Welcome to Doo Town!

They don't get ill down here - what am I to do?

Way down south on the Eaglehawk Neck peninsula, bottom left of Tasmania (nothing after that but Antarctica!) stands a motley collection of shacks, and one or two finer houses, collectively known as Doo Town. This is nothing to do with what dogs leave behind. In 1935, for a bit of fun, one of the residents put up a sign outside his house with 'Doo I' written on it. (This was later renamed Xanadoo!) Since then the locals have been vying to compete and most abodes have a 'doo' in their name such as 'Doo Drop Inn', 'This'll Doo' and 'Didgeree-Doo'. The photograph is of the local GP's place.

Back in Queensland on a fine drive in the mountains we finally came face to face with the

Just a little touch and I've got you!

dreaded Gympie Stinger. High up in the rain forest we were directed onto a boardwalk where we were advised to wear 'enclosed shoes'! If you look closely at this photo the pale green round looking leaves are those of the Gympie Stinging Tree. Whereas our home grown British stinging nettles are a bit of a pain for an hour or two if you have a bad dose, the stings of these babies last for months - the leaves sting, the fruit stings, even the bark on younger trees stings. What's more any dead leaf detritus left lying around still has the capacity to give you a pain - old dried leaves one hundred years old have been shown to retain their stinging capabilities. So if you're strolling on the boardwalk it's quite possible that you'll encounter something that'll get you. Poor Vicky just had sandals on and as she read more of the diabolical details about the Gympie Stinger on the various signboards on the circuit, she began to worry more and more and decided after a short while to call it a day. Not before she'd tucked herself in at the foot of this Moreton Bay Fig - we've seen some big ones in botanical gardens, etc., but this was the grand daddy of them all!

Got a ladder?

Heavy Metal Lighthouse

A right shiner!

Just when I was saying nice things about lighthouses along comes this chunk of concrete. Performs a vital function I'm sure but not exactly in the old fashioned tradition. This is located at Point Cartwright at the mouth of the Mooloolah River on the Sunshine Coast and is a mere 29 years old. We ran up to here and back on our latest parkrun at Kawana. Once again I managed to top the age related charts, but am still a way off breaking 20 minutes - we were both first over sixties though! An undulating course and the shade of the beachside trees didn't help much - if anything it stopped the sea breezes from cooling the runners, again it was well over 20 degrees at 7 am - how do they manage in the summer? Still we met some very friendly folk and worked up a thirst.

Here's the first over 60 lady hurtling towards the finish line!

Coasting home.

Just like Blackpool!

The local beach mid afternoon - you can see by the footprints that there have been some happy visitors to this wonderful long sandy beach but by this time the temperature has started to drop to the mid twenties so everybody's gone home - apart from us!

Processionary Bag-Shelter Moth Caterpillars

Hang on a minute!

I thought it was a piece of thick string (or thin rope) lying across the track. We were tootling along through the Australian bush on a couple of gearless bikes (thank goodness it was flat!) and, me being in front looking far ahead, I broke the line. Eagle Eye behind me (that's her foot in top left of the picture) spotted the confusion on the floor - a chain of over a hundred furry caterpillars had been disrupted, the front end charged on over the road, behind them a couple of squashed caterpillars were surrounded by the rest of the gang who eventually got back on track leaving their unfortunate colleagues splayed out. These are Processionary Bag-Shelter Moth Caterpillars - they strip a tree of its leaves over a period of a few days, sleeping during the day in a home made bag (hence the name) at the foot of the tree. Once the tree has been eaten it's time to move on and their brave leader sets off in search of a new tree followed by the rest of the clan, each one being towed in the right direction by a thin thread of silk. And of course what do the naughty little local boys and girls do when they see a chain of these caterpillars? Yes you've probably guessed it - they join the front of the chain to the back and watch a circle of caterpillars going endlessly round in a circle!

I can see your house from up here!

