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.
In 2019 The Doc went on an AWC Supporter’s Event to Mt Zero Taravale out of Townville. Supporters arrived in that fancy red helicopter, flown out of Townville Airport, known as Garbutt Airfield in WW2.
He had previously driven up the entrance of the Sanctuary.
The Doc forgot to write up a report, so he only has some pictures. Better late than never. One day he may find the notes from the visit.
The Doc does remember meeting and speaking to AWC legend Peter Stanton at the event and later sending him some AWC slides The Doc had scanned of Peter at MZT, in the very early days of AWC ownership.
Viva Cristo Rey.
The first visit was to the entrance of the MZT, in a car. The road up was a bit narrow driving the Nissan Patrol and it was a long way down. That road was narrow and had blind corners everywhere.
The road down was not as bad when The Doc left the Supporter’s Event and someone else was driving!
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.
The Doc has been busy over the past couple of weeks processing bark images from Lismore Botanic Gardens plus some from the archives, over 300 images. A small sample from the colourful Corymbia family. Click on images to see them at at full size.
While staying at Drysdale River Station The Doc took a plane flight into the Northern Kimberly. Initially through Prince Regent National Park, then up to Mitchell Falls and back again.
Sorry about the funny colour cast and soft images, it was caused by the window on the plane. The best flight in that area without the high price tag of the helicopter flights at Mitchell Falls itself.
Previously The Doc missed some shots but today everything went as expected, confirming he now has good in field technique when using the Post Focus feature on the Panasonic G9, even the hand-held shots worked today. The images are between 30 and 75 frames stacked into one image. Click on the images to see full size.
The Doc has been working on a new way to image stack in the field. He is using the Post focus feature on a Panasonic G9. Here are some of the sample images from recent field testing. Most images have somewhere between 17 and 50 images stacked together. The images are so sharp, that they look fake. The Doc is trying to soften the images in post-processing to make them look more realistic. Click on the images to see full size.
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