Friday, January 9, 2009

Blackdown Tablelands

I thought I'd be able to get to Blackdown tablelands by Saturday night but ended up driving along seemingly endless, occasionally poorly maintained track for most of the day and decided it would be easier to just camp at the Baralaba campground to cut the drive short and head up in the morning.


Blackdown Tablelands from the road below

The tableland is quite impressive from the plains below, and looking up at it I was asking myself "How is a road going to get up there?" but as it turned out it was pretty tame. After driving to the Munall campground, I just felt like taking it easy for a while. What followed was what might sound like a bit of a boring day - snacking, reading, drinking various teas and coffees, having a snooze - but it was a nice place and I enjoy just fiddling around at camp sometimes and relaxing.


Leaftailed Gecko, Saltuarius salebrosus

The star of the evening was yet again a gecko species, this time another Leaftail, Saltuarius salebrosus. I spotted a few of these on a walk down one of the creekbeds. My wish for coolness was granted with quite a chilly, windy night. Strange weather! I hit the mattress pretty early with the alarm set for a ridiculous hour - I planned to walk out to one of the lookouts to greet the sunrise. My plan was foiled by cloud cover though I did the walk later in the morning. It was quite peculiar how the environment reminded me of Sydney sandstone bush - the sandstone creekbed, the fleshy Angophora costata trunks - it was only by looking more closely at some of the other plants that the differences became obvious.


Rainbow Waters

Another walk - this time to Rainbow waters - was very rewarding; it was a beautiful spot for a swim. I then drove around the 4WD loop which was also pretty interesting. One little animal of interest was a beautiful diurnal cockroach - a Platyzosteria species.


Platyzosteria sp.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks a lovely place and somewhere I should have visited after Carnarvon Gorge. The cockroach is great.

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