So I arrived back in Brisbane in the late afternoon on Monday and after checking back into the Royal on the Park, looked at my email and found that my tour for Tuesday had been cancelled by the tour company. Uh thanks for the late notice. Apparently, I was the only one signed up for the Byron Bay, Bangalow and Gold Coast tour and they required at least two people to run the tour. Unfortunately, the late notice left me with no choice to find an alternative tour so I ended spending Tuesday running some errands and getting organized for my Papua New Guinea trip on Saturday. (I am limited to 10 kg of luggage so had to figure out what I absolutely needed to take with me for 8 days.)
Anyway, I was up early on Wednesday morning for my tour to North Stradbroke Island. I was really looking forward to this tour as I was using the same company I used for the Great Ocean Road tour in Melbourne and figured it would be an outstanding tour as well. (And this proved to be correct.)
I met up with Rob, tour guide extraordinaire, as well as 9 other folks at 7:45 a.m. at the pickup spot about 15 minutes from my hotel. Forty-five minutes later we were pulling into the ferry terminal dock for the 25 minute ferry ride to North Stradbroke Island or “Straddie” as the locals call the island. Fortunately, it was an absolutely gorgeous morning, although slightly cooler than the day before (mid 20s today), so the trip across the water was smooth sailing.
Once on Straddie, Rob drove us to Brown Lake, a rainwater lake that has a distinctive brown hue (hence the name) from the surrounding melaleuca and tea-tree bushes. Now Brown Lake is significant to the local Quandamooka People, the traditional owners of Straddie or Minjerribah in their language. The lake was used by the women as a bathing spot and men were forbidden from visiting or bathing in the site. The Quandamooka People believe that the lake has healing and restorative powers so it is considered sacred ground.
Now some of the folks on the tour went for a swim in the lake, while I opted to wander a path along the shoreline. The walk was really serene and peaceful and on my return, Rob called me over and pointed out two birds in a nearby tree known as tawny frog mouth birds. Now without Rob pointing out these birds, I never would have spotted them. The birds colouring blended in so well with the trees they were virtually indistinguishable from the tree bark. And why the name? Well, if you look at the mouth of the birds, they do indeed have the shape of a frog.
So after the swimming folks finished up, we all piled back in the van and headed to the far north tip of the island (about a 25 minute drive) where we were going to spend about an hour hiking the North Gorge Loop, a famous 1.5 km coastal walking route that follows the rocky outcrop of Point Lookout. The walk is revered for its views and abundant wildlife, including dolphins, sea turtles and manta rays. And all I can say is damn was it ever magnificent.
We started out walking from Point Lookout along a flat pathway that overlooked Main Beach where we first spotted osprey flying overhead. And pretty soon we came across two ospreys perched on nearby tree branches on the lookout for a mid morning snack.
From here, we hiked up a series of stairs and then down a second set of stairs to a rocky overhang where we could look straight down into the rocks and sea below. Now Rob kept pointing out into the ocean claiming there were dolphins in the distance, but I never did see any (although other folks were actually able to capture some pictures of them). I was more interested, however, in the sea turtles that kept popping up and down in the water below.
In addition, the rocks below included the famous “blowhole”, which, when the water hits it just right, sounds like a whale blow-hole. I stood there and watched and waited and was able to hear the sound multiple times and it did indeed sound like a whale.
After spending some time on the rocks, we hiked back up the stairs and continued the walk along the rocky outcrop with hilly bushland on one side and a steep ocean drop on the other. At one point, we stopped and Rob pointed to a mound of grey up on the hillside and it turned out to be the elusive swamp wallaby. Now I zoomed in on the grey mound and must have taken about 20 pictures and at some point while I was snapping away, the wallaby raised his head up because I ended up with a pretty decent picture.
And not long after, we spotted a grey kangaroo also lounging on this hillside, but this one was not cooperative in the least. It just lay there in the sun and completely ignored us.
As we continued, we wound our way around a little inlet and spotted a few sea turtles popping up and then diving down in the water. Apparently, this was an area heavily populated by sea turtles just a few months ago, but a recent cyclone affected the population and there are currently far less in the area.
We then walked down onto a rocky overhang to take a closer look at the sea turtles when Rob advised us that a couple had spotted a humpback whale and had a video to prove it. (The area is well known for the migration of humpback whales, but we are about two weeks away from when the migration begins.) Anyway, we stood and stared out to the ocean for a few minutes hoping to see the whale, but no such luck.
From here, we hiked up a series of stairs and then along a pathway before reaching Point Lookout, where we had started. Rob then gave us some recommendations for lunch at Point Lookout and I opted to take his advice and go to the Prawn Shack, a building so small that it can only fit one person at a time in the shop. After waiting in line for about 15 minutes, I ordered the recommended prawn and avocado roll and I would give it a 10 out of 10. Huge jumbo prawns, fabulous fresh, made today roll and creamy avocado. What’s not to like about that?
We met back up with Rob at 1:00 for the 5 minute trip to Cylinder Beach where we could go swimming, walk the beach or go looking for the family of kangaroos that inhabit the area. I opted to take a look at the beach and then came back and took a walk through the area looking for the kangaroos. I struck out on my once around so opted to sit in the shade and enjoy the view. By 2:15, I decided it was time to head back to our designated meeting place and what do you know, I ran right into two of the grey kangaroos. One of the kangaroos was pretty close to where I was walking and looked at me like I had some nerve interrupting his snacking on the grasses. The other hopped into view on the other side of a fence as I was taking a picture of kangaroo #1.
Once I got back to the van I told everyone that there were kangaroos nearby, but apparently I was the only one to see them. Now while we had been enjoying the beach area, Rob had taken a drive to see if he could spot some koalas in the trees nearby and he had returned with good news. Rob had spotted four at two different sites so we piled into the van and headed off to go see the elusive koala bears.
Now once we reached the first site, we easily spotted koala #1. In fact, as we were looking up at the little gal, she raised her head up from her sleeping position (koalas sleep about 22 hours a day) and stared down at us for a good minute before curling back up and going to sleep.
So once the koala curled up and went back to sleep, we went looking for koala #2. Now it is highly unusual for koalas to move much during the day, but koala #2 apparently up and moved somewhere and try as we might, we could not find koala #2. Rob went back and forth a number of times staring up at the spot where he seen #2 and going back and around the tree, but nothing.
We ended up piling back in the van and heading down the road to the second site where Rob had spotted two koalas … and yep, koala #1 at the second spot up and moved and was nowhere to be seen. Rob was beside himself. He could not believe that another koala had moved from the tree where it had been spotted and was hiding from view.
So it was off to see if we could see the second koala. We walked down the road and spotted a kookaburra on a branch of a tree we passed, and while we waited for Rob to catch up, I took a few pictures of the lovely, posing kookaburra. (First one I had seen since Perth.)
Once Rob caught up to us, he showed us the tree where koala #2 was located and this time, success. The huge male koala was still sleeping on the same branch he had been spotted on earlier. Now unfortunately, this guy was not interested in the slightest in us. Eventually, everyone started to walk back to the van, but I continued to look up and just as I was about to leave, the koala shifted position and I was able to get a picture of him with his head resting on his arm. It was far better than the backside he was showing us before.
I walked back to the van just as the others were piling in and we headed off to the ferry. The day had flown by and we saw a lot of wildlife and amazing views. Tomorrow, I am off to Tambourine Mountain for my final wine tour of this trip.
