North Queensland Wildscapes Phototours with Paul Curtis

Name: North Queensland Wildscapes Phototours with Paul Curtis
Address: 8 Kauri Close, Kuranda, QLD, 4881, AU
Telephone: +61408835160
Rating: 5

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North Queensland Wildscapes Phototours with Paul Curtis

North Queensland Wildscapes Phototours with Paul Curtis Photographic adventures in North Queensland Australia. Book a variety of custom tours. Maximum number is 4 adults so each trip is flexible to suit your needs.
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Join me in a tour around some of the less visited but extremely photogenic sites around the tropical north. Tours are varied to suit the customer and the prevailing weather and conditions, but foremost is the goal of finding some remarkable sites and returning with wonderful pictures. Tours can be half day, full day or one or more nights away to capture the golden hours of dusk and dawn. I’m there

to provide a window into the true north Queensland and to assist you where I can to get the best out of the opportunity. I cater for the experienced enthusiast/professional or if you are new to outdoors photography I’d like to help you get the best out of your camera and the wonderful subjects presented. No rushing from place to place and packing up unless you are satisfied. Costs are all inclusive except where indicated on my website. I can collect you from anywhere in Cairns to the northern beaches (up to Palm Cove) and departure times depend a bit on your location—but generally around 8.00am. I don’t have a schedule in that certain places are visited on certain days. You let me know what sounds appealing and when you are available. If you are travelling singly I can establish a “schedule” around your availability (time permitting) and see if others are interested on the day to bring the price down. Otherwise the half or full day fee will have to apply. (see the prices page on my website). All these tours are designed to be only mildly strenuous so you don’t need to feel limited in what photo equipment you bring. For the more adventurous and fit I have some spectacular walks into remote country that can be customized to your time, fitness and photographic objectives. Overnight tours can be arranged and require a degree of self-sufficiency and preparedness to “rough it” a bit, however, all meals and equipment can be provided—just remember your camera(s), batteries and cards! Oh, and a tripod if you have one. I look forward to meeting you on a tour and talking cameras and experiences.

02/02/2025

Photoyarn 121
2024 Tour highlights
2024 was a big year of travel and photography for me and in between my private travels I ran a number of enjoyable photographic tours. It’s always an enjoyable learning experience for everyone as we bounce compositions, ideas and techniques off each other. One 4 day tour through the Cooktown area was particularly memorable and lots of great images were captured. More details in the captions. 2025 may be the last year I will be running tours as more personal travel is planned for 2026. So if you are thinking of climbing aboard a customised tour through the far north consider calling me soon. Have a browse through my “photoyarns” below to see if there are any locations you like. Most are practical for a tour.
https://www.nqwildscapes.com/tours/

30/01/2025

Photoyarn 120 pt 2
Cobbold Gorge
I first became aware of Cobbold Gorge in the late 70s/early 80s when there was some talk of it being a national park. I was living in Brisbane at the time and it was remote and so far away. When I moved closer it was already becoming a tourist attraction with public access restrictions. It wasn’t until about 2019 that I got the opportunity to drop in and check it out. I decided that while I couldn’t indulge my usual urges of running amok all over the landscape with my camera it was still worth some further investigation. So it seemed a logical place to conduct “Party Two”. The Party party was growing with my son Steven arriving from down south. Good fires, good food, good people, nice scenery and the tours were quite enjoyable. A bit frustrating trying to capture some good images without it looking like I was surrounded by lots of people on a small boat and trails. Hope you like what I got.

23/01/2025

Photoyarn 120
Undara
To celebrate my wife’s 60th birthday I planned 3 “parties”. We organised available friends and family to travel around some great outdoors sites in north Queensland on a caravan/camping expedition. Our first stop was the Undara Lava Tubes. This is a great location to spend quality but comfortable time in the bush – with great company. Undara offers great facilities, amazing tours and wonderful bushland and trails to explore. The tours were a bit expensive (by my miserly standards) but hey, you’re only 60 once. For just a tad more money I can take you on a phototour of the area!

31/12/2024

Photoyarn 119 pt 2
The Lower Herbert River
I finished off my Herbert River project by spending 3 days exploring the river’s lower reaches, tributaries, side tracks and scenes of the countryside and coast. It was quite the adventure as I didn’t know that part of the world really well so not sure what I would find. Well, amongst other things I found some lovely campsites tucked away along the river bank that seemed to be publicly accessible and lots of generally nice scenery and after chatting to some farmers got access to some beautiful stretches of the river on a perfect late afternoon. I often spend a lot of time trying to decide where to go next so when a project like this comes up and I get chucked a bit off the deep end you have to sink or swim when it comes to delivering the goods. Hope you don't mind the overdose of images. As usual felt obliged to leave many good ones out to make this a bit manageable.

