I managed to finagle myself into my tent. There’s little room for anything else but somethings are required. I managed to surround myself with what I thought to be the overnight essentials. You need space for the clothes you take off, those that you’ll put on in the morning, glasses to read the time when you wake up at some ungodly hour, some sort of torch to see other things by, which is my phone but a torch would be better. Arranging all these accoutrements in a completely unfamiliar environment in the pitch black is quite a challenge. My nominally self-inflating sleeping mat – it needed some help – and inflatable pillow proved quite comfortable, once I’d worked out how to inflate the pillow without it auto-deflating. Most surprisingly, once settled and over the initial trepidation, I settled and did manage to sleep. My overnight bottle [you can guess but it saved me needing to leave a difficult-to-leave tent] proved excellent, worth every penny of £10 and worth the packing problem.

I slept, though not solidly but then I don’t sleep solidly at home. At 04:00 the Australian Dawn Chorus fired up. A gang of Kookaburras began laughing very loudly. [Challenge: go find the collective noun for Kookaburras.] They were joined at 04:20 by Australian Magpies and their fluty whistling, which I love. This is not a problem, I was awake anyway and it gave me some entertainment, something to listen to.

Now for the worst part of the tent experience, packing everything away. There was a breeze which made it impossible to arrange the very lightweight fly sheet. I began to see why it was called a fly sheet. The inner tent, with it’s sewn-in ground sheet is a little heavier and a little easier to handle. What with trying to bundle all other overnight items back in my “suitcase”, together with the tent attempting to return to Brisbane unaccompanied, it didn’t get folded but bundled up and stuffed in my bag rather unceremoniously.

Panic! I switched on my camera to make an adjustment. The mirror went up – I thought it was taking shots but it stayed open as if in bulb mode. I tried a different lens in case my long lens was not connecting to the camera body correctly. Same problem: up went the mirror. I removed the battery and re-booted: same problem. Shit, I thought poetically, my camera is f****d. I spotted a message saying something along the lines of “press button to begin recording a movie”. Ah ha, somehow my camera body switch had been moved from stills to movie mode – the mirror was raising in readiness for a movie. I returned the switch to stills and sanity returned. Relief! We were off.

Today we headed first for Booloumba Creek along with a few other stops in Conondale NP. Here’s a couple of new friends from there: Flame-headed River Damsel (Pseudagrion ignifer) and Common Archtail (Nannophlebia risi). The damsel is going out of focus at the tail but you just have to see that fabulous face colour.

Second port of call was Searys Creek in Great Sandy NP as we were closing in on Rainbow Beach. It being a sunny, hot Sunday and there being swimming pools at Seary’s Creek, it was invaded by bathing Joe Publics. This does not make for the finest of wildlife watching environments but we did get a little late afternoon action. We will return in the morning hopefully with less companions.

Rainbow Beach was, well, a campsite close to a beach. We’re familiar with the problems that such campsites engender in Europe. nonetheless it was an equipped campsite with kitchen facilities and close to where we wanted to be. We handed over A$100 to check-in for two nights.

We didn’t have shade or much in the way of grass; we pitched essentially on sand right beside les sanitaires. Beside us was a another slightly larger tent. The benefit of a sandy pitch is that the tent pegs went in very easily, so much so that I decided to use my special “odoland” triangular tent stakes because I thought regular pegs might not hold. A van drew up in the neighbouring pitch and three young studs tipped out. Later a second car turned up and three more young studs tipped out. My heart sank a little. I was then transported back to the 70s when every campsite had a camper who thought they could play the guitar; yes, the sound of a guitar drifted across. My heart sank further.

Eventually the guitarist got bored and the guitar stopped. In truth the young studs seemed reasonably considerate and really didn’t disturb us.

My sleeping mat with a sand base proved relatively comfortable.

Yes, I know I’ve been in Australia for three nights already but this was my first night under canvas, which sounds much more romantic than “under manmade, lightweight materials”.

We were awake at 05:00 for an early start at 06:00 to beat the Brisbane rush-hour. Local traffic may readily be identified: they’re the ones NOT doing Brisbane U-turns.

Phil’s first entomological encounter at the Ibis Budget Hotel in Windsor had been bed bugs. There being no staff to rail at at this hour, he’d smeared a couple on the wall as proof and left a note.

