Bowen

Bowen is a town in Queensland that has nine beaches we have been to a few of them while we've been here. We have our own toilet and shower at our campsite. We have had three green tree frogs in there.

Questions and Answers 3

Hi Prep/1 M

Thank you for your questions:

Were you able to take a photo of a mud-hopper? We are not quite sure what they look like. Are they a type of fish? We thought they might be because they have fins.
My Mum forgot to put the picture on, here it is now. They are a bit like tadpoles. We looked them up on the internet. They are also known as mudskippers and are amphibious fish.

What did you use to crack the coconuts open?
The coconuts were already cracked open. Maybe someone had eaten the insides already.

I hope Andrea is very happy back in Mexico.

I am sending you all a postcard.

Finn

Daintree

We drove from Cairns to the Daintree National Park. We had to get onto a ferry to go across the Daintree River. We went to the beach near Cape Tribulation and I made a sand castle and used coconut shells to make boats. Of course I went for a swim even though I didn't have my bathers. We saw a mudhopper in a little creek on the beach, it looked really funny skipping over the top of the water. It used its fins like arms and had a fish tail. It rained - it's a long time since we've seen rain - but I guess it was a rainforest. A. Bear went into the rainforest with the vines and the mangroves and the enormous fan palms.

Great Barrier Reef

We went on a boat called Big Cat to a place called Green Island off the coast from Cairns. Green Island is on the Great Barrier Reef. We went snorkeling from the beach in the morning and after lunch we went in a glass-bottomed boat and a semi-submarine to see more of the fish and coral. I saw lots of different fish and even saw a turtle when we were snorkeling.

Cairns

After two more long days driving we made it to Cairns. I think I might
have a new favourite pool!

Lawn Hill National Park

We stayed at a great place called the Lawn Hill Gorge. One day we walked up to the waterfall between two levels of the Gorge and while my Dad went swimming I attracted lots of fish by dropping bits of leaf on the water. There were heaps of fish and some were really big. The next day Mum, Dad and I paddled our blow-up boat up the Gorge. The Gorge was a great place to swim even though it was very deep.

Riversleigh Fossil Fields

We traveled a very long way from Katherine to Tennant Creek and then into Queensland. We stayed at a campground near where they found lots of fossils. On the way to our campground we had to drive through two rivers - Dad had to check out how deep they were. One morning some Aboriginal stockmen took a herd of cattle past our campground. We talked to two of the stockmen and they told us they use a helicopter to find the cows and bring them together. I went for a swim in the river and had a shower at our camp.

Katherine

I was unwell for a couple of days in Katherine so we didn't do much but we went to the largest classroom in the world. The Katherine School of the Air goes out to children in area of 800,000 square kilometres. They are Northern Territory children who can't get to a normal school. There are some NT kids living in Bali, Papua New Guinea, Africa and the Philippines who do school of the air too. There are about 250 students aged between 4 and 15. They can do up to grade 9 this way. The school has been running for 43 years and used to use just a crackly radio, but now they have satellite internet and can see their teacher on the screen. The kids use a digital camera, microphone, scanner, and a graphics tablet to send their work electronically to their teacher. They have a tutor at home, mostly their Mum, and they do work that they post off to Katherine. When they do art work they get all the paints and papers and glitter or whatever posted to them because they can't just go down to the shop. Sometimes the kids have to take time off to muster cattle or go fishing. The kids get together a couple of times a year and do school in a classroom in Katherine and have a camp and do learn to swim. The kids were on holidays so we didn't get to see any lessons but we saw a DVD and a lady told us all about it.

Litchfield - Termite Mounds

These termite mounds are very big. Can you see A. Bear sitting on the little mound? Termites make the mounds with dirt and spit.

Litchfield - Wangi Falls

Dad and I went swimming at Wangi Falls. It was too cold for Mum.

Questions and Answers 2

Hello Prep/1M and Mr Marsh - thank you for your questions:

1. How come the lizard in your photo had two different colours?
The lizard at Ubirr is called a Firetail skink. My wildlife book says they twitch their bright red tails when they meet other lizards. If an animal tried to catch the lizard it would let its tail fall off and grow a new one.

2. How many pools have you swam in and which one was your favourite? I've been swimming at Hawker, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Bitter Springs, Roper River, Cooinda, Tumbling Waters, Berry Springs, Wangi Falls and Katherine. My favourite so far is Berry Springs because there was a warm waterfall and I could see lots of fish with my goggles. The last time we went to Berry Springs we saw a snake. My Dad and I went inside the waterfall. Can you see my Dad's arm coming out of the waterfall in the picture? Can you spot me under the water?

Mindil Beach

We went to the Mindil Beach market in Darwin and saw the sunset. There were hundreds of other people on the beach with us.

Darwin Museum

We went to the museum in Darwin, they had a great room about animals.

Jumping Crocs

We went to see the jumping crocs on the Adelaide River. The crocodiles jump out of the water to get pieces of meat. One crocodile was called Agro, he was 6.1 m long. We saw some baby crocodiles too. A big croc tried to eat A. Bear, but I saved him.