Crystal Creek Mutarnee and Paluma Range

The caravan park was absolutely beautiful and there was a great variety of birdlife to keep us entertained in between work, along with a few other little critters.

Olive-backed Sunbirds (male, female & baby in the nest) 

Great Bowerbirds and the bower

Australasian Figbirds (male & female)

Bar-shouldered Dove

Little Shrike-thrush

Forest Kingfisher

Peaceful Dove

Leaden Flycatcher

Masked Lapwing

Neon Cuckoo Bee

Crimson-speckled Moth

Chequered Swallowtail

We had a day off from marking and decided to drive up to Paluma Range National Park. When we got to the bottom of the range we discovered that it was open by escort only, with the escorts running on the hour. We only had about 15 minutes to wait, so that wasn't too bad. The conditions of the escort were no stopping and keeping close to the vehicle in front. Once we started to see the serious roadworks on the landslips we could see why!

The Little Crystal Creek area was closed, so we weren't able to stop there on the way up, but I did manage to get a quick photo from the car window of the creek from the stone bridge.

At the top of the hill we did the Birthday Creek Falls walk, which was very pretty.

I also took the opportunity to experiment with my new Osmo underwater video camera. After our snorkelling experience at Ningaloo last year I decided that I would like something that could capture some of what we see and experience on and in the water. I have lots of learning to do, about taking footage, as well as editing it, but here's the first attempt!

A couple of views from lookouts around Paluma.

On our way home we stopped at Big Crystal Creek.

Heading north for the winter

Our first stop on this northern trip was Cooyar.

We don't usually go up the coast road, but we had a friend in Hervey Bay to visit. We had a lovely couple of days at Urangan, punctuated with uni work.

Whimbrel

Pied Oystercatcher

Bush Stone-curlew

Eastern Osprey

Little Black Cormorant

Crested Terns

Pied Cormorant

Next stop was Bundaberg for the weekend to see family. Dazz noticed a nail in the tyre when we stopped to do some shopping...

We spent a week with friends in Rockhampton. We got the tyre repaired at the same place we went to a year ago. We also got the air conditioner in the car fixed. (It stopped working before we left, but coming up to Easter there was no chance of getting it looked at, making for a very unpleasant few days of driving north!). Dazz had a part delivered that also got the horn working again. In between all of that we both had marking, Dazz helped with some construction and I did some yard work. 

We overnighted in Sarina and walked around the town.

We both had a week and a half of marking to do, so I decided we needed somewhere that was nice to keep the motivation up. Crystal Creek Caravan Park at Mutarnee had good reviews on WikiCamps, the photos looked really nice, and they had a weekly rate that made it a bit more economical. It turned out to be a real winner!