#national park road trip itinerary

[wanderlustphotosblog]

Planning an Epic Eastern National Parks Road Trip

Follow along as I show you how to plan an incredible national parks road trip in the Eastern United States. I outline some of the incredible parks, spectacular hikes, and can't miss adventures to have on a road trip of a lifetime.

If you follow my blog closely, you know how much of a national parks enthusiast I am. I believe that preserving the world’s incredible landscapes and national parklands is a great way to do that. In the United States, we are blessed with many outstanding parks. I am planning an Eastern National Parks road trip to explore some Eastern parks I have yet to visit. In this eastern national parks road…

[lionheartlr]

Travel Guide to Croatia: A Mediterranean Gem

Brief HistoryCroatia, nestled along the Adriatic Sea, has a long and complex history. Its origins trace back to ancient Illyrian tribes before Roman occupation, which left behind impressive ruins like Diocletian’s Palace in Split. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Croatia emerged as a kingdom in the 10th century. It later entered a union with Hungary and eventually became part of the Habsburg…

[travelernight]

Ultimate Canada Journey: 10 Stops You Need to Make

[serendipityandacceptance]

✔️ Quit a toxic job at the end of September.

✔️Packed up and shipped 90% of my belongings and my motorcycle to North Carolina.

✔️Spent 17 days road tripping across the U.S. with no itinerary and no plan, except to visit as many National Parks as I could. I made it to nine!

✔️Made it to western North Carolina.

What an amazing journey and adventure.

[livwritesstuff]

Hi hello!! Summers ending now and it got me thinking, what’s the family’s go to vacation? How does everyone approach vacations in general?

hello hello :)

this is so funny bc I was literally just outlining some back-to-school-related drabbles and realized I literally didn’t make a single summer-related post (probably bc I worked like a dog literally all summer – no different from any other time of year :/)

I feel like while the girls are little, vacations for them look like any other upper middle class New-England family – Cape Cod and Maine, mostly, but maybe they’ll throw in a weekend trip up to northern New Hampshire for the kiddie amusement parks (Story Land ring a bell for any fellow new-englanders??).

I think Steve and Eddie might also consider a camping trip, but it’s pretty evident that Moe at a minimum would be totally miserable and Hazel too probably, and for as much as they both think camping trips are a mandatory rite of passage, they also want the girls to actually enjoy their summer vacations, so they pass on it.

I think they all kind of have their own "wants" so to speak when it comes to a vacation. Steve, as we know, is a National Parks kind of guy, I feel like Eddie's a total history buff and likes to see all the historic sites (esp a historic cemetery). Hazel and Robbie are big into tourist traps, and Moe always has an eye on the sports schedules of wherever they're headed to see if they can maybe catch a game. Planning out an itinerary that hits at least once on all those points definitely isn't a walk in the park, but regardless, their approach to summer vacation is the same -- pick a destination, choose a week in July, and hit the road.

[griffther]

there’s so many ppl enabling me in the notes of this post, so here enjoy some Thoughts i’ve had about the nurseydex maine road trip so far:

they do a road trip up the coast of maine over fall break their senior year so that nursey can see acadia national park while the leaves are changing

william “acts of service” poindexter decides that it is his Responsibility as nursey’s captain and fellow d-man to become maine’s official tour guide barbie. he plans the entire thing out and even prints them little itineraries and maps and shit because this boy is nothing is not Efficient

nursey makes them stop to see every single lighthouse they go anywhere near just to be a little shit (there are 65 lighthouses in maine, this would take So Long even if you just stopped at like a quarter of them)

the only canonical reference i could find for any actual locations in maine in the comic is that dex said his uncle who owned the lobster fishing boat he worked on over the summers lived in portland

(a side note to the above, i find this hilarious. portland is an pretty solidly liberal urban city - imagine a very small boston - and not somewhere you’re very likely to find small family-owned lobster fishing boats, at least in my experience. it would make way more sense for his uncle to live somewhere like rockland but i digress)

dex is 100% positive that nursey would Love portland so he carves out two whole days of their trip for them to stay with his uncle and explore. they go to the art museum and old port and the port head lighthouse and the top of the world lookout at fort sumner park and all the little shops and hidden places dex had found from living there every summer for years

nursey does end up loving portland but it might be more about the boy that shows it to him