17/12/2024

Photoyarn 119
Herbert River Falls and Gorge
June, July, August were the busiest months of the year for me. As soon as I returned from our sandstone trip I had an opportunity to undertake a photographic journey down the Herbert River from the high country down to its mouth near Hinchinbrook Island. The jewel in the crown of the Herbert is the main falls and gorge area. As spectacular as anything you will find anywhere in Australia. We found ourselves a perfect campsite from where we could mount multiple small expeditions. There are dozens of great riverside camps at Goshen Station. Here’s the scenery from on the ground and in the air.

08/12/2024

Sandstone Country pt 11
The Journey home
On a photographic journey where it takes a couple of days at least to get where you’re going it’s always a good idea to plan for some worthwhile stops along the way – not wasting an opportunity when you are at locations far from home. We figured the Bowen area was an achievable destination and there was some nice scenery around there and would make a change from the reds and oranges of the west to the greens and blues of the coast. We dawdled and ended up getting there on dark so around dinner at the pub we hatched a plan. The beautiful bays and headlands around Horseshoe Bay and Cape Edgecumbe were too obvious. A little googling and we found not far from where we were staying was the Don River mouth and some interesting coastline. Our imagination paid off and the coastine was amazing and spectacular and our continuing luck of great sunrises stayed with us. A great last night for our 2 week journey and the end of this particular adventure.

05/12/2024

Sandstone Country pt10
The Expedition Range.
The Expedition Range – sounds like something Burke and Wills struggled over to discover wonders beyond belief. Or maybe it was Ludwig Leichardt. I had vaguely heard of the location only because of its association with a place called Robinson Gorge. We had a rendezvous with a local, more recent explorer at the roadhouse at Bauhinia who led us into the wilds of the sandstone gorge maze that is the Expedition Range. This is definitely a place I never would have been aware of or found my way in to without some local knowledge. The best part of 3 days was spent walking and rough driving to and through some amazing landscapes. Nearly tipped over the car at one point. And more “holes in the wall”.

01/12/2024

Sandstone Country pt 9
Lake Nuga Nuga
We temporarily departed the sandstone scene for a day. Our schedule meant a stopover somewhere between Carnarvon and our next stop. As luck would have it an ideal place turned out to be Lake Nuga Nuga. After a brief stopover at Lonesome National Park (great name) we arrived at the Lake which offered free camping despite being a national park. The lake is naturally occurring but believed to only have formed about 160 years ago which would explain all the dead trees. As luck would have it we had a perfect late afternoon and early morning for photography. As far as birdlife was concerned it was off the chart. So much to see. This is some of what we saw.

23/11/2024

Sandstone Country pt 8
The Mt Moffatt High Country
Our last 24 hours at Mt Moffatt was different again. At the apex of the loop road a side road diverts and menders quite steeply to over 1100m up to the “Roof of Queensland” or the “Home of the Rivers”. It certainly felt like the roof of Qld. A crisp, clear afternoon and it seemed you could see forever in all directions. An amazing campsite called unceremoniously the Rotary Shelter Shed had us rotating around in all directions trying to determine where to be for sunset. But before then we continued even steeper up the road to the more appropriately named Top Shelter Shed which really seemed to be top of the world. Many thanks to those with the foresight to pop facilities in stunning places. The road continued on through beautiful eucalypt woodland, through the tall Mahogany Forest to the end of the road near the headwaters of Carnarvon Ck. The next morning we awoke to more beautiful light, stunning scenery and a curious couple of emus just wandering around admiring the views. (and it would seem that I managed to post this twice!!)

23/11/2024

Sandstone Country pt 8
The Mt Moffatt High Country
Our last 24 hours at Mt Moffatt was different again. At the apex of the loop road a side road diverts and menders quite steeply up to the “Roof of Queensland” or the “Home of the Rivers”. It certainly felt like the roof of Qld. A crisp, clear afternoon and it seemed you could see forever in all directions. An amazing campsite called unceremoniously the Rotary Shelter Shed had us rotating around in all directions trying to determine where to be for sunset. But before then we continued even steeper up the road to the more appropriately named Top Shelter Shed which really seemed to be top of the world at around 1100m. Many thanks to those with the foresight to pop facilities in stunning places. The road continued on through beautiful eucalypt woodland, through the tall Mahogany Forest to the end of the road near the headwaters of Carnarvon Ck. The next morning we awoke to more beautiful light, stunning scenery and a curious couple of emus just wandering around admiring the views. (and it seems I managed to post this twice - sorry!)

