Hello everyone,
We are in our 50’s, have been together for 15 years and both have an extensive background in sea life. Anthony was in the navy for 20 years and I was in the fishing industry for around the same time ending up as a prawn trawler skipper in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Plenty of stories to tell there as you can imagine. When we met we had both just given up the sea.
Anthony had been volunteering in wildlife care, mainly rehabilitating Eagles, Koalas and Reptiles for a few years so it was natural that we both decided to live in the tropics near Cairns and open our own bird wild care facility, on our property in Kuranda. Over the 4 years we were there we became inundated with birds from just hatched to very badly injured. We had built 10 aviaries by this time and looked after around 350 birds in the last year. Sadly we also had to work normal jobs and with never ending vet bills and can you imagine the food bill?? not to mention we were also breeding all types of pythons and had up to 28 to care for at one time.
I cracked first and and I think my words were “if I had a plane ticket I would get as far away as I possibly could” and that was that really, we had let the house deteriorate so had a list a mile long to get it all up to scratch to sell, also we had to stop taking wildlife and start dismantling all the amazing aviaries we had built. Our little hospital room sadly needed a sledge hammer to dismantle all the little cubicles we had built with perches heat lamps heat pads etc…. on and on it goes, absolutely heartbreaking… but we did it, the house sold and we flew down to Newcastle to pick up our brand new rig. 31’ Crossroads Cruiser 5th Wheeler, towed by a Chevy Silverado.(The Chevy has since been replaced by a Dual Rear Wheeled F 250) We made our way straight back to Cairns to pick up the cats, Sparkie and Topaz. Then our travelling life of freedom began. Well of course we have to work as well.
So for now, we have just finished our 7 months of Apple thinning and picking in Stanthorpe Queensland, have hitched up our Pod as we call it, and yes we are exactly like two peas in a pod. Please come and enjoy our adventures with us, there is always something going on, as we get out amongst wildlife and nature.
Just a little foot note about Anthony’s photos.!