We headed north with Roy’s Brisbane driving experience of a whole three days guiding Phil to keep him on the straight and narrow aided my Mr. Google. Our hunting stop was at a place called Sippy Downs where we also found a Coles to buy supplies. Phil wanted cardboard boxes for loading the stuff in the car. Coles breaks down cardboard boxes the second they are empty and had nothing. I found a couple of staff restocking shelves and managed to intercept three boxes before they became flat packs. The car was laden; quite how Phil manages to do this with four people is beyond me. I have the back seat to myself, along with shopping and my camera rucksack; there’s no room. 

My first experience of hunting dragons with these two guys: Phil, particularly, starts calling out completely unknown-to-me scientific species names as he spots them. Some are passingly familiar to me but mostly I haven’t a clue. It makes it all feel a little frenetic. Roy had been much more measured in our first three solo days. My approach is to snap what I can to be identified, if possible, later. In this case for me, later will be back at home where I can look through the difficult-to-use Ozzie field guide with scant information. I swiftly decide that I have to shut out the potential distractions and do my own thing as best I can.

With the car groaning, we continued to Ewen Maddock Reservoir in search of the very special and diminutive Australian Pygmyfly (Nannophya australis). This is a very targeted trip with habitat aimed at certain uncommon species. The habitat here was marshy and boggy so the guys donned their Wellies. Actually Phil lives in his Wellies which aren’t even posh,  they’re just cheap Dunlops. In my boots I hung back looking for shade from the 34°C heat. There wasn’t much to amuse me in the surroundings. Then they encouraged me over – they’d found the quarry. It was near the edge where I had to get water only half way up my Peter Storm lightweight walking boots. I got it, a delightful little male only about 1in/2.5cm long. I could have done with Francine’s macro but really, in this territory, I couldn’t get close enough. What a wonderful critter.

We moved on to Mapleton Falls National Park, with no signs of any fires or smoke (for those that may be concerned). This was forested habitat more suited to my footwear. After not very long we’d found another artistically designed critter rejoicing in the name of Austroargiolestes amabilis. The common name is a little unfortunate given the current spate of wildfires on the east of Australia; it’s the Flame Flatwing.

The saving grace on this intense tour may be that jetlag hits Phil in the afternoon and he starts flagging. We don’t want him to flag too much, though, being the driver. We flagged our way to Kenilworth in search of a campsite. The first was essentially a bush camp for self-contained vehicles where the facilities numbered just a few portacabin loos – not enough for us. A friendly local directed us to the Kenilworth Showground where there were showers and plumbed-in dunnies. It was also within easy reach of a wonderful hotel, a.k.a. bar with cold beer.

We checked in and began pitching. I unrolled my new tent for the first time in vengeance. Pitching it proved pretty easy except for hard-baked ground. No hammer. I’d found that the guys normally find a large stone to use but we hadn’t. Another pleasant local came to the rescue with a real hammer. I’d have to work out how to use the restricted space later.

We’ve had trouble in Brisbane up to now with some water sources being dry and others being difficult or impossible to access due to surrounding reeds.

Today was different. Since our leader, Phil, was flying in at 17:30 and we were due to meet him at the International terminal, we opted for the Mount Coot-tha Botanic Garden in Brisbane so we could return our rental car in a timely fashion and get there. We had our worst navigation cock-up yet and performed a Brisbane U-turn taking about 30 minutes, only to end up at exactly the same mistake, which we repeated. This time we made a different detour. We did finally arrive at 10:00. 😀

The café was open (not surprisingly) and I started the day with the best cappuccino that I have ever tasted anywhere. If you’re ever in Brisbane and can fight the traffic …

The café has a pond curving around just outside it down a short slope. Just out of the window we could see dozens of dragonflies zooming about very actively. There were two other ponds forming a sort of chain with the first; these were no less active. I finished my cappuccino with renewed enthusiasm and began flattening my camera battery which thus far had had only sporadic use. Yes, I did have a spare.

There were many species both of dragonfly and damselfly. I didn’t count but I must’ve seen 20 or so and at last many were new to me. This was what it’s all about. Here’s a couple of the more spectacular ones, including one I missed yesterday when I left my camera in the car failing to find a Koala. [Lesson relearned, I think.] These are the Graphic Flutterer (Rhyothemis graphiptera) and the Australian Tiger (Ictinogomphus australis). Happy camper.

