Douglas-Smith tracks loop (with critters)

Yesterday I ventured out for an ambitious walk: From the Speewah campground, following the Douglas Track to Glacier Rock and down to Kamerunga, then back up Smith's Track to the carpark.

My route: 13-5-4-3-2-1-11-10-9-8-4-5-13

By my calculations it was a little over 18 km with over 1000 m vertical ascent and took 6.5 hrs including lunch and snack stops. I was knackered by the end of it, but it does mark another challenge ticked off my Mareeba bucket list!

And it also turned out to be butterfly central, only some of which I had seen before. Here are some of the flora and fauna that I came across:

Orange fungus of some kind (thankfully not fire coral fungus)

Cairns Birdwing butterfly in flight
(first time I've seen this in the wild!)

Tiny trumpet flowers in various colours
(I've since been informed this is a noxious weed...)

The obligatory photo from Glacier Rock
- the weather was better than forecast

Female cruiser butterfly, wingspan approx 10 cm

St Andrews Cross spider
(second one I've seen)

The not-so great view from Toby's Lookout

Common tree snake

Union Jack butterfly (wingspan approx 5 cm)

Male Jezebel butterfly

 I also caught a glimpse of a brilliant blue Ulysses butterfly (too far away to photograph).

And about 500 m from the carpark I met another person on the track coming towards me who said that there was a cassowary with a chick further up ahead. We ventured on slowly and cautiously; they had moved a little way off the track and as they walked behind some trees we made our way past them. I had seen 8 or 9 cassowary 'deposits' on the track during the day, and had seen some in captivity before, but this was my first time encountering one in the wild. I didn't get a photo as they were only 5 metres or so away - a little too close for comfort when there's no fence between us!

Arnhem Land ferry

Recently the call came through from Arnhem Land to say they needed an aircraft ferrying up from Mareeba, so with the students being scheduled for lessons in basic instrument flying (which I can't teach yet), it was the perfect excuse to fly a plane myself for a day. A very long day, in fact - 7.5 hrs in the air...

Although I've flown the route a couple of times before, there were some different wet season sights. The salt flats between Normanton and Burketown, in particular, looked very different as this time they were covered with water. I opted to fly at 6500 ft most of the way as it was above most of the cloud and provided cooler temperatures for me and the engine (not to mention a slight tailwind at times). As the day progressed there was more and more cloud build-up, which meant I had to divert around it, which was good practise for decision-making and in-flight calculations. Interestingly, these deviations only affected my ETA by a couple of minutes (on a 2.5+ hr leg)!

Early morning pre-flight inspection, Mareeba

White fluffies on the way to Normanton

Cloud reflections in the water on the salt flats

Big leaky clouds on my direct track. I opted to deviate to the right

Towering cumulus

The obligatory selfie!
Cargo this time included 60 kg of metal signs (strapped down)

A double rainbow on descent to Borroloola

Limmen Bight River

Afternoon tea...

One final towering cumulus to fly around before landing at Gove

Field trip

On Wednesday our PPL class took two aeroplanes to Atherton for a lesson on short- and soft-field take-offs and landings. For some of them it was their first time taking off or landing on a grass airstrip, and for all it was a great learning experience.

While they were waiting for their turn to fly, they calculated the theoretical take-off and landing performance of the aeroplanes, and marked out the distances along the side of the airstrip with cones. The actual numbers were surprisingly close!

Calculating take-off and landing distances for the actual conditions

Watching a classmate take-off

Lunch break!

Short field take-off

View from the cockpit

Aircraft on final and its shadow

Part of the happy crew - Joe, Shan and Jacob

A weekend in Port Douglas

Last weekend I decided to have a 'mini break' and go somewhere different - Port Douglas. It's a little over an hour's drive from Mareeba, depending which road you take.

I spent most of Saturday at Wildlife Habitat. Here are some pics:

Friendly rainbow lorikeets

Python

Spinifex hopping mouse (in the nocturnal house)

Crocodiles - male (left) and female (right). The female is just under 2 m long...

Crocodile feeding
(don't try this at home)

Kangaroo feeding

Joey having a drink

Same joey having a nap
(I'm so glad I'm not a kangaroo!!!)

Black-necked stork (formerly called jabiru) and pied herons keeping a safe distance

Cass, a female cassowary

Koala in its natural state (they sleep for 20 hours a day!)

Lumholtz tree kangaroo

Later that afternoon I wandered around the main street and up to the Flagstaff Hill lookout before checking in at the motel and then finding a local pub to have dinner.

In the morning I went down to the craft market and then started the drive back to Mareeba via the coast and Kuranda range.

Rex's lookout

I had a bit of time (due to forgetting to take my hiking boots, so I wasn't able to do the bush walk I had planned) so stopped in to visit the Butterfly Sanctuary in Kuranda instead.

Red lacewing butterfly

Common eggfly butterfly

Cairns birdwing (wingspan up to 18 cm!)

Student solos

All three of our new students went solo this week. Two of them had flown before coming to us, so it was really their second 'first solo', but for one it was his very first time flying the plane by himself - a memorable occasion for every pilot!

All smiles for Jacob, Joe and Ethan
(pictured with instructors me and Hans)

Windin Falls

On Saturday I went on a new (for me) bush walk to Windin Falls. It's about an hour's drive from Mareeba and then an hour and a half walk to the falls.

Nice big sign to say you've made it to the car park

Nice wide track (muddy in places)

Top of the falls

A vertical cliff

Since it's difficult to capture just how spectacular the falls are in a single photo, I took a panoramic video as well.

This walk also marked my first encounter with leeches