even though his uncle lives in portland, i am still personally convinced that dex’s family mostly lives around the rockland area. i will go on a rant about nursey meeting dex’s close family another time, but while they’re in rockland, nursey continues his dedication to seeing all the lighthouses he can by forcing dex to make the almost mile long trek out to the breakwater lighthouse with him (don’t think about them standing alone next to this little building almost a mile out from land. the wind is chilly and strong and it makes dex’s hair look ridiculous and his cheeks flush and nursey definitely doesn’t want to kiss him ITS FINE ITS CHILL)

dex has them make a detour up to bangor and surprises nursey with going to see stephen king’s house. he doesnt understand why people are interested in looking at some dudes house At All but he does know nursey would love it so he does it anyways. the fence is cool and nursey gets so excited he almost face plants jumping out of the car, so dex counts it as a success

some random places i feel like dex would make them stop at along the way: freeport (nursey is both so confused and so delighted by just Everything about that place, but he loses his mind over the mcdonald’s and the ll bean outlet), ogunquit (dex purposefully takes highway 1 instead of the maine turnpike going towards portland so that they drive through ogunquit and he can see nursey’s face when he realizes they’re driving through the single gayest town he’s ever seen in his life and it’s in southern maine), moose point state park (there are a billion lil state parks in maine but i just randomly like this one in particular idk i think it’s cute), camden hills state park (it’s too foggy when they get there to drive up to the top so nursey makes them go on a hike instead so they didn’t “waste their time.” they get lost within like 10 minutes and are wet from the fog by the time they make it back to the car like 2 hours later), the desert of maine (it’s kinda boring to dex bc he’s seen it a dozen times since he was a kid, but nursey gets enthralled by the science behind it so it’s worth it), cushing (this is where the famous painter andrew wyeth lived at the olson house and was the subject of a lot of his work and i just feel like nursey would have fun seeing this place)

when they eventually make it to acadia, nursey ends up spending like two solid hours just sitting at sargent peak staring out over everything and desperately scrawling out lines of poetry into his notebook (dex spends most of those 2 hours staring at nursey but somehow doesn’t notice that nursey definitely isn’t writing about the scenery)

[charlesandmartine]

Thursday 7th November 2024

Up in time to see the sunrise at approximately 06.10 this morning. The time doesn't seem to vary much, if at all! Packed up and said goodbye to the little cabin overlooking the fields and the cows. Dog came to say goodbye. Our host was not around, but we guessed where she might be, and rightly as it turned out. She was working at the popup Café at the Hot Springs, so we called in to make our farewells.

Then, to Woolworths for a big shop; we don't know where the next town with a decent sized supermarket might be. Sadly there was a cathartic moment as we realised that the bottle shop would not be open until 2pm!!!

We set off without the SB required for the trip.

The wonderful thing about Australia is that when you set out, you really often have no idea what you are going to see or do. Our stop for the night was to be in Daly Waters, a drive of 276kms south down the Stuart Highway sharing with the huge road trains that rumble between Adelaide and Darwin. There are just two stops on route: Mataranka and Larrimah; if you are not concentrating, you will miss them. Now, as we approached Mataranka, a great example of unplanned gems was tantalisingly on offer to the left; Bitter Springs in the Elsey National Park. Seven k down the road was an empty car park for the Springs. Just a short circular walk took us around these beautiful Thermal pools, 34 degrees the year round, deep and such clear azure blue waters that fish and turtles had no hiding place. The pools, bitter because of the sulphur content, were set within a tropical woodland of Palms and shrubs. It was a little touch of unexpected paradise that exemplifies exactly the point that Australia suddenly throws these opportunities out at you if you are prepared to take the invitation. We sat listening to the flow of the pool and ate our lunch. Rumour had it that if there was nothing else in Mataranka, there was a bottle shop within a rather scruffy but highly functional supermarket. Sure enough, there it was on the high street, and within the supermarket was a caged off area holding said liquids, guarded by a state policeman, there to check IDs before purchase. Remarkably, with such a small selection of SB, we were able to choose a couple of brands we are familiar with and so happy days. Larrimah, we almost missed. Then, another of those little bits of interest that would have been easy to miss. A simple wayside monument marks the spot where one Alexander Forrest, grade 1 explorer of his time, made it from Western Australia finding an impossible cross country/ mountainous route in 1879 for a telegraph cable to join with the north/ south telegraph running along the Stuart Highway route. An immense task for him, 4 others plus 2 aboriginal assistants to accomplish. So, the unassuming monument, a facsimile of an original telegraph pole, marking this amazing achievement that almost cost their lives. is almost certainly missed by many whizzing by at 130km/hr.

