer images”, but they also have some memorising panorama images.
From places like Juna Downs, Great Northern Highway, Karijini Drive, Joffre Lookout, Kalamina Gorge Waterfall, Kalamina Gorge Lookout and Banjima Road Karijini.
Viva Cristo Rey. Click on image to see full size slideshow.
A few days ago The Doc and his friend Steve visited Waulinbakh Wildlife Sanctuary at Stroud New South Wales. Our guides for the day were AWC staff Elly and Josh.
Steve’s main objective was locating live myxos in the field. We had success locating 5 or 6 species. The Doc located the first myxos, but they were of poor quality, but later he spotted a large fallen tree which turned out to be a myxo gold mine. Steve’s find on the rotting tree included a myxo that had only ever been reported in NSW twice before (one of those sightings was by Steve). It was Steve and Josh who did all the heavy myxo lifting.
We met with three other AWC staff that day on site, one of the land managers Matt and two senior staff on visit to the sanctuary.
Steve and The Doc brought along morning tea and lunch, after an early visit to the Buladelah Bakery. Small thank you gifts to the AWC staff were also given.
We stayed at the Lady Jane Motel in Buladelah for two nights as part of the trip, run by a hard working family. They are in the process of renovating the motel. The room The Doc had was great, but the newly refurbished rooms were amazing. It was a great stay.
A big thank to Australian Wildlife Conservancy and the owners for allowing us to visit. Here are some images from the visit. The Sony P&S camera struggled in the low light conditions.
The Doc gets a guided tour of Waulinbakh Wildlife Sanctuary this week, provided the rain holds off. Mate Steve Young wil be looking for myxos in the field. Waulinbakh is privately owned but some conservation efforts are undertaken by AWC.
When The Doc visited Flinders Island in late 2023 for a photography course, the group went on a plane ride. The plane took off from Lady Barron airs strip and flew over Cape Barren Island, Green Dog Island and a few other islands all part of the Furneaux group. The images were taken through Plexiglass, so the images are soft and they had heavy colour casts. The Doc got rid of most of the colour casts with some recent techiques, and has salvaged a few images. Not inspiring images but better than nothing.
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