Took a quick flight to Cairns from Sydney on Tuesday. Cairns has a tropical climate, which means that you will shower 4 times per day. In addition to that, Cairns is the adventure capital of Australia. On Tuesday we wandered through the main part of town, showered, came back, showered again. Got sweaty while drying from the shower, and so on.
Wednesday morning we took a Billy Tea Tour through the Daintree Rainforest. The tour included a river boat croc spotting expedition…results: 2 crocs, several tree snakes, lots of British people. The river looked really cool, with thick Mangrove forests on each side, soaring rain forest mountains behind that and the fear of instant death if one of the 5 meter (that’s big!) crocs came for a visit.
After that we hiked through the rainforest, swam in a creek and went to the beach nearby. Australians have a way of expressing themselves, that is just so endearing. For example: “If anyone sees a giant bird with a blue neck. Don’t run, it is faster than you and will attack. Of course they are referring to the cassowary bird. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jB2QFmXUCo&feature=related
The highlight of the tour was hand feeding kangaroos. The kangaroos will hop around and jump on you to get the food. They walk on all fours most of the time, but when they stand up they are between 5 and 6 feet tall.
The next day we set out on the Reef Explorer to see the Great Barrier Reef. We went to two sites. The water is warm and clear, the fish are colorful and the reef is enormous. Beth tried scuba diving twice (which was amazing), which is the longest she has gone without pestering me about something. The individual reefs go on farther than you can swim in every direction. There are something like 2,300 reefs total.
The next day we went ATV riding through the Kuranda rainforest. ATVs are awesome. Beth hit a tree about 10 minutes in. (Beth: “I didn’t actually hit a tree. You are mean, don’t put this in.” ) See attached photo, you decide. Beth will claim that I knocked over a tree, but without any photographic proof, I cannot substantiate that claim. One of the benefits of carrying all the stuff around. We went 19KM including up and down hills and through several creeks and pools of mud. Wearing a white t-shirt is not a good idea. More Aussie folksie nature: “If you see a wild pig, don’t stop, it will chase you and eat your face.”
After that, since we were pretty revved up we decided to try the sport of Cable Skiing. See video....we looked mostly like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DdsBeS4v_4) Cable skiing is like water skiing, but in a track around a lake, with suspended cable, hence, Cable Skiing. Beth was an instant natural at the kneeboard and made it around several times. Richard experienced the joy of being flung (at 30kmh) into a murky lake. Three times. And that was enough cable skiing for him.
Saturday we went back to the reef. It was even better. I guess more fish are around on weekends. You couldn’t swim 2 meters without running into a school of hundreds or thousands of highlighter colored fish., it was like being in an aquarium. And tons more types of big colorful fish. Beth went diving again and saw 2 small sharks We saw a few rays, and a turtle swimming in between the reefs. We followed it for awhile, at one point swimming a foot or so away.
Now we're headed back to Sydney for 3 days and then cruising to South Australia and New Zealand.
If you’re still reading and not bored, here are some various notes about the trip:
-There are millions of bats in Cairns and they swarm every evening and fly inland. The locals seem to think this is not strange.
-Beth decided that she wanted to try Australian favorite, Vegemite, on her toast. Here is the conversation:
Beth: “I’m going to try some vegemite”
Richard: “It’s pretty gross”
Beth: “It can’t be that bad, if everyone here eats it.”
Richard: “Fine, go ahead”
Beth: [tries Vegemite]
Beth: “That’s horrible.”
Richard: “What did I say?”
Beth: “That is awful, this is the worst thing I‘ve ever tried.”
Richard: "Will you listen to me in the future?"
Beth: "Probably not"
- By the way, Cairns is oddly enough pronounced "Cannes" with the slightest barely detectable hint of an "r" in the middle - that apparently only Australians are able to say.
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