Townsville 2020 (Part 4)

Atherton Tablelands (19th – 21st)

Rain, geckos and odd camp sites.

Day 10

After having a rather successful run in the Townsville area, the Atherton Tablelands was just too irresistible to refuse. Drawn along by the allure of tropical species we found ourselves winding ever further north, although a quick pit stop for fish and chips at Cardwell was rather nice. Seeing as we’d had success with one small range endemic Strophurus sp. earlier in the trip, we thought it only fair to chase the second, Strophrurus congoo. Consequently, after a morning of driving through rainforest, we swapped floral communities for dry savannah and headed into the hills south of Petford. Finding what appeared to be some good-looking spinifex deep down some back roads, we book marked the area for later in the night and headed to Chillagoe. The limestone caves at Chillagoe are a reasonably well known tourist attraction, although we were interested in the area for another reason, the endemic Chillagoe Litter-skink (Lygisaurus rococo). After an hour or so mooching around the rocks, Nick and I managed to spy one disappear into a crevice, along with several other skink species out and about (Stout Bar-sided Skink (Concinnia sokosoma), Lined Rainbow-skinks (Carlia jarnoldae) and a Black-backed Yellow-lined Ctenotus (Ctenotus eutaenius). A little frustrated with the difficulty of small brown skinks, we settled in to wait for darkness.

Darkness came on the back of several large and lightning filled storm clouds as we poked around the limestone. Inland Ring-tailed Geckos (Cyrtodactylus mcdonaldi) proved a little difficult to source after repeatedly ducking into crevices but one was eventually nabbed for photos, along with a randomly nocturnally active Outcrop Rock-skink (Liburnascincus mundivensis). Fleeing from the rain, we were off in Ernie back towards Petford and hoping for snakes on the way to our next gecko. We were not disappointed, with a decent sized Black-headed Python (Aspidites melanocephalus) crossing the road before we’d even left the edge of Chillagoe. She was quickly followed by a Burton’s Legless Lizard (Lialis burtonis) and a Carpentaria Snake (Cryptophis boschmai). Turning south at Petford, it wasn’t long before we had our third snake, a beautiful, mid-sized Mulga (Pseudechis australis), an uncommon find for the area. Snakes couldn’t continue forever though and we soon arrived at our chosen spinifex. A drizzle began as we started to spotlight around and for over an hour we looked without luck. We did find the occasional gecko in the forms of a Northern Spotted Velvet Gecko (Oedura coggeri), a Chevert’s Gecko (Nactus cheverti), a Zigzag Velvet Gecko (Amalosia rhombifer) and an Einasleigh Rock Dtella (Gehyra einasleighensis) but our target remained elusive. I was losing hope as I climbed further up the ridge, slowly becoming sodden with the ongoing sprinkle when I spotted the smallest of eyeshines buried deep in a tussock 20 metres off. We had one, and just in the nick of time as it started to pour rain minutes later. Fleeing the tiny dirt tracks and fast swelling creeks we sought the safety of the tablelands once more, rolling out or respective camping gear in a random park in Dimbulah. It was still pouring and just after 1 AM as I fell asleep to the buzzing of mosquitoes.

Day 11

Mareeba is not a place I’d willingly choose to frequent if not for the presence of one thing, a very average little Ctenotus species that can be spied running around shop fronts. We therefore found ourselves doing just that the next morning, walking the streets aimlessly until we happened to glimpse a couple of Atherton Ctenotus (Ctenotus monticola) run behind some bushes. Following character, they disappeared without a picture. Cutting our losses, we headed for rainforest and the boatload of tourists that frequent it.

True to form, the crater lakes were packed. Choosing to ignore the ridiculous amount of company we headed for the forest. It was well worth dealing with all the people, we soon found a wide assortment of reptiles, starting off with a cute juvenile Boyd’s Forest Dragon (Lophosaurus boydii). This was followed up by more skinks, including Prickly Forest Skinks (Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae), Four-fingered Shadeskinks (Saproscincus tetradactylus), Yellow-blotched Forest-skinks (Concinnia tigrinnus), Brown-tailed Bar-lipped Skinks (Glaphyromorphus fuscicaudis), Southern Rainforest Sunskinks (Lampropholis similis) and an adult Boyds. Content with our haul we decided to switch lakes and settled in for a sunset dinner of coles roast chicken, shapes and beer at the waterfront. As always, we were waiting for dark.

Passing showers had given everything a glint of moisture, an extra headache whilst searching for gecko eyeshine. We were of course looking for Chameleon Geckos (Carphodactylus laevis) and with our previous success with significantly harder species we thought it would be no problem to find one. Unfortunately, we were very, very wrong and spent several hours trundling around in the dark at numerous spots to no avail. We did see a few Northern Leaf-tails (Saltuarius cornutus) high up trees, along with two Scrub Pythons (Simalia kinghorni) and a disgustingly large Giant White-tailed Rat (Uromys caudimaculatus), but no squeaky-tailed gecko would appear that night. The long nights were catching up with us and we soon gave up, crashing in the middle of Yungaburra for an early night.

Day 12

Another fine morning dawned, with us waking to the siight of the occasional curious walker wondering just why we were camped in the middle of their street. Luckily for them, we weren’t about to stick around and answer questions, it was time to dawdle south. We did make one quick stop at Jourama Falls on the back to Townsville for a little skink, the Black-throated Rainbow-skink (Carlia rostralis), which neither Nick nor I had seen previously. A complementary Frill-neck Lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingii) was a welcome bonus, although photos were ruled out with incoming rain. With a sudden taste for Frillies, Nick and I annoyed Justin into taking us to a school to see more for photos. Unfortunately, as one would suspect, schools are not an ideal place to be seen herping. However, after consulting with several nearby teachers who thought we had no chance of catching one we’d been watching, we soon had a large and rather unimpressed individual for photos. Odd herping situations are never boring.

Twiddling our thumbs, we spent the rest of the afternoon waiting for the right time to head west road cruising. We had a rather elusive burrowing snake in mind. Although the search for the snake proved fruitless, we did end up seeing the millionth Brown Tree Snake (Boiga irregularis) for the trip, a Curl Snake (Suta suta) and Spotted Python (Antaresia maculosa). Exhausted, we made our way back to Justin’s.

Atherton Tablelands (19th – 21st)

Townsville 2020 (Part 5)

Townsville 2020 (Part 3)