This morning I went on a morning walk, determined to find some purple crowned wrens. I did find them, but photographing them was a whole other challenge. I also found lots of scarlet finches plus bower bird with white and green bower busily doing his housework. On my return I joined Trevor on the riverbank near Al and Zita’s van and we watched the crimson finches near their nest and the wrens came to visit us. Why did I bother to walk?? If I had bothered to bring my camera to breakfast I could have got a great shot. ( unlike this morning when they were in the thick pandanas)
After we had packed up we followed on the path that Craig and Ev had taken just a little earlier out to Dimond Gorge. They were already canoeing and out of sight when we got there with the final paddle and life jacket for the 3 man canoe that was hired. Luckily there was another canoe just sitting there, so we took that one out for a paddle, not going too far as we were mindful that the renters might turn up at any time. They never did.
Trevor went to empty the extra water out of the hire canoe there and a little creature went hopping away. He managed to get a photo of a little speckled frog. A little later a similar frog was spotted briefly still hiding in the canoe. Hopefully they were reunited later after we all left them in peace.
We stuck with the plan to have lunch at Cadjeput, driving back to there and putting out our chairs under a weeping paperbark for shade we ate a very pleasant lunch. We are getting very low on salad ingredients.
Al and Zita brought out their inflatable canoes , which were really comfortable and ideal for the situation.
This was a lovely relaxed afternoon. We were glad we had booked to stay for 3 nights here to allow this time to just enjoy the spot.
There are a great number of very healthy kapok trees out near Dimond gorge and it almost seems as though bright yellow sprinkles are floating in a cloud above the ground, Because the kapoks have lost their leaves and have dark stems and branches the flowers stand out as though floating.
When we got back to camp we took our bottle of red and chairs down to the water spot with some nibbles and sat quietly. We were rewarded by good numbers of crimson finches hopping about and tending their nest built at the base the base of a pandanus just above the water. This was a real treat.
We ate the first of our frozen meals from Zita and Al’s freezer (massaman chicken) and headed off to make use of the showers.
We returned to the campsite from the showers just after 7 and headed to bed bone tired. This holidaying is hard work!
Luvapuzzle 