Savannah Way 2026

G'Day:

We left Heberton on Aug 4th to visit our friends Leonie and Matt in Malanda. Malanda is in the Atherton Tablelands which is the center of Australia's Wet Tropics. The Wet Tropics is the oldest tropical rainforest on Earth and only occurs on Queensland's NE coast. It harbors exceptional biodiversity, ancient plant lineages and iconic wildlife species found nowhere else. The Wet Tropics was the focus of our 2025 trip but we left with a few gaps.

Leonie is a friend and colleague - she and I were in the same lab at the Univ of Western Australia in 2015. She was a post-doc (and not married) and now lives in the Atherton Tablelands working remotely for World Wildlife Fund Australia. Matt is a paramedic and they have a precocious 6-yr old Rosie. We visited them on our 2025 trip.

Leonie and I were on a mission to find us a tree kangaroo! We were more than successful. Read on.

Me, Leonie, Matt and Rosie at their house

Aug 5th - We started the day with breakfast on their gorgeous deck looking at their "garden" birds which included Forest Kingfishers, Helmeted Friarbirds, Sunbirds, Dusky Honeyeaters, Lewin's Honeyeaters and Bush Stone-Curlews!!

Leonie and Matt's gorgeous house in Malanda.

Bush Stone Curlew

After brekkie we headed to the Malanda Nature reserve (a 5-min drive) and from the parking lot saw 2 Tree Kangaroos!!! Leonie found the first one and Len found its partner (or offspring!). I was amazed. This is a nocturnal animal and difficult to see in the daytime.

Len, Leonie and Pat amazed with the first 2 Tree Roo sightings.

Below is a video of the second kangaroo spotted by Len and photographed by Leonie. Please note I uploaded this video into Vimeo and I have a free subscription so I can't move the Pause button from the center of the video unless I upgrade to $15/month!! Very annoying.

Tree kangaroos are rare, tree-dwelling marsupials native to the rainforests of NE Queensland and New Guinea. They are solely arboreal and use their long tail for balance while they climb with their large claws. The tail is not prehensile as in primates.

For AM tea we went to visit Leonie's parents, Val and Peter Valentine. Peter made us scones; he is a retired academic and an expert on World Heritage Areas. Peter and Val have bird feeders. While enjoying scones Victoria Riflebird (1 of 3 Bird of Paradises found in Australia - the majority of them are in Papua New Guinea) and Macleay's Honeyeater - both species are wet tropic endemics and found no where else!! ) came to the feeder.

This is Ollie - the male Riflebird who has frequented their feeder for 5-6 years. Male Riflebirds do not achieve their velvety-black iridescent plumage until they are 6-7 years old. This is the non-breeding season so we did not see him perform his spectacular dance. If you type in "Courtship Dance of Victoria Riflebird" in Google you can see one perform.

MacLeay's Honeyeater at the feeder.

After tea we took a break so Leonie could attend a meeting. In the late afternoon we went looking for cassowaries and platypus. No cassowaries but we saw 2 more tree kangaroos; a mom and a joey outside her pouch. Truly amazing!! Leonie has never had 4 diurnal sightings of tree kangaroos. She is usually spotlighting them at night. The grand finale was a platypus at dusk!!

Mom tree roo is on the right and the brown hump to her left is her joey. It is hard to distinguish in the picture. I have a great video but I am frustrated with inserting videos right now so you get a still!!

This was the best wildlife day I have had in ages.

We returned the rig on Thurs the 6th. We had coffee yesterday with Paul and Kylie the Overlander owners. We debriefed them on what worked and what could be improved on this new rig (we were the 2nd client to rent this Land Cruiser). Len of course had a detailed list which Paul loved - he is also a geek.

Lokki, Leonie's dog with us as we depart Malanda.

We depart Sunday for Sydney. We will spend the night near the airport and Mon we fly Sydney to Seattle. An overnight with our friends Kris & Ted and then Tues we fly to Walla Walla and hopefully to a car that does not have a dead battery!!

Thanks for loyally following this blog. Your presence was very motivating.

We hope to see you soon.

Love
Pat & Len

Dear Friends and Family: Since July 29 we have been wandering our way through rural Queensland, heading east towards Cairns. We have seen some amazing landscapes, met many lovely Aussies (and not one American) and continued to add to my bird, mammal and reptile.