I do like lighthouses! This is the one at Low Point on the north coast of Tassie. In a fairly isolated position it looks out towards Australia warning oncoming ships of sand bars and reefs at the estuary of the Tamar. It's undoubtedly prevented lots of ships from running aground but it didn't stop the MV Iron Baron beaching in 1995 spilling tons of oil and killing thousands of penguins in Australia's worst oil spill disaster. The local little penguin colony has recovered somewhat with the right sort of looking after. Incidentally a little penguin population near Melbourne, having been devastated by fox predation is now being

You leave my penguins alone!

protected with the use of these big white Maremma Sheepdogs. This gives me a good excuse to post a fine picture of the dog! These particular canines originate in Abruzzo, Italy, where they protect the local sheep from wolves! Viva i pinguini - viva le pecore!!

Choccy!?

Deep fried in batter perhaps?

No this is not a spoof. On the chocolate shelf at Woolworth's supermarket in Tasmania they have this little tasty item available for Vegemite addicts. We spotted this in the rural agricultural town of Sheffield west of Launceston on a fine day out in the Derwent Valley, which appears to be a fertile piece of rural England transplanted several thousand miles south. Cadbury's also have Pretzel and Peanut flavour and Salted Caramel flavour as limited editions! Whatever next? Also in Sheffield was an Emporium - and what an emporium it was with a bizarre range of goodies, collectibles, old books, clothes, antiques, rubbish, etc, etc. The bearded long haired chap in charge clearly has his own style of marketing. Much of his stock is labelled in his own handwritten short notes many of them apparently designed to put people off!

Come on in - you'll find what you want in here!

Latest parkrun - the furthest south we've done, was at Launceston, Tasmania. A gallop along the riverbank, a quick circuit of a bushy park, (watch out for snakes!) and back down the riverbank. My best time for a while (20.13) and I arrived home in ninth. Vicky was 35.49 for 169th with round 60 or 70 behind her. A bit cooler down here which helped! Such a relief after the 30 degrees plus and humidity of Queensland. And appropriate refreshment was available after the race at St John's bar - an oasis in town, most bars served the produce of local brewer James Boag and we did indeed take a look at the old brewery dating back to 1893. Draw a line across Tasmania about halfway down and above it Boag's is the beer that you see advertised everywhere - in Hobart down south the Cascade Brewery products are ubiquitous - you don't see either in each other's territory. Fortunately there are a number of new local microbreweries such as Morrison's and Van Dieman's and St John's is the place to go to sample them - delicious!

Every day will do nicely thank you!

Bats and Beer

Eat your heart out Christopher Lee!

Here it is coming into land - the fruit bat! Wingspan is one metre and it's in a colony of thousands just about a mile and a half from central Brisbane. Imagine something like this in Platt Fields in Manchester - people would freak out - but the Brissie folk don't seem to bat (sic) an eyelid! According to the Brisbane Walkabout website: "The bats around Queensland, including Brisbane, do carry diseases. One of them is the Hendra virus which can be transmitted to humans and is commonly deadly. So it's best to call the bat rescue people!"
But then most stuff over here is pretty deadly - eleven out of ten of the world's most poisonous snakes, lots of biting spiders - some sting as well, jellyfish, crocs, sharks, etc, etc, and of course the Gympie Stinger!!!

Goodnight John Boy.

There are two different types of bat at this riverbank colony - they're also called megabats (which my spellchecker is trying to turn into megabytes), the little red flying fox (just a metre wingspan) cohabits with the grey headed one (metre and a half!) There are some in the Philippines almost six foot across - eek! Seeing hundreds of them formation flying upriver is a little sinister - where are they going, what are they doing, how do they do it?




And talking of bats here's a photo of Batman Bridge in Tasmania where we are now.

A bridge too far?

We're staying in Launceston, this bridge is over the Tamar River which is close to Exeter - you could be forgiven for thinking we're really down in Devon and Cornwall. There's a reason for the West Country names - tin was discovered in large quantities in the 19th century and they needed experienced miners down here who, on arrival,  gave their settlements familiar names to remind them of home. Batman however is nothing to do with Marvel Comics or Bruce Wayne; John Batman was a nineteenth century explorer and entrepreneur but also a right rogue to boot. Anyway the particularly interesting feature of this bridge for me is that the 'A frame' at the far end supports most of the weight of the bridge - it's perched on rocky ground, whereas on the near side the ground is too soft to support much weight. If you're anything of an engineer you'll understand what I mean. (In fact most folk with common sense should get this!)

