The first day of easing Covid travel restrictions
The Atherton Windfarm at sunset 2nd May 2020.
The 2nd of May was the first day we could take non essential travel. We were allowed to move within a 50klm radius of home. For us that meant we could head up to Atherton and Mareeba.
Above is the sunset we watched as we sat at the top of Gillies Range and looked back at Atherton. Mother nature put on quite a show for us and there are more photos of the sunset at the end of this post.
Mareeba Bicentennial Lakes
Earlier in the day we headed to Mareeba and had a picnic lunch. This was the first time I had ever walked in Bicentennial Lakes.
An Australian Darter drying itself in the midday sun.
As you walk around the lakes you will run into a variety of birdlife. This Australian Darter was swimming in the lake for quite a while and came to the bank to dry itself off just as we walked away.
A beautiful blue eyed white duck.
The ducks there, unlike the Australian Darter, are quite tame and it appears expect to be fed. The ducks that spent most of their time on land were surprisingly quite large….probably because they are so well fed.
The water bound ducks were about half the size of the land bound but seemed to have the same expectation of being fed as they swam towards us.
If you like to sit and feed birds, and perhaps chat a little with them then I think you will love the lakes at Mareeba. My wife and I certainly had a nice relaxing walk.
Hallorans Hill
The Seven Sisters back in 2018.
Back in 2018 I took this photo of the Seven Sisters from a roadside. After lunch at Mareeba we headed back to Atherton and made our way up to Hallorans Hill as my wife had never been there and it offers a wonderful view of the Seven Sisters.
However as soon as we arrived there we got distracted by other things.
The cloud cover that would provide that beautiful sunset was starting to blow in and the moon was already visible. It was so peaceful to lie on the grass and watch the hawks fly above with the clouds and moon as a backdrop.
That sunset
When we first pulled over on the Gillies to watch the sunset the rays were starting to cut through the almost blanket cloud cover.
You have already seen how magnificent it looked as the sun started to drop below the clouds but the next photo is the view we got as the sun dipped below the horizon and bounced all that colour up on to the cloud cover.
The sky was so bright my wife had to turn away as her eyes were starting to hurt. It was almost like a bomb had gone off.
A spectacular way to mark the close of the first day of what we hope will be our return to a somewhat more normal life post Covid 19.