Little Desert - Victoria

18 - 21 September 2014

We headed off early in the morning and joined the queue to cross the Murray River punt. This operates 24 hours per day and is free – it's the only way to cross the river at Wellington. We headed to Tailem Bend and stopped at the Visitor Information Centre. The friendly folk there provided maps and a friendly chat. Coffee and a pie to warm us up then on the road (Dukes Highway) again. We drove through a number of small towns, and stopped to visit some op shops. We stopped for lunch (and op shopping) in Bordertown before crossing the border into Victoria. Groceries at Nhill then we turned off to the Little Desert National Park and our final destination – Little Desert Nature Lodge. The property is adjacent to the national park and has access to a number of the walking tracks. Mick headed off with the camera once we were settled.

Dinner was provided – ready in our fridge to warm up in the microwave in the communal kitchen. There is also a communal lounge room with dining tables, lounges and a TV – and a reverse cycle air conditioner. We settled in to eat dinner, watch TV and keep warm. The air con in our room kept us snuggly warm through the night. We awoke to the local weather report that sounded more like a soccer score – Nhill – 1. Despite the cold, it looked like a beautiful sunny day outside. There were kangaroos grazing on the lawn in this really tranquil setting.

Kangaroos and an Emu were never far away. The cold morning proved too much for this Joey.

 We headed off into the National Park for the “Lodge Loop” walk, and although Mick didn't get many bird photos it was a very pleasant 2.1km stroll. Mostly flat, sandy path with some gentle uphill sections over what we presume are old sand dunes. This part of the country is so different from what we are used to. 

Painted Lady Butterfly

After morning tea and a chat with some of the lodge staff we headed down to the newly erected bird hide in the corner of the property, and while the birding wasn't as good as we had hoped (we were there in the middle of the day) it certainly did show promise. The little artificial pond was bound to attract wildlife at some stage. While we were there we did spot a shingle back lizard wandering past where I was sitting.

Shingleback Lizard at the bird hide

The Lodge in the distance from Whimpy's Pool

We returned to the lodge for lunch, then Mick set off for what turned out to be a marathon effort with the camera. He spent a good few hours back down at the hide and was duly rewarded with some good shots.

Yellow-faced honeyeater

Eastern rosella

A great variety of honeyeaters and other birds came in to drink at the pond through the afternoon. Those responsible for the pond had been very clever and thoughtful, placing some dried branches around the water for birds to perch on.

Spiny-cheeked honeyeater

New Holland Honeyeaters were very common at the hide

White-naped Honeyeater

White-plumed Honeyeater

Male Superb Fairy-wren

We sensed it was very cold again overnight, but remained warm with the aircon on in our room. We headed down to the bird hide early but there were very few birds waiting to be photographed - we could hear them and see them fleetingly, but non stopped long enough. We walked back to the lodge for morning tea. We had been told the location of a Tawny Frogmouth - which sits quietly in a tree just waiting for a keen photographer to come along. We drove in to Nhill to buy some supplies and have a look at the wetland we had spied on our way in. Unfortunately the boardwalk was closed - a big disappointment as it looked like it would have been a really nice walk with the chance of seeing a few birds.

Back to the lodge for lunch and then out on the part of the Nature Walk that we hadn't been on. This took us towards the back of the property and past a pond and the Mallee Fowl Aviary. The aviary is huge so there was little chance of spotting this shy creature. 

Later in the afternoon Mick headed back to the hide on his own and again stayed quite a while hoping to get some good photos. We realised late in the afternoon that we were the only guests - we had the whole place to ourselves so settled in to the comfy lounge to watch some TV without interruption. 

Probably a Southern Brown Bandicoot (I'm no expert) at the hide.

An early start in the morning and back into South Australia to Clare. We tried not to make it our usual leisurely drive because it was so far to go - but we still made a few stops - at Keith for coffee, Murray Bridge for petrol, a toilet stop in Gawler and picnic lunch in Tarlee. We arrived in Clare early afternoon.

The landscape is brightened by vivid fields of Canola but native flora and fauna have suffered