Now, our stop for the night would not draw the attention of any seasoned TV travel program. It is a truckstop truth be told, attracting road train personnel and tradies mainly. This place does not feature on a tourist's itinerary. It has that raw honesty about the place, basic, perhaps clean, functional, and it is what it is. We had a welcome beer on arrival, and Martine took a dip in the pool. Yes, it has a pool! Sexist, men only attitude, possibly, rough and ready definitely, but it has a bit of a charm and a place in the real Australia category. As we waited for the beer taps to be sorted, we spoke to a red-neck Australian sitting with his wife on bar stools. Because I'm interested in the itinerant nature of many of the people we meet, I just asked him what brought him to such a remote spot in NT. He looked puzzled for a moment and replied, mum and dad I suppose.

We had a burger meal in, and I hesitate to label it such, their restaurant, and it was great. I had what was described as 'The lot' which pretty much sums it up! These Australians can certainly eat, and they really appreciate meat!

ps. Apologies for yet more mention and photos of thermal pools. It's what is around in these parts.

pps. Loads of frogs outside of our plush trucker stop room! Clearly this sort of thing must appeal to truckers?

[shion-yu]

Day 29: Sick on a Road Trip

A more serious interpretation of this prompt. A short and introspective pre-transplant Al and Theo drabble. 570 words, TW chronic terminal illness. @sicktember

On their fifth summer as a couple, Theo and Al got on a plane and flew to Fresno. From there they rented a car and drove north, hitting all the great landmarks Al had always wanted to visit: Yosemite, Lake Tahoe and the Redwoods. Then they went east and visited the national parks in Utah. It was a trip they’d been talking about for years, but they’d never gotten around to it. Theo had been busy in law school, then establishing himself in his practice. It had always seemed like too much planning and too much money.

This year, however, Theo took the initiative and came home with two plan tickets in his hand, and an excellent itinerary mapped out by his paralegal. He told Al it would be the best vacation ever, and they didn’t even have to rush because Theo had two entire weeks off. Al had beamed and didn’t ask any questions about how Theo had managed to get the time off, how Theo had convinced his transplant team to allow it, or where they’d gotten the funds. Because the thing was, although they didn’t talk about it, they both knew it might be their last chance to take this trip.

Al had been waiting for lungs for months now. He’d been in and out of the hospital for tune ups and maintenance, but it wasn’t doing much anymore. He needed new lungs and there was no way around it. Without them he had less than a year to live. Theo never entertained the idea out loud that Al might run out of time before that, but planning this trip was the closest he had gotten.

Theo flew them business class, making sure all of Al’s medical equipment was taken care of and safe. Apparently he’d marked every hospital and specialist on their route, and knew the fastest way to get to an airport just in case they got the call while they were away. He went to great lengths to make sure they would always have signal on their phones and to find the best views that Al could physically manage to get to. 

He seemed most determined not to be sad. Al knew how hard Theo was trying not to break. He had tried to talk about the what ifs many times and been shot down. Theo hated to talk about anything less than optimistically. During their vacation, Al let him have that peace of not bringing why they were doing this up once.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t tired. Al felt like he was always tired these days. No matter how much he slept, he had a heaviness about him that he couldn’t shake. He slept in the car for the vast majority of the time that Theo drove. Sometimes he was so still that Theo would pull over just to make sure he was breathing. He always was though, and Theo would get back on the road feeling his foolish heart beating hard in his ears.

Despite all the sleeping, Al was worn out by the end of their journey. Theo knew he might have pushed too hard, but Al reassured him that it was just enough. He was just ready to go home now. Theo didn’t feel ready to go back to reality: life where everything was uncertain, surrounded by a wait that they could do nothing to predict the outcome of.

[art-of-manliness]

