Yungaburra

 29 August - 4 September 2025

Once we left Artemis, our Cape York trip was over and it was time to return to the Tablelands - however it would only be a brief stay. We made the usual stops at Lakeland and Rifle Creek before arriving at Lakeside near Yungaburra. We had some credit from when we'd had to cancel last year, so checked in for 5 nights, and then extended it to 7. We were given a good site with views to the lake in two directions, and settled in.

We spent our time doing all the usual Tablelands things - visiting Petersen Creek, Hasties Swamp, Lake Eacham and Lake Barrine. I's always nice to be able to have easy access to a number of spots with good birding and great walks. We also had lots of housekeeping to do - including trying to get rid of the red dirt and dust that accumulates when you travel on unsealed roads. 

We woke up one morning to fog so thick
you couldn't see the lake

We drove over to Ravenshoe to visit our friends Rob and Cheryl and to pick up a couple of things we had left there before the Cape trip, and drop off a couple of things we wouldn't need again for a while. Of course, on the way home we stopped at Mount Hypipamee. We had been hearing about a resident cassowary but, despite visiting regularly, had never seen it - until this visit. We were returning from the walk to the crater when we spotted it near the bridge over the creek. It wandered around for a while, and we were able to get a very good look at it, and quite a few photos. 

While we were in Weipa we found out about the opportunity for Mick to get on a Pelagic birding trip out of Port Macquarie. He was able to secure a spot so we set about planning a southern trip. Port Macquarie is quite a favourite spot so we were happy to go there, and we managed to talk friends Anne and Stephen into joining us for a couple of nights. They live at Fingal Bay so it would be a short trip for them. We figured while we were heading south we should go up to O'Reillys too, so we included that in the plan.

On our final day we had arranged for some work to be done on the camper trailer while we were still onsite in the caravan park. Consequently, we didn't leave until after lunch. Again, we weren't sure where we would end up, but knew it would probably be a beach somewhere.