Cairns / Port Douglas (Aussie Rainforest Country) & a Fond Farewell

Thus far our trip has been rarely North of the 25 degrees C (75F) line. Our time in the Australian Tropics of Cairns and Port Douglas was mostly governed by how long we could manage being away from air conditioning. The average temperature was a reasonable 33 degrees C (90F) but with a fare bit of stagnant humidity. We're fair weather folks and we melt easily. Our pending two month stay in Southeast Asia ought to be fun...

The Northeast coast of Australia is defined by two world heritage environments, the Daintree Rainforest, and The Great Barrier Reef. We had to experience both.

Nov 28: Tjapukai Aboriginal Culture Center
We spent our first afternoon at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Culture Center to learn about the indigenous people of Australia. The center provided an opportunity to experience the dreamtime story (mythical origin of the local tribe), see some traditional dancing, throw some spears and boomerangs, learn about local forest plants, and a quick tutorial on how to play the digeridoo. Unfortunately it didn't really live up to our expectations as we were shuttled around from activity to activity without the ability to spend much quality time where we wanted. The staff all seemed so tired and bored of the same schtick over and over again. If it was set up more like the Lofotr Viking Museum in Lofoten (see earlier blog), it would have been much better.

It's all in the wrist. Hold it at 1 O'Clock. Wind in your left ear. 

Quite the marksman

Evening Haircut. House didn't have a standard size chair, but it did have a yoga ball. Nicole has become quite the mobile barber.

Nov 29: Kuranda
Just up the hill from Cairns is a small touristy village nestled in the rainforest called Kuranda. Not unlike our previous scenic railway trip to Flam in Norway, we elected to take the scenic train up the mountain with a pit stop at waterfall. The village is your typical tourist mecca with trinkity shops and overpriced food concessions. We went to an impressive butterfly sanctuary. Instead of taking the train back down, we hopped on the Skyrail for a gondala ride across the rainforest canopy.

Cool covered market

This is a traveling Didgeridoo.  It sounds just like a standard one. 

Real live corsage. 

This is how we save money. Combine an attraction with bag lunches. 

Bryce questions my motivations sometimes.

Nov 30: Josephine Falls
We packed up our things to relocate to Port Douglas, a town about 1 hour north and the place where most of the Great Barrier Reef tours emanate. Instead of heading north, we went 1hr in the opposite direction to a natural swimming hole and waterfall called Josephine Falls. The main draw is the natural rock waterslide. We had two firsts on our way out. Three feet off the trail sat a 6ft python out for a suntan. Never seen a snake like that in the wild. And Zane had a leech to remove from his ankle.

Out for a sun tan.

Dec 1: The Great Barrier Reef
They don't call it "Great" for nothing. We booked a day out in the outer reef with a company called Poseidon, which gave us an opportunity to snorkel at three different locations. I also took an opportunity to do my first scuba diving ever. There will be more of that in my future. It was fortunate that we already had a couple snorkeling events under the boys belts so they were able to really participate and take it all in. We had great conditions and very clear water. The past couple years saw some serious coral bleaching, but the conditions this year have brought all the color back (the tour biologist was very happy with how things have come back so well).

We look like super heroes in our stinger suits. (protection from the sun, and the jellies)

All suited up for my first scuba adventure

2,400km of this...

Autumn's first attempt at free diving. Did quite well.

To look at this monster of a clam. 

Bonus points for anyone that can identify this monster that started lunging at me. Little did I know (because my scuba orientation neglected to inform me of this), this is a trigger fish.... the one fish they tell you not to get near in the GBR. It's breeding season and this fish was protecting his clutch. I thought, 'huh, this is curious behavior. Why does it keep swimming at me in a menacing way? Perhaps I'll get closer to see.' I decided I would leave it alone when I could see the whites of it's eyes, and fortunately it decided not to follow. They've been known to chomp on divers all the way back to the boat.

Nemo! Well sort of. It's an imitation knock off. I guess Pixar has single-handedly put the actual clown fish on the endangered list from all the people that have decided they needed their own Nemo. 

Dec 2: Daintree Tour
With the reef under our belt, it was time to explore the Daintree. We joined a morning tour that included a one hour crocodile spotting cruise along a river and a stop at a hidden waterfall called cassowary falls. Again, the tour itself was a bit of a disappointment, but we particularly enjoyed listening to our lovely tour guide, Gemma. She must have had an aversion to silence, and was able to sustain a nearly continuous flow of sweet and soft dialog about everything we saw, yet at the same time, about nothing in particular. If she wore an afro wig, a white collared long sleeve shirt, blue jeans, and had a set of brushes, she would have been the Aussie equivalent of Bob Ross.

