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Published: April 9th 2011
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Magnetic Island, Australia
Fred and I hug a Koala Bear G'Day mates:
After saying goodbye to our Aussie friends we took the high speed catamaran ferry from Hamilton Island to the mainland, where we picked up our rental and headed north to Townsville. Enroute we drove past miles and miles of sugar cane, and I tried my hand at driving on the right side of the road. Here we parked the car and boarded our second CAT ferry for the day which took us to Magnetic Island for the night. WOW! a real bed after 9 days!!
The morning had us participating in a 2 hour wildlife experience in Koala Village where we received an educational presentation on the island's wild inhabitants, plus we were able to hold crocodiles; black cockatoos; snakes; lizards; plus the highlight was holding a Koalo Bear. After a bus tour of the island, we boarded the CAT for the return trip to the mainland to begin our trip into the outback. On route we crossed a mountain range and on the inland side (three hours into the outback) saw lots of wildlife such as exotic birds, and one fock of very large emu that stopped our progress as they were on the road; also saw numerous
Gregory Dev Road, Australia
The Emu run across the road herds of big ugly cows, and again some of these were wandering on the road; and cockatoos nesting. To top it off we were introduced to Road Trains which are transfer trucks hauling numerous trailers behind. Yes, they have the right of way!!
Arriving in Charters Towers for the night we visited a high lookout and we were greeted by wild wallabees. This area was very busy during WW II as an Australian fortification, and the old bunkers can still be observed. Many of the buildings in Charters Towers were built in the 1800's including our hotel -The Royal Private Hotel which is filled with anitques and lots of history.
After breakfast we headed to Cairns (over 500 km north). Travelling into the outback on rough and narrow roads (some times only a single lane) where we drove for hours without seeing even another vehicle - never mind any humans - other than road construction crews repairing flood areas that is. This road was also where we spotted our first large live kangroo(all the other's we've seen have been roadkill), along with more cattle and emu. The last part of the route was over Gillies Range... it was a one
Cape Tribulation, Australia
Sugar bananas, the bag colour tells when they need to be harvest. of the most challengeing roads I've driven on -extremely steep, winding through the mountain range, arriving in Carins just before dusk.
While in Cairns we will be staying with a close family friend my Dad grew up with, Gil Jennix. Gil has retired in Cairns after a long teaching career in Australia and works M-F as a volunteer in the local university library.
Next afternnoon the sun came out with temperatures around 28 with a high humidity, so we checked out a small part of the city on foot. This is where we had our first didgeridoo lesson, not as easy as it looks, but a lot of fun. Yes, a didge will be flying back to Canada with us.
Next morning we headed to the Daintree rainforest -Australia's largest and the world's oldest surviving stretch of tropical rainforest - for the night. The temperature on the drive up hit 32 C so this was our time to stop and check out the beach, Pebbly Beach didn't have much sand but was covered with smooth pebbles you could sit on. Actually Fred had a power snooze!!
Our next stop toward the rainforest was Mossman Gorge which had beautiful trails
into the lush rainforest and beautiful rivers/waterfalls. Then we took a ferry across the Daintree River heading to Cape Tribulation (named after Captain Hook's vessel hit a reef offshore in 1770) on a road with lots of curves and twists covered with thick mangrove trees and other tropical vegatation even moss grows on the road. You have to be careful swimming around here due to crocodiles everywhere. Our cabin was off the paved road and in the forest actually it was very rustic and hidden in the rainforest. That evening after a meal of grilled kangaroo (it was okay had a very different flavour), we did a guided night walk into the rainforest, it was amazing to see animals and plant life at night. We seen dragon lizards, fireflies, glowing wood, yup! you could use it to light your route. And some of the most unique trees we've ever seen.
OK, this is Fred cutting in... I can't get Sherry to walk the woods around our cottage after dark, and here she was tramping around a rainforest with only a dim flashlite !!
We woke the next morning to heavy rain, which did stop shortly after we headed on our
Cape Tribulation
Our rainforest night walk - Dragon Lizard drive back to the ferry. Along the route we bought rainforest tea, ate wonderful homemade ice cream and stopped at the lookouts we hadn't done on the way in. The sun came out again (30 C and at least 85% humidity) so we stopped at Pebbly Beach again for a break. yep, another snooze.
One thing that I've discovered there are no bad wines in Australia.(I've tried a few...).. and the Aussies do it right with a drive thru liquor store (Bottle Shop).
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Ruthanne
non-member comment
Koala; spider
Awwwww. Are they as soft as they look? And, re last post's spider...