Week 1 in Paradise

Hard to believe that it is only one week ago that we left home to begin our adventure to Nairana.

Not much has changed at the Homestead – a little cooler at night at this time of year – only 2 degrees on our first night but much warmer this past two nights – 6 degrees!  The days are beautiful with temps ranging from 24 to 28 over the last five days – t-shirt and shorts weather.

After taking a couple of days to settle in – park induction, vehicle instructions, unpacking, washing, cob-webbing – and getting accustomed once again with our “loo-dwellers” – we settled into a very simple routine – weather recording, bird watching and recording, short trips around the park, and a glass of wine on the verandah late afternoon.

Despite being winter, the birdlife around the park is amazing – although we were a little disappointed today to find very few water birds at our favourite dam area, Saltwater Dam.

Over the weekend we took the little Kubota side-by-side vehicle out to Lake Eliza and Mistake Creek.  At the Lake I missed an amazing photo opportunity as a huge Jabiru flew over and I had left my camera behind when I went exploring along the lake edge.  That was a hard lesson to learn – always, always take the camera regardless of how short a distance I expect to walk!  Oh, well at least we know there is a Jabiru somewhere in the Park.

On the way to Mistake Creek we espied a couple of emus (which I did get a photo of) and about eight wild pigs on the track.  The pigs do a lot of damage to park tracks and there are a number of traps placed strategically around by the rangers.  We shall no doubt be asked to fill the troughs with “pre-feed” in the next couple of weeks after spying so many.

At Mistake Creek we also set our yabbie trap but only caught two red-claw over two days, so guess it must be out of season for red-claw (the previous caretakers recorded two catches – one of 60+ and one of 20+).  The Creek is extremely high after all the rain and floods in this area between March and May, so maybe we’ll have better luck with a spot of fishing next week.

PS:  With a bit of luck and lots of patience, there may be some photos in the Gallery – depending on the “dial-up” time it takes.