20/11/2024

Sandstone Country pt 7
Marlong Plain
In our 2 weeks of travelling the central west 2 places stood out as very pleasant surprises. The first place was the Marlong Plain – and we nearly drove straight past it. Just a couple of kms off the Mt Moffatt circuit road we thought we would quickly check it out – nothing to lose. As soon as we arrived at the carpark at the end of the road in the late afternoon we knew we had stumbled across gold – almost literally as the late light lit up the golden grass plain. Here was a valley amidst sandstone escarpments covered in a golden grass with a little stream wandering through its centre. Something quite different to our expectations of the area. We also had our coldest morning of the trip waking up to frost over everything we left out. Even the freeze-dried coffee was extra dry now. As is the case with much of our photography it was the people in the picture that made the scene. Please excuse the large number of images – had a hard time leaving many good ones out.

18/11/2024

Sandstone Country pt 7
Mt Moffatt has a very user-friendly circuit drive of about 32 km which takes you past features and campgrounds. When we were there in June the camps were fairly empty and very nice. After checking out the Dargonelly campground we checked out Marlong Arch. I was quite excited to view this feature as I had seen lots of photos, however, probably because of the time of the day it was a bit of a struggle getting nice images. Similarly, we didn’t get lots of photos of Lot’s Wife – the next feature along the road but it was quite imposing just sticking out of the surrounding plain.

12/11/2024

Sandstone Country pt 6
Mt Moffatt
I had read some interesting things and saw some tasty pictures of what’s to be seen in the Mt Moffatt section of Carnarvon NP. It was the remotest part of the park but there seemed to be lots of interesting features close to the roads so we gave ourselves 3 nights there and we used every minute. Our first night was spent in the vicinity of features called the Looking Glass, Cathedral Rock, the Chimneys and the Tombs with the Maranoa River weaving in between. They were all great features but the Looking Glass was a sandstone arch that was a nice frame on the landscape. Cross-country exploration was scenic and easy and the moon was bright enough to indulge in some lunar landscapes until late in the night.

09/11/2024

Sandstone Country pt 5
Wills Grave
We had an afternoon spare so we explored some of the backroads near Springsure. We ended up following some signs that led us to “Wills Grave”. Not that Wills – another unlucky one. It seemed a remote and lonely place. The headstone says it all, but of course doesn’t tell the full sad story which you can find on google.

06/11/2024

Sandstone Country pt 4
The Minerva Hills
Before heading around to the other side of Carnarvon we needed to re-supply at Springsure which is a nice little town lying below the ramparts of the Minerva Hills. Prior to national park gazettal a road was pushed to some vantage points up in the hills with some basic camping and day visitor infrastructure. This place was a bucket list item for me so I was glad we had some time to spend there – waiting for our illustrious third member of our trio – Kerry Trapnell. Apart from the great views the countryside was amazing and the zamia palms competed for my attention after the bottle trees.

04/11/2024

Sandstone Country Part 3
Ka Ka Mundi
Next stop was KKM. I was told before we left by someone in the know that we could skip this spot but I couldn’t recall why so we tentatively put aside a couple of nights here. It seems that the main attraction for us landscape photographers was to be Mt Mooloolong. I’m sure with some determination we would find lots of other subjects but in the scheme of things we only spent one night roughly in the vicinity of the above peak. We climbed a nearby hill to get the lay of the land but in the end it became essentially a drone subject as it was going to be a rough walk in and you have to consider what would be achieved. So only a short post this one.

03/11/2024

Sandstone Country pt 2
Salvator Rosa
Carnarvon Nat Park is a “long” national park with chunks taken out where grazing has been the priority. This has created awkward accesses where you have to drive many (sometimes hundreds) kilometres to get to the various visitor nodes. So we methodically went from west to east then a long way around to Mt Moffatt. So we started off at the Salvator Rosa section which was a very good place to start. A nice campground with nobody else there for the first night and not far from the central feature of Spyglass Peak. This mountain with a hole in the top was the subject of many mornings and evenings. There were many other great features but it would take weeks and much walking to do them justice – however the drones helped us out here.

29/10/2024

Photoyarn 118
The Sandstone Country part 1
A few months ago I returned from an exceptional journey through Central Qld’s sandstone belt. We gave ourselves a tight 2 weeks to try and cover many of the wondrous features of this great part of the state. A lot of zig-zagging in and out of parts of Carnarvon National Park and some neighbouring ones. I’ll kick this series off with a theme rather than a location. A couple of subjects made an impression on me – Emus and Bottle trees. I’ve probably seen more cassowaries than emus so they were a bit of a novelty and a great subject being somewhat curious creatures and not worried about photogs creeping around with long lenses. And bottle trees are a symbol of the central west. Those that know me will know that I have an interest in trees and these particular subjects often stood proud in great locations and some great light.

Address

8 Kauri Close
Kuranda, QLD
4881

Telephone

+61408835160

Website

http://www.nqwildscapes.com/

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