A week and a bit off work riding in the bush....yay! - Day 1
18th September 2026
6 Black Swan Cygnets, now 6 weeks old.
I have been planning a ride from the Mt Garnet/Mt Surprise area down to Hughenden, over to Bowen and then back home hopefully via the Valley of Lagoons. This plan would never eventuate during my week long holiday for quite a few reasons. Still turned out a great trip!
The first change I made to the plan was to visit some Black Swan cygnets that I have been visiting since they were born out near Irvinebank.
Sunrise at my Campsite with the Swans, Irvinebank area.
The spot where I camp to view them is quite isolated and I have never had anyone else there with me. At the moment this is my favourite spot to camp.
An attempt to get a softer and warm nights sleep.
The nights on the waters edge, and especially pre dawn, have been warming up of late but I still spread some dead leaves on the ground where I would pitch my tent. The hope was to soften my sleep and to get me a bit further of the ground and stay warm. It worked :)
The Black Swans coming to visit.
Having visited them nearly every week since they were born, the Swans are very comfortable with me now and not long after I had set up camp they swam over to feed right in front of me.
So there I sat for hours as the clouds rolled over and the sun popped in and out of cover. During the next week I would take over 1100 photos….mostly of birds.
The male adult bird.
The male adult Swan very rarely takes his eyes off me as he stands guard, usually placing himself between myself and the cygnets. Every now and then he rises out of the water to flap his wings and let me know he is there.
There is an abundance of birdlife around this waterbody and I was soon joined by a group of Rainbow Bee-eaters as they hunted insects.
They would patiently wait on a branch until they spotted their target, braced themselves to take to flight and then return to the same spot they left from to eat their prey.
As the sun lowered a pair of quite noisy Dusky Moorhens started to feed near my tent as well. Lots of other bird species were present at this site and I will share more with you in later posts.
Fire pit, firewood and chair set up for the bush television.
Before all the daylight was gone I created a fire pit out of hardened mud turned up by feral pigs. Collecting firewood is an easy task here and I also fashioned a chair out of dried up turf, also turned up by the feral pigs, using dried grass placed on top as a cushion.
Visiting Mungana Caves with my wife way back in 2019.
During the night I decided to visit the nearby Mungana caves the next day before heading out to Mt Surpise and then down to Hughenden.
It has been 7 years since I last visited Mungana Caves and travelling alone I could change my travel plans as much as I liked…..so I did :) Little did I know that things out of my control would change my plans totally in the next few days.