Camping at Agnes Water

Well the past few weeks I’ve been driving around Queensland, staying close to home because I’ve got an art exhibition in May, at Gatakers Artspace Maryborough. Unfortunately I’ve just been informed that the opening night, meet and greet has been cancelled as large gathering’s are no longer permitted.

Trying to stay positive I’m recapping on the past few weeks when I went camping, I know some of my friends around the world are in lockdown at the moment and my freedom may no be appreciated by some.

I’ll just share with you what I was doing while the rest of the world was going mad and things were spiralling out of control, which is starting to happen here now.

Three weeks ago I drove a few hrs up the coast and stayed at a Wallaby rescue centre, which I also visited last year. It was good to be out in the open with stunning views from my tent. Unfortunately there was so many sandflies and mozzies I was eaten alive, though the day and as it got dark.

Sea Views

I was fortunate enough to see some rather nice lizards, wallabies, insects and peacocks while staying at the campsite. No doubt will make some good paintings one day when I have the confidence to paint a lizard.

I decided to go for a little drive down to the beach and tackle some of the sand tracks and engage the 4WD. I’m still a little nervous traveling on my own but I guess that’s all part of the excitement.

4WD sand track

I came across a deserted beach, which I was expecting after driving down a sand track on a week day out of school holidays.

There was a nice sea breeze to take the edge off the rather warm 31deg day with blue skies and wispy clouds.

Walking along the beach I came across lots of different crab shells and couldn’t believe the variation in such a small area.

Returning to my car I was about to open the boot and looked down and my heart sank. On the ground between my feet was a grey tail.

Now living in Australia you automatically think snake, which I did until I saw a few spikes on the top of the tail. I slowly bent down and looked under the car to see what was about to attack me.

A small goanna was looking back at me enjoying the shade, I say small but it was probably the same length as me. I moved his tail but the lizard didn’t want to move and no matter what I did he decided this was the best place out of the sun.

I started the car and still no movement, so I drove forward slowly then I had to convince him to move so I could leave the parking area.

Then it decided a closer inspection of my camera was needed, I however decided its claws probably wouldn’t work on the touch screen and declined his interest in a photography.

oh nice camera you have

Back at the campsite the wallabies were just chilling out in the afternoon sun, waiting for the tourists to arrive and feed them some sweet potatoes. You can just see in the background the peacock and hen creeping up on the wallabies.

So at the end of the day I was cooking and madly swatting mozzies and sand flies while trying not to spill my wine. Enjoying a beautiful sunset over the distant hills and colourful clouds over the sea was a perfect end to the day.

This was short lived as new comers brought bad news about the worlds going mad and you can’t buy toilet paper or mince meat anywhere.

Last week we were trying to save the world, this week we’re trying to save ourselves.

The month before that floods and who can forget the fires over Christmas, but I still call this the lucky country and I enjoy been out in nature and seeing the wonderful animals all around me.

I closed the zipper on my tent and the madness of the world and opened up the pages of my book and enjoyed seeing it thought the eyes of Sir David Attenborough until I got too tired to read and fell asleep listening to the cicadas.

 

If you would like to see some of my art please visit www.ChrisOsborne.art