The morning chorus was surprisingly quiet, considering how many different birds lived in the trees around us. After breakfast we drove into Kyogle to restock on food and pick up ice to keep the esky — cooler bin, chilly bin, take your pick — from surrendering to the heat. That’s where we found the trees above the carpark heavy with flying foxes, hundreds of them hanging like dark fruit. The creatures horror movies pretend are bats, but aren’t bats at all. They shifted and rustled in the branches, a whole colony watching us as we sipped our coffee.
With the esky filled and the caffeine doing its work, we set off north again. Crossing the border into Queensland, we found a free campsite just outside Thornton — a quiet spot to end the day and let the warmth of the northern air settle around us.