Croydon was one of our favorite places - it has an historic train which runs weekly between Normanton and Croydon (152 km one-way). The tracks were laid in 1891 and thus, this train is 135 years old. In the 1890s this train was primarily carrying ore because this area was the center of a gold rush which lasted about 20 years. Now it is strictly tourists. We did a sunset ride on the train with an outback dinner at the halfway part.

What was particularly fascinating about Croydon (population 215) and many of the other rural communities in this cattle country is they have embraced tourism and are no longer entirely reliant on the cattle industry. They had wonderful information centers and restored many historic properties including their Chinese temples. Like the US the Chinese were an important mining workforce in 19th century Australia who were discriminated against with White Australian policies (1901-1973).

After Croydon we spent 2 days at a lovely private reserve called Cobbon Gorge. Their tour includes a walk, a view from a glass bridge into the gorge and then a float through the gorge. Terrific. We saw 2 Estuarine Crocs but no good pics. Here are some pics.

Then a gorgeous night at a private campground on the Einsleath River. We finally got the courage to try out our 270 degree awning. No problem with set up and

We had a few more days birdwatching and enjoying the sights. Below are some of my lousy bird pictures and a baby monitor lizard who ran up my leg until he figured it out.

Rainbow beeater

Apostlebird

Red-tailed black Cockatoos

One of many stunning Eucalyptus trees found throughout Australia savannah woodlands

That's all folks. I will blog one more time.

Gday: This maybe our last blog until Cairns. Our Starlink antennae did not hold up to the vibrations from the corrugated unsealed dirt roads (plus our spines needed alot of stretching - Ooh I miss my yoga classes). Thus, we are dependent on other sources of WiFi which are few and far between. We are at the Croydon Caravan Park for a shower and they have WiFi.

Len celebrated his 85th and thanks you for all of your well wishes. We spent the 24th and 25th in the NT driving horrible roads but mesmerized by stunning landscapes and their biodiversity.

Passing a road train

Watching the on-coming car cross the water.

The Queensland border.

Once we crossed the state boundary the roads improved but the density of people also increased. It is not bad - we went from seeing 1 car every 30-40 min to 1 car every 10 - 15 min.

Our wildlife sightings are still wonderful - lots of wallabies and a variety of birds. We had an interesting close encounter with a brown falcon - see stock photo below. They are similar to the North American Prairie Falcon.

A large female was on the ground on the passenger side and Len did not see her until she took off and she flew into the grill while he was going about 40 mph. We saw her wing sticking up from the grill and sadly and assumed she was dead. We both got out and I was about to pry her off the car. We noticed her feet were moving and assumed it was her last movements before passing. Astonishingly she peeled herself out of the grill and flew off down the road with no assistance from me. We were too shocked to take pictures. Hopefully she is only bruised. She had no broken feathers. Pretty amazing.

We are having wonderful sightings of Brolgas (Saurus Cranes) - there are thousands of them. I only have mediocre pictures because they are spooky. This is when I wish I had a good camera and long lens instead of just the phone.

One of the magical things about Australia are the large flocks of parrots everywhere. At our last few camping spots we have seen hoardes of corellas, sulphur-crested cockatoos and red-tailed black cockatoos.

Two nights ago we dry camped at Leichhardt Falls - here is a small tributary. This is a tidal river (coast is 60-70 km away) and some fisherman saw Bull Sharks near our campsite. There were also 3 estuarine crocodiles.

A fantastic sunset last night at Karumba on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Lots of commercial fishing boats.

We are sorry to hear about all of the fires at home and the accompanying heat and smoke. We are thinking of you guys and hoping things clear up soon.

G'Day: From Darwin to Mataranka we had lovely 2-lane bitumen (Aussie-speak for asphalt) roads with very few road trains (massive highway freight trucks pulling up to four long trailers; they can be up to 53.5 m in length).

After Mataranka we knew we were back in the Outback. Every 3-5 km the road surface would change - 1) 2-lane bitumen; 2) 1-lane bitumen where you have to pull over to a soft shoulder when there is oncoming traffic; and 3) very corrugated, 2-lane dirt road. And of course there are water crossings. I think they are fun but yesterday we drove thru ~ 20 crossings and they did get old. There
are also more road trains although not too many, thank goodness.

Birding has been good - at Butterfly Springs I watched a Barking Owl come down to the water and drink. Today I picked up a new honeyeater and the sandstone shrikethrush at Caranbirini Conservation Reserve 50 km west of Borroloola.