Gemma could dance that delicate line of lulling you to sleep and keeping you entertained at the same time.  She would emit sweet little chuckles when she amused herself and would drop in subtle opinions about random things. For instance, when asked by folks if it upset her that the cane trains (it's sugar cane land and there are baby trains that pull containers of harvested cane) drove past her house... "Oh, not really. They're like little toy trains. I quite like them."  And when folks complain about the smell of the local sugar mill... "Nah, smells like burnt caramel or treacle. I think it's quite alright."

Pics of the crocodile spotting cruise....

The high tide (it's brackish water and affected by the ocean tides) covered up all the river banks and made for uneventful crocodile spotting. 

The lack of interesting wildlife, coupled with an inability to understand our marble mouthed river boat guide, left us and the other guests contemplating our navels and picking our toenails. 

At least this bird was pretty cool. And rare. At least that's what I think our guide said. I took this picture in case it was something notable.

The fun portion of the tour happened in this tattered old 4x4 reminiscent of our Serengeti days.

Roofless. Just noticed... Gemma, our petite tour guide, is at the wheel. This was not, even though we felt otherwise, the Indian Jones ride at Disneyland. 

Cassowary Falls. Gemma is chumming the waters with the boys for fish

Hill-Billy hand-fishing. 

 

Imported cows from India. Curious little things.

Dec 3: Port Douglas
The humidity was starting to win the battle and began to make decisions on our behalf. Our initial plans to venture out on another Aboriginal tour were tossed aside in favor of a quick trip to the local food and artisan street market and a return trip to swim in the motel pool. This also afforded enough time for Autumn to finish her first semester of school!!!! Woot woot!!!

Our kids spent an incredible amount of time in this little pool at our apartment. Nothing like averting humidity with full water immersion.

Our apartment had wretched WiFi (advertised as Free! But ended up being one hour per day). So we camped out at the Dave's Takeout Shop for about two hours to catch up on things. I guess I shouldn't be so judgmental when we scoff at  those awful people at restaurants with their entire family glued to a device. Maybe they don't have wifi at home and they are on a one year trip around the world. 

Hate to say it, but passing wind is a bit of an issue on our trip. 

Geckos are really darn cool. Have you ever seen them hunt and snatch unsuspecting flies swarming around a light bulb? Fascinating. 

This is where you store food in the tropics to prevent ant invasions.

Street fare. Pretty cool stuff.

Anyone care for a swim? The water is a perfect 80 degrees.

Let it be known that we did not harm any creatures in the making of this blog. I will say that we left with Richard still alive and entombed. His fate is up to the landlord. 

Dec 4: Hartley's Crocodiles and the strangest motel experience of the trip
Given the fact that our crocodile spotting river cruise did not spot the animal of the tour's namesake, we visited Hartley's Crocodiles Adventures to ensure we did not leave without getting our primitive animal fix. This was surprisingly worth the time and expense. Most curious fact... They are farming Crocs (ie breeding and hand raising crocodiles) so that they can flood the market with inexpensive, yet authentic crocodile skins, and undermine the black market.

This was kind of cool. During the croc feeding show, they did an authentic egg nest raid. This is where they wrangle the momma croc, then take the 50 or so eggs from the nest that happened to be in the feeding area. They then incubate the eggs for eventual harvesting. It looked dangerous.

They're really quite scary from close up.

The commercialization and farming of crocs has increased the wild population of crocodiles and removed them from the endangered species list. 

They let you feed the crocs - the friendly ones.

These are the 'freshies', not the 'salties'. Apparently you can swim with these ones and they won't do you any harm. Aussies are a tough bunch.

Hartley's had some other animals too....

The flightless Cassowary. Endangered species. 

It's feeding time for these odd birds. 

Don't you just feel like doing this sometimes?

No idea what this bird was...

They charge $30 to take a picture with a Koala. This was free. 

Our final night in Australia was one to remember. Not unlike our final night in Sydney, we booked a cheap one night stay at a hotel near the airport for an early departure. Unlike the dormitory size room we had in Sydney, our room in Cairns was quite large and was a converted exercise and changing room for the adjacent pool. As night fell, a torrential downpour of biblical proportions hit us, and we found ourselves using towels to dam the flood that was oozing in from a mystery locked closet. Our call to the motel manager solicited this response, "Well... Is it a lot of water?". Needless to say, our call for action was unheeded. Thankfully the skies had rung themselves dry in the next hour, and our room pond began it's slow unseen ascent up the walls. Oh well, we tried.

Fortunately the rain subsided. We started running out of towels. 

How awesome is this remote control for the TV? What more do you really need?

We walked out of dinner to this.... 45 minutes of a constant stream of large fruit bats heading out for a night of foraging. 

But let's not let our final night diminish our Aussie adventures. It was, and shall remain, an absolutely wonderful country with down to earth people, oddball animals, and captivating landscapes. ☺️


Just some random photos...

Bryce's absolute favorite food on this trip... Cup O Noodle. This counter blew his mind at the Whitsunday Airport. 

"The Bear That's Aware" has joined us for December. This also blew Bryce's mind. 

Next stop, New Zealand.

Cheers!