e and i arrived in cairns sat afternoon; isaac met us at station and we walked along esplanade to our cheap and lovely 2-bdrm apt in cairns north.
cairns is a neat little city! 120,000 people and a v popular tourist destination. mainly b/c the climate is so great. 2 seasons: hot/wet, and hot/dry. it's now hot/dry season. and it's lovely! finally we're warm! even at night when sun goes down. and it's so humid. yay! won't be needing my toque here =). city is right on ocean, so when tide is out it's miles of mudflat and thus awesome birding (and saltwater croc!) ops.
first night went for yum thai food at the banana leaf on the esplanade. next morn i went birding along water front. first time for shorebirds in a few months. saw the gorgeous red-capped plover here! and mangrove heron, great knot, and common greenshank.
spent the day buying dresses and chillaxing at the park listening to live hillbilly bands. delivery pizza for dinner and early to bed.
picked up hired car (christened by isaac as 'harry') at noon, headed north to port douglas. dougie is one of my fave towns yet! closest town to the great barrier reef and flanked by gorgeous daintree rainforest to the west and four mile beach and the Reef to the east. stayed 3 nights at lychee tree apts with the funny owner, rod.
hung out first evening and had tapas for dinnner. next day we spent the day snorkeling the Reef! booked tour with poseidon adventures, steamed 1.5 hr to agincourt ribbon reefs at the reef's edge (40 km from land). snorkeled 3 diff reefs. WOW. colours and diversity of corals and fishes was truly spectacular. mostly saw butterfly fishes, damselfishes, wrasses, parrotfish, and angelfish. saw small sharks (dogfish, i think) and green turtles. crazy. and a beauty beauty day, too. the crew said it was prob the nicest day of the year so far. usually windy and overcast in the arvo, but we had flat-ass calm and sun splitting the reef the whole day. definitely rivals the outback as one of the most stunning things i've ever seen. capped the day off with delish mexican dinner.
next day was another hot and sunny one. drove to mossman gorge in daintree nat'l park - the oldest rainforest on earth. mossman river was beauty and clear. gorge trails were under repairs, so unfortunately we didn't get to see much. harry felt like exploring northward, so we carried on to newell beach and lay in the sun for a while. back to dougie in late afternoon, went to lookout on hill in town, and had bbq salmon and salad for dinner. yum!
i went back to mossman early next morning for more birdwatching. overcast and showers, so not much to be seen.
we left port douglas for cape tribulation and the heart of daintree nat'l park. got to daintree visitor's centre at noon and spent few hours walking self-guided audio trails, incl canopy walk, 25 m high tower, and forest trails. good ops for seeing cassowaries! but none on this day. huge and gorgeous golden orb spiders everywhere! then drove north to cow bay beach and onto town of cape tribulation. lovely drive thru rainforest. still no cassowary sightings.
in daintree, we stayed 2 nights at the cow bay yha - our own huge private cabin on stilts in the rainforest. cool! first time been no cell reception or internet yet in aus. we're in the far north now baby! spent one morn on cape trib beach. had fancy dinner at whet resto in middle of jungle.
on return to cairns, made quick visit to mareeba, where outback meets eucalypt and rainforest. not much here, aboriginal community. hot hot here. had nina's kebabs and visited tichum creek coffee farm. had delish coffees in the garden. the owner, italian-aus mario, was so kind. picked ripe coffee beans for us to eat. v sweet and gooey. and gave us milk and dark choc-covered beans for free.
carried on to atherton, nice little town in heart of atherton tablelands. yummy khan's curries for dinner, e and isaac early run over in the park by intoxicated juv delinquent running (on foot) from the law. ha! nwatched the hilarious eurovision on tele - europe-wide star search featuring weird and varied acts. we voted for slovenia b/c of their rock accordion. they didn't make the cut.
next morning i drove to yungaburra and curtain fig nat'l park for last-ditch effort at seeing wompoo fruit dove. no luck =(. but the curtain fig was massive! and got 3 other lifers. realized while birding that our flight to singapore was actually the next day and not 2 days away like we had thought! e3on way back to cairns, we stopped at crater lakes nat'l park. few more lifers here, nice lake. cairns at noon. returned car, erin and i strolled around, byo thai for dinner, stayed at yha. morning flight to singapore!!!
can't believe our time in aus is over! we really love it here. 2 mths def not enough. so much more to see and do. and the people are so so lovely. we'll be back i think!!
1st photo is flying over far north queensland
2nd photo is croc warning signs, daintree np
3rd photo is clam and coral on great barrier reef
4th photo is fish at g.b.r.