The Art of Manliness’ Ultimate Guide to Summer

The summer months are here, and with them, a change in mood, expectations, and itineraries. If you (and your family — you only get 18 summers with your kids, after all!) want to make the most of the season’s unique possibilities for fun and memory-making, below we offer a list of the many summer-related resources we’ve published over the years. Hopefully they’ll inspire you to throw a backyard party, swing in a hammock, take a hike, read a book on the beach, and generally enjoy the heck out of the sun-filled, laid-back days ahead. What to Wear When the weather warms up, a new set of clothes in your wardrobe gets put into rotation. It’s harder to dress stylishly in the summer than it is in the colder, layer-friendly months, but you don’t have to (only) default to t-shirts and shorts. The articles below will acquaint you with alternatives that look sharper, yet still keep you cool, and even offer some tips on how wear that t-shirt better when you do opt for it. Read these style guides to specific sartorial pieces: * Summer Smart Casual: 3 Getup Ideas for the Office, Date Night, and Weddings * The Guayabera * The Classic Camp Collar Shirt * The Polo Shirt * The T-Shirt * Khakis * The Seersucker Suit * Boat Shoes * Mohinders (My #1 recommendation for summer shoes!) * My Go-to Sunglasses for Summer And check out these overview articles as well: * A Man’s Guide to Summer Dress: Part I and Part II * Easy Ways to Upgrade Your Casual Summer Style * Summer Style: How to Dress for an Outdoor Social Event What to Do Warm weather, school vacation, and holidays like the Fourth open up new possibilities for recreation, relaxation, travel, and general mischief. If you’re looking for ideas on how to while away your summer days, or just want to better execute your excursions and adventures, consult the list below: * 18 Things Every Man Should Do This Summer * 23 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do * The Ultimate Guide to Fireworks * 10 Awesome 4th of July Traditions  * How to Make a PVC Blowgun * How to Make a PVC Archery Bow * How to Make a Marshmallow Shooter * How to Make a Potato Cannon * How to Build a Man-Sized Slip-‘n-Slide * Backpacking Basics * The Complete Guide to Hiking (And Enjoying It) * Podcast #711: How to Plan the Ultimate Road Trip * 39 Things to Do Before Leaving on Vacation: A Handy Dandy Checklist * The Complete Guide to Flying With Babies and Toddlers (While Avoiding a Defcon 1 Meltdown) * 5 Ways to Streamline Your Next Camping Trip * Podcast #895: The Essential Guide to Visiting and Camping in the National Parks * The Great American Road Trip: Thoughts on Driving Across the Country What to Cook In the summertime, you’re less inclined to heat up the house by turning on the oven, and more inclined to take your cooking outdoors. When you’re firing up the grill, you’ll want to consult these articles, podcasts, and videos to become a master backyard chef: * The Science of Grilling * Podcast #612: Grillmaster Secrets for Flame-Cooked Perfection * Podcast #720: The Secrets to Making the Perfect Burger * The 3-Zone Fire * How to Light a Charcoal Grill * How to Grill Perfect Chicken Breasts * How to Grill the Perfect Burger * How to Grill the Perfect Steak * How to Make Your Own BBQ Sauce * How to Make Your Own BBQ Spice Rubs * Smoking Meat 101 * 3 Easy Marinades for Your 3 Favorite Meats * How to Smoke Brisket * How to Smoke Baby Back Ribs * How to Smoke Pulled Pork Also be sure to check out these fun tips for leveling up your next backyard BBQ: * The Best Way to Hold a Burger (According to Science!) * The Best Order to Stack Your Burger Toppings * The Best Way to Ice Drinks in a Cooler What to Read You often have more time to read during the summer, and you may be wondering what book to pack for your upcoming trip. Any of the recommendations on our many book lists could fit the bill, but as people are often looking for something lighter… http://dlvr.it/T7WjL6

[didnt-hear-cold-as-you-live]

hi i know this is so unbelievably random but i'm going to be moving to asia next year, and i want to visit australia over xmas 2024 (ik it's not that close haha but it's the closest i'll ever be). i'll probably only be there for a week max, so where would you recommend visiting. i know you've been there, and i was just wondering if you had thoughts

Hi omg yes I’d be happy to help!!! Also I’m really stoked for you bc this was the exact time of year I went for the first time and you’re going to have an incredible time!!!

If you only have a week, I’d recommend picking one of 2 itineraries, depending on what you want to see.

1) fly into Melbourne. The climate for this one will be similar to going to California in the spring. Melbourne is an amazing city (I like to describe it as ‘if NYC were in a utopia’ because that’s the vibes it has lol) there is ALWAYS something really cool and typically free going on city-wide, it’s a great walk-able city with FREE public transit, so much to do, and just the best city experience Australia has to offer in my opinion. I’d recommend spending 2ish days in Melb and then doing a road trip on what’s called The Great Ocean Road. If you’ve ever heard of the Pacific Coast Highway in the US, it’s like that but like. On every steroid there is. The entire drive, you’re along these MASSIVE ocean cliffs on one side with the most turquoise water you’ve ever seen, and one of the worlds oldest rainforests on the other, culminating in these rock formations called The Twelve Apostles that are just. Look them up, it’s insane. While it will be likely too cold to swim in this water (it’s the Arctic Ocean!), there’s lots of great camping and there’s wildlife everywhere. There was one rest stop where I got out of the car and 2 birds that were every color of the rainbow landed on my head; there’s a campsite I stopped at where instead of waking up to birds chirping, you woke up to the sound of koalas. There’s a wildlife reserve where I played with dingos and just got to hang out and pet them while they sat on my lap. There’s a golf course frequented by kangaroos where you can rent golf carts just to drive around and look at them. One morning a baby kangaroo was playing 2 feet from my tent. You can zip line through the rainforest and the food at every random cafe I stopped at is some of the best food I’ve ever had. Then on your way back along the inland route there’s Grampians National Park, which just has AMAZING rock formations, great hikes, the coolest views ever. If you just drove the whole thing and didn’t stop it’d be about 8 hours; I did it in 5 days and they were hands down the best 5 days of my life.

