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Published: January 31st 2013
We seem to be on the track for smaller planes as when we board the plane at the Hamilton Island airport for Cairns, we notice these big long spokes hanging off the engine - it's a Bombadier prop jet. The flight up the Queensland coast is gorgeous and the benefit of the plane is that it flies at a lower altitude so we can see the reefs poking up through the aquamarine sea below us. We had chatted with a Qantas flight attendant aboard the hop on hop off bus in Singapore and he recommended window seats on the left side of the plane so, taking his advice, we had a breathtaking flight. All this in preparation for our next breathtaking experience - driving on the other side of the road.
The very nice Aussie at the Budget counter assured us that we should have "No worries" about driving but he did draw us a map of how to drive the roundabouts, which seem to be the traffic engineer's dream here. I bravely start out, telling Steve he could yell "Curb" anytime it seemed as if we were about to collide with the left hand side of the
Leona and Bob
Our wonderful hosts at Frangipani B&B in Port Douglasroad, and at the first turn promptly turn on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal. We encounter the first roundabout shortly after getting on the Captain Cook Highway, heading north to Port Douglas, and I creep into the far left lane, while trying to spy out the speeding traffic from the right, while at the same time whirling through the circle and trying to read the signs for all the exits, with Steve's help...all while praying to whatever gods protect crazy American tourists trying to drive on the "wrong" side of the road and clutching the steering wheel so hard there are ridges on my fingers and then, whoosh, you're out the other side. Repeat 8 more times... Actually, the Captain Cook Highway is a beautiful two lane road, once you exit the environs of Cairns, hugging the coastline north, with views out over the Coral Sea and the Great Barrier Reef. We know we're in for a spectacular couple of days.
We like to change up our accommodations on long trips so we're in a lovely B&B in Port Douglas, Frangipani B&B, run by Leona and Bob Brown. It's a tropical villa, where the
Frangipani B&B
Breakfast doesn't get better than this. indoors meets the outdoors, and we relax into its gracious hospitality. Bob and Leona can't do enough for us, from loads of laundry to backing the car out of the driveway - I'm not strong on backing up statewide and wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole here. Leona has become our own personal travel agent, finding a snorkel only boat trip to the Great Barrier Reef for us, as well as a rainforest expedition, making dinner reservations, and even recommendations for a good Italian restaurant in Melbourne, their former home town. Bob is a retired CPA and he and Steve have long breakfast table conversations about the economy, politics, media, and all else. Steve's favorite new piece of info about Australia is about the baby bounty - all parents are given $5,000 whenever they pop out a new one - lots of unanticipated results here. One of the pleasures of staying in a B&B is getting to know your hosts and Bob and Leona are just the best. As Bob wryly noted "We moved up here a couple of years ago to retire and Leona got bored so all of a sudden we're running this B&B." Breakfast is
Boyd's Forest Dragon
Truly looks prehistoric - at Mossman Gorge a cornucopia of tropical fruits, and we're introduced to dragon fruit and passion tree fruit, and the apricot jam made by the 85 year old lady in town. Steve is immediately at home since there are individual little French press coffee makers at breakfast - we are informed that they are called plungers here and after we stop laughing, we tell Leona and Bob that the term plunger has a significantly different meaning back home.
Daintree National Park is one of the reasons we came here to experience the tropical rainforest and learn about the ancient growths and fascinating animal life. Steve and I had both read Bill Bryson's "A Sunburned Country", in which he takes great delight in stories of all the things that are poisonous, venomous, vicious, or otherwise out to kill you and this neck of the woods was one of his favorites. We spent the day with our guide Rob from Tony's Tropical Tours and he was great - knowledgeable, funny, and made a great cup of French press coffee for "elevenses". We start at Mossman Gorge and walk through a millennia old rain forest with the Mossman River racing through the gorge,
thanks to the recent rains. Rob points out a Boyd's Forest Dragon, a small prehistoric looking creature hugging a tree, which runs on its back legs, replete with long dangerous looking claws. One of the most interesting trees is the curare tree, which produces a poison that can paralyze you in 4 seconds, and an extract of which is used in modern surgery. We had hoped to see a cassowary, the large emu-like flightless bird but the closest we came was some cassowary poo on the trail and lots of road signs warning motorists to be careful of cassowary crossings - put there, I'm assuming, as an example of hope over reality, to ease the tourists. Off to a boat ride on the Mossman River to spy out crocodiles but the only ones we see are juveniles resting in the sun. The female croc will lay up to 70 eggs, about 20 will hatch, and at the end of 12 months only 1-2 will still be alive - talk about survival of the fittest! We continue driving north up the Queensland coast, stopping at gorgeous beaches, and then back into the rain forest to take a hike at Noah Creek.
