The last report detailed our trip to The Tip of Australia and now we are two-thirds of the way back down the coast in Brisbane. We have had no more daunting 4x4 ordeals (well maybe one on Fraser Island beach with the tide coming in - more on that later) but soothing dark rainforests, platypus playing, sea turtles nesting and mutton birds moaning. And at least one adventure a day to keep the adrenalin flowing.

Our goal as we meandered south was to see the Great Barrier Reef and as many National Parks as possible. Australia has thousands of National Parks so we picked a few of the more spectacular ones.

High on my list was seeing a platypus - a primitive mammal that lays eggs, swims like an otter and has a rubber duck bill. It is incredibly shy and nocturnal. But in Eungella NP there are a few who venture forth along the banks of the Broken River by day. So we positioned ourselves on a bridge and waited, and waited. A glimpse we got - a platypus surfacing for a few seconds before plopping below the surface again, ploof! Tantalizing bubbles but then only a turtle. And so the hours passed. For two days we waited, in sun and rain, mostly rain, and all we have is maybe 15 quick snapshots. Platypus play hard to get.

Another goal was to see and photograph a wild cassowary, a large flightless bird as tall as an ostrich but with a bright blue wattle and a helmet of bone. This species is equally rare and elusive particularly during the breeding season when the male incubates and rears the young while the female goes off with another male to lay another clutch. [Why did these primitive birds get it right and when did the whole procedure get reversed?] We found several promising leads and we went to more parks and also waited in vain. We had to make due with a male incubating his clutch of huge aquamarine eggs in a reserve behind a fence - to protect us from his lethal claws. This father keeps all at bay with a "Go on, make my day" attitude. So we photographed this irascible bird from the safety of a high ladder behind the fence.

Then we decided to do it the easy way and headed out to Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef. A small island paradise. Heaven. Green sea turtles nesting by night on the sandy beach circling the island, scores of them. All you do is follow them quietly and wait until they start laying their eggs before pressing the shutter. No ladders, no ploof! -- a sea turtle is an accepting model for hour after hour.

During the day we had 80,000 nesting noddies as willing subjects. Each pistoa tree is festooned with nests, many at eye level. This sleek little brown sea bird with a silvery cap and bright beady eyes is totally concentrated on nesting, perched on its messy bundle of dried leaves. It is quite happy to watch people come and go within inches of its bill without the slightest ruffled feather - no ladders, no telephoto lenses needed!

After nightfall another mystery guest arrives or rather crashes clumsily to the ground. The wedge-tailed shearwater or mutton bird is a sea bird that nests underground, spending its days feeding at sea. It doesn't screech like a cockatoo or whistle like a robin, it moans and meows and chortles in such a suggestive manner that it has also been called the "orgasm bird". When you are surrounded by a few thousand mutton birds your dreams become more interesting, that is when you are sleeping and not cursing the racket.

We loved Heron Island and its scuba diving and magnificent coral reefs. The variety of its fish darting in and out of coral heads is astounding. This is when you understand the meaning of "biodiversity". There are so many more species of fish and coral here than in the Caribbean, each a new color and shape. It makes you want to grow gills to stay down longer and watch.

Nothing could top Heron but we had another island on the list: Fraser: the largest sandbar in the world and a Global Heritage Site. It is not a naked sand bar but a heavily forested island with rainforest and scrub, a succession of widely different habitats from swamp to towering hard wood trees that were probably around centuries before Captain Cook claimed Australia for the Crown. The 80-mile (140 km) long island is crisscrossed with narrow and deep sand tracks. It's 4x4 all the way. But the western shore of the island is an endless expanse of deserted beach - flat and hard, perfect for driving. We found what we came for: dingoes. This wild dog is closely related to the wolf, knife thin with a short red coat. One female had four cubs in tow, already gangly juveniles, racing after her through the dunes. They took little notice of us and were not aggressive or shy. Maybe we should send the platypus to Dingo Camp.

For those of you waiting for a Land Rover story here it is. When we left Fraser Island we zipped down the beach at low tide to catch the ferry. You have to calculate your dash exactly because at high tide there is no beach left, only sandy cliffs. We calculated right but as there are no signposts, so you just keep on going until you see a ferry in the distance. We kept on going for an hour and the tide kept on coming. The beach got narrower, the sand deeper, slower. The cliffs offered no escape route. Where was the #@*% ferry? Just as the ocean lapped at my wheels we saw a few jeeps lined up in a wider spot in the distance. The ferry picks up a handful of cars at a time directly off the beach - no ramp, no booth, no sign. Be there or swim. We made it.

We have loved these last few months of discoveries and adventures. Somehow we shot over 300 rolls of film in the process - not always of what we wanted but often of something new and unexpected.

We look forward to coming back in March and heading into the deserts of the interior where there are no platypus, no cassowaries, and no muttering mutton birds.