2) For a more tropical experience, you’ll want to fly into Brisbane. While I don’t love it as much as Melbourne, it’s a VERY cool city and the best and most iconic thing about it is the MASSIVE city pool right along the river that winds through the city. The way they decorate for Christmas is also really really fun. The best thing about Brisbane is all the stuff surrounding it: Gold Coast to the south has really amazing beaches and Miami kind of vibes, and Sunshine Coast to the north is one of my favorite places in Australia (fun fact I actually almost went to college there). Sunshine Coast is where Steve Irwin’s zoo is and where everyone takes photos holding koalas, altho it’s a bit overpriced for the name recognition compared to the places WAY far north you can go if you have time - it is fun and a great experience! In the Sunny Coast also are the Glass House Mountains, which are these massive pointed towering stones that jut out of the tropical farmland from nowhere. It’s really cool and really beautiful. You’ll find TONS of fresh fruit stands in this area, and driving through it at night is just incredible. A bit north of this is Noosa National Park, which is home to really iconic subtropical beaches, super cute but like, kinda out there beach towns, such amazing warm water to swim in, and a really good amount of hiking - it’s the gateway to Great Sandy National Park, which is home to some of the most beautiful white sand I’ve ever seen, where you can feed wild dolphins every morning and kayak around them in some of the bluest water you’ve ever seen. You can drive north for as long as you have time, and it just keeps getting more tropical and more beautiful the farther up you go.

To be honest I would not bother fucking with Sydney which probably seems like a crazy thing to say but here’s my reasoning. There’s only 2 things to do there that feel extremely like you’re in Australia and not any other major US location, and that’s the Sydney Opera house and Bondi Beach, both of which imo are SUPER touristy and not extremely memorable outside of like “did the thing took a picture here, see I went to Australia”. There are touristy bits about the places I recommended too, but they lean more towards Australian tourists as opposed to world tourists who just turn it into a people zoo. Yes there is hiking and nice beaches a couple hours outside the city, but there’s more remarkable hiking and more remarkable beaches other places. It’s like yeah you COULD spend a day in NYC and spend it at time square because that’s The Thing To Do, or you could just. Go to the cool and really memorable parts and have better experiences.

I hope this all helps and Aussie mutuals please feel free to corroborate this hehe I feel like it’s accurate

[icouldntfindquiet]

where are you going on your trip?

We’re still working out the details but Slovenia and Croatia for sure. We’re gonna go on a road trip and stop by major cities and national parks along the way. Just looking at the itinerary stresses me out as it’s very go go go. 😳

[vecationist]

Hit the Road: 5 Unforgettable Stops on Your Las Vegas to Joshua Tree Adventure

Are you looking for an unforgettable road trip adventure that combines the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas with the natural beauty of Joshua Tree National Park? Look no further! Here are five amazing stops to add to your Las Vegas to Joshua Tree road trip itinerary. Hoover Dam – Start your road trip with a stop at the Hoover Dam, an impressive engineering marvel that spans the Colorado River…

[niceland2023]

Because traffic has been too heavy for comfort, we rerouted the rest of our trip through side roads. Some other cyclists we spoke with ride at night since it’s light out all the time; others said something along the lines of “of course we take side roads, the ring road is terrible” - live and learn!

It took a little time to re plan our itinerary. The next few days will be busing to the remote northeast. Not many “points of interest” on the tourist maps. Perfect.

At any rate, our only recent adventures include some sightseeing as well as checking out the local public swimming pools. They include hot tubs, saunas, and powerful showers. So far they’ve been popular but not crowded, cheap to enter, and very clean. A fantastic way to spend a chilly afternoon.

