Saturday 25 May continues...
After a quick tour of Cairns ('the best city in Australia' according to Steve) we met up with Steve's wife Tanya at the coffee shop where her daughter Lana was working. Next on the agenda was a picturesque drive north stopping at a few places including Port Douglas, where we had a drink while overlooking the surf and picked up some fresh prawns, and the Daintree River, which we had to cross by ferry. It was getting late by the time we reached our destination, Diwan near Cape Tribulation, so after I settled into my cabin we relaxed for a while before venturing out for a walk along Thornton Beach to see the full moon appear. Sadly sea swimming is not possible in the beautiful beaches here due to the presence of crocodiles and jellyfish.
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| Full moon on Thornton Beach |
Sunday morning was another early start and I went with Steve to the area where he is working on reforestation. Steve started by demonstrating poison spraying of sicklepod, a rather undesirable 'class 2' weed, before I tried my hand at tree planting and tractor driving - it was hard work but the sense of achievement in this tranquil environment made it rather relaxing! The evening saw the arrival of regular guests the cassowaries, adorable if not overly clever birds who often managed to fall over while racing around too quickly on the smooth floor.
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| Adult male cassowary with two chicks |
The following day (again a bank holiday in England but not here) I spent some more time planting trees. We also continued up Cape Tribulation road to take a look at Myall beach, accessed by a boardwalk over mangroves which, as it was low tide, offered views of reef at the edge of the sand.
On Tuesday I visited the local discovery centre which boasts walkways at various levels of the Daintree Rainforest. Sadly the only cassowaries I saw were walking away from the car as I headed out of the centre. In the evening some people came over for dinner resulting in my latest night in a while... Being in the tropics means there is not much variation in the daylight hours between summer and winter, and no twilight as day rapidly turns to night.
Wednesday was a bit rainy from the outset. Equipped with umbrella I braved a walk to a nearby wildlife enclosure where I managed to get closer to kangaroos than previously, and also saw plenty of captive varieties of snakes and colourful birds, as well as baby crocodiles.
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| Captive kangaroo |
On Thursday some 'visitors' (officials) from Canberra examined the place we had been planting trees to check how everything was progressing. I spent some time taking photos while they were there to document the day's events. Once this was out of the way we returned with the visitors to Diwan for an excellent platter put on by Tanya before relaxing for the evening.
Friday was also spent relaxing from the strenuous past few days; it was still a bit wet considering it was no longer the rainy season. Some time was passed with me being taught to use a shotgun (and succeeding in hitting a target at 20m first time), and introduced to small scale gin production!
The weekend saw me returning to work planting trees for the morning and early afternoon, before a chilled beer and some card games and scrabble. A most agreeable lifestyle.
Monday was an early start, journeying south past Cairns with a stop at Gordonvale for a breakfast pie and Garradunga for morning tea. We continued south to Innisfail to see a friend of Steve's who then took me flying over the local scenery in his 2 person plane. My take-off and flying were superb! From there we carried on to The Boulders, a place of natural beauty - one can swim in places, although daredevils also brave the white waters, often not ending well... After a hard day's work we moved on to Babinda pub for a drink before last stop Cairns and check-in to the lively Caravella hostel on the Esplanade.
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| Me in the driving seat! |
