We made it to Queensland

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.