Speaking of camper, tomorrow I really will be a camper. I got dragonflied out and we left the gardens at 15:30. I think our return to the rental car depot was our first journey without a navigation mistake. Maybe we were getting used to it, or just better at understanding the navigation instructions. The car company’s shuttle returned us the the airport where we supped a couple of beers each until Phil arrived. He rented a 4×4 suitable for any National Parks that we happen to be allowed into (due to the fires that Australia is currently fighting).

We’re hitting the road at 06:00 to avoid any rush hour and driving north. It’ll be tent time. I’ve charged everything up whilst in a hotel and I’ve no idea when I will next have time to write anything, let alone have Internet access to post it. We’ll see. It’s 04:56 and my alarm is set for 05:00.

Yikes!

Roy was keen on an early start, largely to investigate supply shops, so we planned to meet at 07:30. What the hell, with the jetlag induced by a 10-hour time change, I’d be awake anyway.

We made a major advance in navigating Brisbane’s maze of roads. We had seen signs advertising supermarkets (Aldi and Woolworths) a little south of our Ibis Budget hotel – we know how to live. However, from our hotel we can only turn north on the dual carriageway beneath my window. With the aid of Google navigation, we solved the conundrum. It’s easy: you simply force your way out into five lanes of commuter traffic which is stationary because of the traffic lights also outside my room, force your way across all five lanes with ¾ mile so you can turn right at another set of traffic lights, trundle down the side street to a handy-dandy roundabout, spin all the way round it to head back to the dual carriageway and finally turn left at the traffic lights again. Voila, you have done a Brisbane U-turn and are now heading south.

We found the shopping centre boasting our two supermarkets. Furthermore, we found a covered car park with a 2-hour free stay. Ascending to the shopping level we discovered that Woolworths was not yet open – I mean it was too new a shop rather that being too early in the day. Just opposite was Aldi with lights and vague signs of life. However, it, too, was still closed. We may have been ready early but Aldi opened at 08:30. We’d also seen a neon sign for Coles, which Roy thought might be a hardware store but no, with some relief we discovered it was not only a supermarket but a supermarket that opened at 08:00. As well as lunch, I bought some SPF 50 cream; it seems that the week ahead is heading for 36°C.

We were now in a position to head for what research suggested might be one of Brisbane’s better dragonfly sites, Bulimba Creek. It’s quite a long creek but Roy had found a recreation area complete with parking. There was, at least, some water in the creek, though it looked quite low,  but there was little access, either. We wandered but this side was a wash out.

There appeared to be more on the far side where, over the road bridge, there was another car park, tables, exercise equipment and a few people. We moved and set about wandering. Our first customer was a Blue Riverdamsel (Pseudagrion microcephalum), hunting from a perch close to a pontoon. The pontoon was clean enough to adopt a prone position. Since I was lugging Francine’s excellent 100mm macro lens with me, I managed to stick it close enough to the critter and not scare it away.

Further access to the creek itself proved impossible but there was a lake (pond, in Ozzie-speak) which a couple of returning birders were keen on. We headed in that direction. en route we spotted what could be the most interesting find of the day, a wonderful caterpillar. I don’t know Ozzie adult butterflies and/or moths so I’ve no chance with this but it is a thing of beauty.

We crossed the creek, with no further signs of much life, and arrived to find margins once again surrounded by impenetrable reeds. I was beginning to see a pattern forming. Wandering around the lake we finally found a grassy slope down to the water’s/mud’s edge and were rewarded by a fair amount of activity. Nothing here that I snagged was new to me, sadly, but there was a 2nd meeting with the very colourful Red and Blue Damselfly (Xanthagrion erythroneurum). Francine and I had found it first in Oz two years ago.

We lunched and had a protracted conversation with a local who aske us the dreaded Brexit question, before trying another park showing a river running through it. It was dry. This could be a second pattern forming.