OK final comment for today is that we are continually surprised by the fact that all around the world people seem to drink awful beer but at the same time there are options available if you look around.

Tasty Tassie Ale.

Two illustrative photos - this one on the left of Tasmanian beers (at least I was told they were brewed in Tasmania - the Hawkers comes from Melbourne!) and the piccie below is from our recent time in Sardinia where there are dozens of microbreweries, some of them very very good indeed. I thought the 50 Noddi ale from P3 Brewing was one of the best beers I'd ever tasted but then they brought out a 100 Noddi - wow! Here's a depiction of their current range. We'll be back.

Scrummie Sardinian - always say 'Birra Artigianale, per favore!'

Breathalysed on the Beach! (But no dingoes today.)

KEEP TO THE LEFT!

This is our little tour bus halfway up 75 Mile Beach on Fraser Island. We were picked up at dawn outside our housesit at Hervey Bay on the Queensland coast to get down in time for the 40 minute ferry crossing to what is apparently the largest sand island in the world and is famous for its protected dingo population. Captain Cook didn't know it was an island and indicated in his maps that it was a peninsula - seen from a distance it looks just like the mainland, but it is covered with lush vegetation including trees of up to 300 feet high all just rooted in sand. All the way down the eastern coast of Fraser is a wide beach which serves as a highway, airport (at several locations) and campsite. Only 4WD vehicles are allowed but here regular road regulations still apply and 10 minutes into the drive northwards we were stopped by a pair of police officers who asked our driver to blow into the breathalyser! Muttered curses from the driver (who was clean of course) but, it being Easter holidays, they were stopping all drivers so fair's fair.

What a rustbucket this ship is!

And here we are at our destination, the wreck of the Maheno. Doesn't look much now but it's been stranded on this beach for over 80 years. It was over 400 foot long and carried over 400 passengers but was not in service in 1935 when a huge cyclone hit the East coast of Australia. The 5000 ton Maheno was being towed to Japan by a boat that was clearly ill equipped for the task and only weighed 1700 tons itself. In the circumstances it was hardly surprising that the captain of the towing vessel decided to cut the rope and leave the Maheno to its sandy fate. This is a shot of the grounded ship shortly afterwards - not much left now but it's become a must-see for visitors to Fraser Island.

Land ahoy!

Another essential stop for tourists is Lake McKenzie where the crystal clear waters tempt just about everyone to strip off and dive in (well it was in the mid 30's.) For the geographers among you this is a 'perched lake' sitting high up on the island and it's fed entirely by rain water. The clear azure waters reflecting the clear blue skies cast a spell on some of the bathers, and our coach driver was getting a bit fratchety when four of our number were late back for the next leg of the journey (not us I hasten to add.)  

No Great Whites here!

Final fuzzy photo of the day was taken from the ferry as it left Fraser's shores in the early evening. Fretting somewhat as I was being plagued by sandflies, I nevertheless spotted a pair of large raptor types wheeling over the mangroves. Bringing my new telephoto lens into play I deftly captured one as it landed on a branch. I would have assumed it was a sea eagle but the late evening light caught the chestnut brown of its rear end feathers beautifully and, consulting the book later on,  we were able to confirm that this chap is a fine specimen of a Brahminy Kite

I'm an aquila pondicheriana - what about you?

And we didn't see a single dingo!

Nambour Parkrun

Nambour Parkrun! This was billed as the toughest Parkrun in Australia but it didn't seem to bother Vicky. She cruised home - this is a photo from near to the finish - it was hot (26 degrees), humid, there was no wind and there seemed to be more up than down. Still it was a pleasure to be running off road through the bush and rain forest even if the ground beneath our feet was as hard as concrete.

Hoping that my off road experience would be an advantage didn't help. I started well and was in third place before the final climb but I ran out of steam and finished in fifth dripping wet with sweat and thoroughly whacked/bushed/cream crackered. Six minutes slower than last week but apparently this is par for the course - at least I pulled 3 minutes from the V60 record.

A small light ale is called for I think!