The weather has changed - it is 5-10 degrees cooler - the days are in the low to mid-80s and at dawn it is high 50s low 60s. Quite lovely. Some pictures below.

Looking at the Bitter Springs thermal pools at Mataranka. I am trying too decide if it is warm enough but not too warm!!

Our gorgeous campsite at Tomato Island in Limmen National Park, NT.

The plunge pool at Butterfly Springs. Too cold for me but Len immersed!! After dark this is where I saw the Barking Owl.

Another common feature in the Outback are termite mounds. They vary from just inches to several meters in height. Many marsupials and parrots use them for nesting structure.

1-lane bitumen - you have to pull over to the shoulder for oncoming traffic. Thankfully we only see 1 car every 30-45 minutes.

Gorgeous waterhole at Caranbirini Conservation Reserve. I saw the white-gaped honeyeater come down too drink as well as the sandstone shrikethrush. No good bird pics unfortunately.

A close up of the gorgeous water lilies. We do see jacana walking on them occasionally.

Hiked yesterday in the South Lost City of Limmen NP. Gorgeous sandstone structures that we had to ourself.

A typical water crossing in the dry season. These would be impassable in the wet.

Tomorrow Len turns 85. We are celebrating at Borroloola's finest - the Carpenteria Grill. He sends his love.

G'Day: Yesterday we drove from Katherine to Mataranka a wonderful Place with thermal pools.

While in Katherine we did a marvelous hike around Katherine Gorge.

At Mataranka there is a ~ 3 km stretch of the Roper River where the water is 34 degrees C. We spent the morning in the pools and are relaxing the rest of the day.

Time to update you on our travels.

We spent ~ 5 days in the Kakadu National Park area. This is Australia's largest national park at 20,000 sq km. It is about double the size of Yellowstone NP. It is also a World Heritage site because of its high biodiversity and most importantly the only place in the world where humans have continuously occupied for over 50,000 years.

Per Jenny's recommendation, we took a Yellow Water billabong sunset cruise. This billabong is part of the South Alligator River system that runs thru Kakadu NP. It was a lovely cruise - pictures below. A new bird for me was the Royal Spoonbill.

The South Alligator River (misnamed by a naturalist who did not know the difference btw alligators and crocs; there are no alligators in Australia only 2 species of crocodiles) is one of the few rivers globally where the entire catchment is protected. This is the ecological spine of Kakadu NP and the variety of habitats in the catchment is why Kakadu has UNESCO World Heritage status. It is one of the most pristine waterways on the planet.

1000037800

Because of this long period of occupancy, Kakadu has some wonderful rock art galleries which we visited. We also took a day trip into western Arnhem Land which is Aboriginal land. So we went from a highly accessible national park into a deeply pristine restricted access aboriginal reserve. The tour crossed into Arnhem Land at Cahill's Crossing a famous water crossing with plenty of crocodiles and submerged vehicles that did not survive the crossing.

Len looking at Cahill Crossing

To enter Arnhem Land on our own would have required a permit and we would not have had an experienced guide to show us the rock art galleries. The oldest rock art we saw has been dated at 13,000 years old.

Our tour group hiking to the first art gallery in western Arnhem Land.

The next two pictures show the 13,000 + year old rock painting of an ancient ceremony. Really incredible. Almost all of the walls under overhangs have art work. According to our guide, the rock art was meant to depict stories and describe events not to be works of art. But they are now works of art and sacred to the local Bininj folks.

The next picture is of our guide Chloe and the group under an overhang that contains an extensive rock gallery.

We also visited an art gallery that showcases the art work of the local community. When we were back in Jabiru I visited another gallery and did buy (and ship) a painting of a long-necked turtle. The artist gets 60% of the fee and 40% remains with the gallery which is a non-profit cooperative. I was inspired by Jenny's gorgeous collection of aboriginal art.

Wildlife update:

After we left Kakadu NP but before we got to Katherine we spent the night in Pine Creek which is a famous hotspot for birdwatching. The NT has 5 endemics and I saw one of them, the Hooded Parrot, bathing in a sprinkler in downtown Pine Creek. Quite charming.

The caravan park where we are staying shows outdoor movies on Sunday night. Tonight we will watch Avatar. Not sure which one. Tomorrow we hit the road for Limmen NP which is a NT park. For reasons unbeknownst to us they call state parks, national parks. Kakadu NP is the only federally managed park in this area.