I was reaching my had-enough point so we agreed to give Roy’s Koalas a second try at a second bushland location. I left everything n=but my water bottle in the car as we searched and failed yet again to see any sign of a Koala. What we did see was a Graphic Flutterer (Rhothemis graphiptera) flitting in the forest. I was a tad sickened when it chose to settle and flash its gaudily pattered wings in a patch of sunlight. Bother! That would have been a 2nd new species for me. We were looking for Koalas apparently away from obvious habitat, for heaven’s sake. Maybe we’ll see them again.

We had another nightmare of a return journey to the hotel, once again missing completely at the first attempt. I won’t miss Brisbane when we move on.

Before dinner and a couple of very necessary beers, I made my first to rinse a shirt, socks and underwear. The basin is the size of a teacup with no plug so I’m likely to be rewarded with only limited success.

My Qantas flight from Hong Kong down to Brisbane showed how a business class seat should be done: 1-2-1 seating arrangement, admittedly in a smaller plane, with oceans of space, a dead flat bed and no clambering over legs by anyone. No funny rearward facing seats either. Much more conventional and much better. Oh, yes, and the food was some of the best I’ve had and I don’t mean just on aeroplanes. Qantas nosh is designed by an Ozzie chef, Neal Perry [Sp?], and was very fine.

Being on the left side of the plane, first of all I got to see turnip rise over the Pacific. Well, OK, it was the moon, really, but near the equator the not-quite-full moon had a flattish top that made it resemble a turnip. At our latitude we’re accustomed to seeing the sides of the moon missing, rather than the top or bottom. It looked quite strange.

After nine hours aloft, we landed at 04:20 and immigration went smoothly with the infernal machine even reading my e-passport. Well, second time, it read it. I now had four hours to kill waiting for friend #1, Roy, to arrive at the domestic terminal having done immigration at Sydney. I killed two of my hours people watching in International then transferred on the shuttle bus to Domestic to kill the remaining (now) 90 minutes. I was able to wait at the baggage carousel and he duly arrived, as did his luggage.

Formalities for a rental car were next and then we were off, at about 11:00. Heaven knows where we were off but we were off. Fortunately Roy has mobile data so Mr. Google helped us deal with the maze of arterial roads that appear to constitute Brisbane’s traffic system.

We saw no atmospheric evidence of the fires that are ravaging parts of southern Queensland. First stop was somewhere called the Koala Bushlands – Roy was keen to see a wild Koala. Unfortunately, Koalas were there none. Actually, there wasn’t much of anything but a couple of other Homo sapiens also looking for Koalas. Everywhere was very dry.

We change tack and headed for some water showing on the map. Several corrected wrong turns eventually had us entering someone’s Memorial Park. The park didn’t work ‘cos I can’t remember his name. As we clambered out of the car a 600mm lens approached the car park held by its owner, a birder, along with friend. They guided us down a track through some paper-bark trees where we did, eventually, find some rather unexciting water which was clearly much reduced judging by the drying, cracking  mud at its margins. There was a handful of dragonflies, including one species new to me, but I had been more interested in what we thought were two different species of Ant-lion en-route through the nearby vegetation. Heaven knows what species this fellow is; for now Antipodean Ant-lion sounds good enough.

Once I looked at the pictures properly, I realized that my 2nd suspect was not a second Ant-lion but an Ascalaphid, a so-called Owl-fly – it has clubbed rather than hockey-stick shaped antennae. Once in our hotel with Internet, I found this character on good ol’ Brisbane Insects pages. It’s a Yellow Owl-fly (Suhpalacsa flavipes). I do like a nice Ascalaphid and this is my first Antipodean Ascalaphid.

Birdman had suggested another wetland which we tried later. It was certainly wet with multiple lakes (he called ‘em ponds but they do things bigger here, rather like Americans). What there wasn’t was much in the way of dragonflies. Neither of us could understand quite why, given all the vegetated water. We’re thinking that, being closer to the coast, as it was, the water may have bene brackish. Certainly it did not appeal to our main quarry. There were plenty of birds for Roy to aim his binoculars at, though.

Beginning to flag, we called it a day and retired for a shower, following which we fought Brisbane’s road system to find a beer and some salt and pepper calamari. Sally Satnav sent us several miles around a complex circuit to get one mile further south from our hotel, all because you can’t cross the arterial road and head in the right direction. Apparently. We were confused.

