Bonne Fête du Canada!
Quelle belle journée! Comme prévu, nous nous sommes rendus au Parc National de Warrumbungle ce matin. En janvier 2013, un feu de forêt a détruit 90% du parc, en incluant quelques propriétés environnantes, dont le centre d’information. Ça se voit très bien où le feu a ravagé. Les troncs d’arbres calcitrés, une forêt dénudée, mais qui reprend vie. La nouvelle végétation est d’un vert flamboyant quand le soleil est de la partie!
Au décompte, nous avons vu 12 kangourous (vivants, dans leur habitat naturel) et 4 perroquets (peut-être ou non de la même espèce… il y a 19 espèces sur 55 en Australie qui vivent ici).En chemin pour la randonnée, nous avons vu 8 kangourous qui venaient tout juste de traverser la route sur laquelle nous étions.
Notre randonnée de 14 km sur terrains plat et escarpé nous a offert de très beaux points de vue sur les vallées et monts environnant. Nous avons vu le Belougery Spire (une formation rocheuse d’une très vieille éruption volcanique. La roche la plus ferme tient encore debout, alors que la plus faible qui l’entourait s’est effondrée avec le temps). C’est peu de temps après avoir vu le Spire qu’un kangourou mangeant de l’herbe s’est offert en spectable. John a pris plusieurs photos.
En soirée, nous nous sommes rendus chez un astronome amateur. Le monsieur a 5 télescopes fermés et 4 télescopes plus traditionnels. Avant que le ciel se couvre, nous avons vu la voie lactée, le croissant de la Lune, Mars et Saturne (avec ses anneaux), quelques nébules, et plusieurs constellations, dont la seule que je connaisse de l’hémisphère sud, la Croix du sud – que l’on retrouve sur quelques drapeaux, tel que celui de l’Australie et de la Nouvelle-Zélande.
Nous sommes retournés souper au restaurant chinois de la ville. La nourriture est bonne et il semble bien que ce soit le seul resto autre qu’un pub qui soit ouvert ici.
Demain nous reprenons la route, direction Rockhampton, bien au nord de Brisbane. Les prévisions météos sont prometteuses, avec des 20 et 25 degrés. Nous devrions y être jeudi en fin de journée, après avoir roulé pour plus de 1000 km vers le nord est. Bientôt, je n’aurai plus à porter mes chandails d’hiver!
PS: quand on fait la promenade en Australie, à comparer au Canada, il faut rester silencieux si on veut voir la faune, autrement, on l’effraie et il n’est plus possible de prendre des photos du sujet.
-Chantal
Happy Canada Day!
Early day again today, this time to do some hiking instead of driving! After an early breakfast at Subway we drove over to Warrumbungle National Park to do a 14km loop. Warrumbungle National Park is based around an ancient volcanic mountain, most of which no longer exists. As lava flowed out of the ground, a large, somewhat flat mountain formed with many different types of rock forming its base. As time went by, the different materials erroded at different rates, forming an interesting lanscape with many spires and tall rock faces jutting out of the ground. The loop we took took us by Breadknife spire, which seems to be the most visible of the spires in the park, however there are many around. The park had the feeling of being a bit bald, due to a forest fire that ravaged the area in January of 2013, from which they are still recovering. In fact, the information center was completely wiped out, so they had a temporary center setup using trailers. A lot of vegatation has grown back around the burnt trees, forming a somewhat eerie lanscape of bright green with blackened stakes rising out of it.
We had the opportunity to view a lot of birds around us, as well as some kargaroos, both from the car as we were driving in as well as on the track. They appear to be somewhat inquisitive animals, and don’t neccesarily run at the first sight of a person. I was suprised at how silently they are able to move through the forest. It seems that even though they hop, they land very lightly. The kangaroos are also somewhat easy to miss as they can move quickly; sometimes you can only get a glimpse of them as they streak across the trail or through nearby trees.
We are able to finish the 14km in about four and a half hours, giving us some time to head back to town, get a bite to eat, and relax. At 1800 we were back near the park at the Warrumbungle Observatory, which is actually the property of an amateur astronomer named Peter Starr (his real name). Peter has a fairly impressive setup of telescopes on his property that he has mounted close to each other for night viewings of the stars. As I mentioned yesterday, the Warrumbungle region is considered the astronomy capital of Australia, due to the normally clear skies, as well as the fact that its lattitude allows for particularly good viewing of the Milky Way. The nearby Siding Sprint Observatory (which you cac see high up in the mountains from inside the park) is located there for that exact reason. We were able to get amazing views of the Moon, on which we were able to count the many craters and see details I have only seen from photos before. In addition to the Moon, we looked at Saturn (and was able to see the rings), Mars, Alpha Centauri (actually two stars), the base star of the Southern Cross (actually three stars), as well as some nubula, star clusters, and other celestial objects. We got shut down by clouds eventually, but still had an hour and a half to star gaze.
Now it’s off to bed, as we are heading to Rockhampton over the next two days. Because of the distance, we want to get started early to make the most of the daylight. It is possible that there will not be an update tomorrow, however if we can say something quick, we will.
-John
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