Another cool thing that we’ve encountered so far in our hiatus from biking was the Black Sand Beach in Vik. Photos we saw were just like, “huh, I guess that is what a beach would look like if it had black sand.” But it was much more awesome than that! Stunning cliffs, perfect smooth round pebbles / giant tuff boulders, and a puffin colony where they were taking off like little zeppelins.

Finally, we had to breeze past Skaftafell National Park (glimpsed some awe inspiring glaciers and rock formations) and Jökulsárlón (a glacial lake with little icebergs in it). Feeling a little FOMO that we’re not taking a solid few days to explore that area, but given our goals I am confident in our new plan, at least we got to see them!

[travelernight]

South Africa’s Winelands: Experiencing the Best Vines and Views

[cookinguptales]

bless my father's heart

the two of us are taking a road trip up to Seattle this summer and he just sent me a tentative itinerary and he had us staying in Forks, WA for two days (pre...sumably to see the national park?) and I was like "why are we staying in the town from twilight for two days?" and he was like "the what"

[anonsally]

Day 10 of Australia vacation, part 2: Quoll Patrol

We drove to Scottsdale, checked into the heritage B&B where we would stay for the next couple nights, and then set off on a private wildlife and scenery tour--just the four of us with a local guide.

Some of the places we went were spots we might have visited on our own, but some we wouldn't have had access to, and a lot of the driving was on unpaved back roads so we got to see quite a bit of territory we certainly wouldn't have seen without the guide. And we really enjoyed it and saw many birds and marsupials! The guide was knowledgeable, identifying many birds by sound and many with only a brief glimpse. That said, I'm not sure this is the tour company I would've chosen if there hadn't been itinerary negotiations with Brother-in-law during the planning stage for the trip. Still, they get points for the rhyme-y name of Day's 10's tour!

He first took us to private farmland with a large pond so we could spot some birds. We saw many that were new to me, including a white-faced heron, a black-fronted dotterel, musk ducks (including some ducklings riding on their mother!), chestnut teals, Australian shelducks, and, in a field, an Australian pipit. Then, while driving to the next destination, we pulled over when we spotted a white-bellied sea-eagle soaring overhead! That was really exciting! A majestic bird. We also saw a gray currawong on the drive, though I'm not sure I could distinguish it from a black currawong and I just took the guide's word for it.

We drove up to Ben Lomond National Park (named after the mountain in Scotland). There were some gorgeous views from the foresty part, and then when we got just above the treeline, we could see the dolerite peaks. It was beautiful! We spent a few minutes there before driving even further up, to the ski village (which was of course closed as it is summer there now and there was no snow). That area was somewhat reminiscent of moorlands in northern England, and all of the bushes were in bloom. There were lots of wallabies around, and some fantastic views before the fog fully rolled in--though it was already too foggy to see the ocean on the other side. We also heard and spotted some crescent honeyeaters. There may have been other birds too--I heard a lot of birdsong (including one that kept singing "figaro figaro figaro"), but I couldn't find any more of them and the guide had set us loose on a short-ish walk without him.

We then drove back down out of the fog, eventually stopping for a few minutes in a forest clearing where we could hear dozens of birds, but none of them showed themselves. Since I'm the only one of the four of us who is obsessed with birds, we didn't wait too long before moving on.

Finally we drove on some back roads, including crossing through a small river, to a large pasture with a sort of shack and an outdoor fireplace. The tour company leases this spot from a timber company. It was getting to be evening, and many kangaroos, wallabies, and pademelons (smaller wallaby-like creatures) were grazing on the pasture. It turned out, however, that the guide feeds them when he brings people there, so the kangaroos all came right up to us expecting food. Kangaroos are tall! I was a bit intimidated, and I also felt that it was not a good thing to feed wild animals and make them more tame. It was just not as much of an eco-tour as I would've preferred.

On the other hand, it did mean we had a close look at the animals, and Brother-in-law actually spent a while scratching one of the kangaroos, to their mutual great delight. The wallabies and pademelons were very cute and much less tame.

The guide started a fire (I had to put on all my layers of clothing as it was chilly and a bit drizzly) and prepared us a picnic meal; we ate and chatted and admired the various macropods. Eventually, as it got later, the quolls that live under the shack emerged. They were ridiculously cute! And then, once it was dark, the brush-tail possum turned up. So we certainly saw plenty of nocturnal creatures, particularly as we spotted some wombats grazing on our drive out. We also passed (by the side of the road) a darker colored quoll of a different species.

It was pretty late when we got back to the B&B. We arranged to meet our guide at 10am the next day for Wilderness and Waterfalls.