Just for the record, here’s the new friend that I did come to see, the so-called Coastal Glider or Wandering Pennant (Microdiplax cora).

It felt like a long and quite difficult first day but, then, given the travel, early arrival and jetlag, it was.

It’s Saturday so it must be Hong Kong.

I miscalculated: the flight was only 11 hours and not 13 as I thought. Hong Kong being 8 hrs ahead, I flew into Saturday and missed the morning. Such are the joys of long haul travel and time zones. We landed at 14:20.

This was my first experience of British Airways Club Class (i.e. Business Class) and I have to say it was in some respects, weird. Half the seats are backward facing. Well, if it’s good enough for the queen, it’s good enough for me. It is supposedly safer … in the event of an emergency, that is. Personally, I don’t think any seat would help if you fell out of the sky from 36,000 feet. Happily that wasn’t an issue.

The seating plan is 2-4-2. The seats go completely flat. The window seats face backwards as do the two centre seats in the middle block of four. If the aisle seats, which are conventional and forward facing, are in their flat bed position, the window and centre seat occupants have to clamber over the prone legs of the aisle folks. Except, that is, for the rear bulkhead row which has unfettered ingress and egress. Not terribly impressive in some respects.

Having forgotten to check-in early online, I had been defaulted to one of the centre seats of the rear bulkhead row. At first I was a little perturbed that I had one of the two bassinet seats, in case a screaming infant pitched up next to me. Mercifully that didn’t happen. On seeing the advantage of unrestricted access, I was actually pleased.

I don’t recall sleeping but neither do I recall 11 hours worth of travel so I think I must have.

I have found my ways to the QANTAS lounge in HK airport where I have a 4-hour wait for my 2nd leg flight to Brisbane. It’s a 9-hour flight. At least, I think it’s a 9-hour flight, if I haven’t miscalculated that one, too. 🙂

It seems to be the only law that never gets broken.

Some months ago I bit the bullet and did something I’ve been wanting to do for a while; I signed up for a 3-week dragonfly hunting trip in Australia. Well, three weeks once the flights are taken into account. There was a similar trip a year ago but the dates didn’t work out for me. This time, the dates were perfect so I went for it.

I am one of a three. Our fearless leader did what appeared to be an excellent job putting together an itinerary targeting several specific species. Here’s the kicker: this year’s tour was to be based around Brisbane, south Queensland. A little while ago, Australia, in its early spring, began being ravaged by what I think are unseasonably early wildfires in both New South Wales (where they seem to be more widespread) and South Queensland. Brilliant! Thank you, Sod. We are basically flying into the fires and the National Parks were where we were intending to hunt.

We are all still keen to go and I’m currently in the BA Terminal 5 lounge waiting to board the flight on my first leg bound for Hong Kong. Besides, I have a non-refundable ticket and travel insurance would be no use since, although many of Australia’s National Parks may be closed because of the fires, Australia itself is still open for business. Since our first plans involved initially heading south from Brisbane and crossing the border into New South Wales, our leader, Phil, has revised his itinerary. I suspect that the situation on the ground may be so fluid that we will have to react to new situations once we are there.

My companions are both much more experienced with Australian Odonata than am I. I will be very content seeing almost anything, since my current ad hoc Australian species count is just about 10, there being some 340 species on that beautiful continent. My companions were targeting specific species new to them. Frankly, I simply love Australia and will be very happy just spending a holiday there. Most of it will be new to me; it’s certainly an area I have not previously visited.

Holiday? Well, yes, clearly. However, I should point out that this is a so-called recce trip paring costs to a minimum. We will be camping in small backpacking tents. We are taking the gear with us. I have had to purchase a 2-man backpacking tent, a sleeping bag and a sleeping mat. I haven’t slept on the ground in over 30 years. This is going to be interesting. Since I now no longer sleep soundly in a comfortable bed at home, how much worse can it be? [I’ll answer that question in three weeks time.]

If a wildfire approaches too close for comfort, I will have no compunction abandoning my tent; it cost a mere £75. I have to say, though, that it looks the part; I’m quite fond of it even though I have yet to use it. Maybe that should read because I have not yet used it?

It’s 13 hours to Hong Kong where I have four hours to pass before my 2nd leg which is nine hours to Brisbane. Watch this space.