Mt Isa & the Outback

Author: Carl from Pahrump
Email: carlball@yahoo.com (More Trip Reviews by Carl from Pahrump)
Date of Trip: October 2006



We stopped for birding in Ingham at the Tyto Wetlands. We saw a mixed flock of Crimson Finches, Chestnut-breasted Manikins, and Plum-headed Finches. We also saw a Yellow-bellied Sunbird and a large blue Ulysses Butterfly - know locally as the Big Blue Butterfly.

We stopped in Cardwell on the Pacific coast for lunch at Muddy's. They had just closed, but quickly reopened for us. We had fresh Mud Crab sandwiches and chips. The crabs were caught locally, kept in a fish tank in the restaurant, and cooked when ordered. Pretty special -- and tasty!

It rained this afternoon -- sometimes hard. The driving was difficult and stressful. There were many orders of magnitude more traffic today than any other day of the trip so far. I was frequently leading the procession down the road, usually with a 36 wheeler 5-feet off my bumper.

Traffic got worse when we arrived in Cairns. We made several wrong turns and often didn't know what we were doing in traffic circles, but miraculously, we got to the Nutmeg Grove B&B in Redlynch (www.nutmeggrove.com.au/) pretty easily -- I don't have the foggiest idea how we did it.

E-mail if you would like a file with the specific birds we saw each day.

Carl & Wilma Ball carlball@yahoo.com




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