Day 2 (cont'd)

Day 2 (contd)

Our decision not to fly has been a good one, the day proved to be blustery with strong winds. We re-packed the vehicles, leaving behind about 1.5 tonnes of ‘essential’ gear at the Laura General Store. Thanks Harold!

The road to Lakefield starts out very smooth and gets rougher the closer to Lakefield you get. It isn’t a rough road by any means, but it does need caution, as there are many sand holes and tight turns into creeks that can catch you out if you are travelling too quickly .There is also a surprising amount of traffic using the road.  We paused at the photogenic Old Laura Homestead and burned some more pixels, getting the shots just as a 4WD tour pulled in. Hard to imagine how tough things must have been for the pioneers out here, so far from any type of help.

 Got into Lakefield around 1pm. Set up camp beside the Normanby River, at the Kalpower crossing. A fairly lazy afternoon of doing not much at all, basically wandering around the camp checking things out. A couple of trips down to the river to have a look and cups of tea all round. The river here is very beautiful. The nasty critters living under the water means you don’t get too close, as tempting as it looks. We spotted Herons, Kites ,honeyeaters,  2 different species of frogs, fish leaping from the water (what from??), countless spiders as well as bats zooming through camp helping us do battle with the local mozzie population which are very enthusiastic about their duties. No crocodiles as yet.

More pixels got burned as the afternoon light kicked into full spectacle. The trees and the river made it almost impossible to take bad photos. Steve even got the panorama camera out. The evening was spent ‘light painting’ with coloured gels and head torches. We used different colours to light up various trees around the camp. Kept the cameras running red hot! The stars out here really capture the imagination; they are just so much more visible when there are no lights to spoil the view. A fantastic spectacle every night, free of charge.  Still windy.

Bob & Tracey