Noah's Creek, Daintree
Having fun after lunch - a bit too fast for us - we just cooled our toes in the water. Interestingly enough, much of Daintree National Forest is in private ownership, but there is no power or telecommunications throughout - quintessential living off the grid - lots of 60's looking cafes and camp grounds looking like hippie heaven. The locals like to fool with the road signs - one of our favorite examples is the ONE LANE sign transformed into ONE PLANET - bet they're good at Scrabble here too... Noah Creek is privately owned rainforest and the owner makes his living letting tourists hike the land and swim in his creek. The hike is fascinating - strangling figs wrapping their vines around and killing century old trees from the top, the heart shaped stinging tree leaf which will kill in a very painful manner if you touch it, black palm, a unusually hard wood tree used by the aborigines for spears, and gorgeous tall rose mahogany. Rob thinks he sees a red bellied black snake, which he tells us is one of the most venomous snakes around but, no worries, it doesn't like to fight. After a great BBQ lunch, replete with damper - yes, I had to ask also, it's outback bread cooked over an open fire -
there's swimming in the creek but since the stream is running high and fast due to the recent rains, Steve and I just cool our feet in the raging waters. Daintree is one of only two places in the world where the rainforest meets the reef - give yourself a reward if you know the other - and it is an eerie walk through the canopied forest to suddenly burst out onto a sunlight beach. On the way back in the afternoon, we stop at the Daintree Ice Cream Company, and we can both confidently say it is the most amazing ice cream we have ever had. Ever try wattle seed ice cream - it tastes like a combination of coffee and hazelnut. In the middle of nowhere this little place grows all its tropical fruits and every day makes four different types of ice cream - whatever the spirit moves them to, apparently. Steve, of course, wants to figure out how to bring this stuff home.
After our abortive sailing experience in the Whitsundays, we deserve a great day snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef and did we ever get one the next day. Thanks to
Great Barrier Reef
Relaxing on the way out to the reef Leona, we sail with Wavelength, a small snorkel only boat, with a great laid back crew and nice group of a couple dozen enthusiastic passengers. It is a glorious day - and also Australia Day, the country's national holiday similar to our Fourth of July - and so we're just a happy boatload. Clear blue sky, warm breezes, calm seas, and we're off for a spectacular day. It takes about 90 minutes to get out to the reef and once there we suit up in our full body stinger suits - and I do mean full body, including mittens over our fingers and hoodies on our heads - don our fins, masks and snorkels and jump in the warm, clear water of Opal Reef. How to describe the undersea world - almost impossible. We've all seen the films, the photos, Nemo but it still doesn't do it justice. Steve and I are just mesmerized and it seems like just minutes when they tell us to get back to the boat since it has been an hour already. We're relieved when they very carefully check you back in on the boat - one of Bryson's more hair-raising stories was about the
Mr. Snorkel
Full body stinger suits - they weren't kidding! couple who were left on a reef by their boat and were never heard from or seen again - that defines missing the boat. My trusty waterproof camera gets a workout but I can barely turn around without snapping another photo. The iridescent fishes darting by in schools, with larger brilliant colored ones grazing by on the coral. So many types and colors of coral you nearly get blasé about them. The angel fish swimming by in pairs - they mate for life and when one dies, the other one will die within the month. We move on to another site on Opal Reef and the two female crew, both of whom have marine biology degrees from university, take us on guided snorkeling tours. Suz, a laughing, funny Kiwi, dives down and retrieves a piece of mushroom coral which she tells us about, as we watch mucus develop and begin to drip off the coral. It's the perfect natural sunscreen and is in the process of being developed by Swedish scientists and will be on the market within a couple of years - goodbye sunburn and melanoma. The reef is a very androgynous place - 40% of the species can
GBR
So many fish, so little time change sex. Apparently one male fish can not only turn itself into a female but it can store its own sperm and fertilize its own eggs - now that's efficient! By now we're all so excited and exhausted, except for the the three woman who succumbed to nasty seasickness, that they have to haul us forcefully back onto the boat for a delicious lunch. During lunch, Emma, the other marine biologist, gives an excellent talk about the reef, the challenges it faces today, and the life cycle of the corals and the marine life. One of our favorite factoids is that 90% of sand is actually fish poop, excreted when they swallow coral and digest it. Just remember that the next time you're sitting on that lovely beach. After lunch we motor over to Tongue Reef, where the big guys hang out. We see a giant clam, white tip reef shark, giant marine turtle with eels clinging to its back, and a humphead parrot fish, the largest of the species. By now we're exhausted and lean back and relax on the ride back in, basking in the late afternoon sunshine and memories of a truly incredible day. Our compatriots on
Natural sunscreen
Suz, the marine biologist, showing us the coral mucus which acts as a natural sunscreen. the boat have been a great mixed group - Dennis, the crayfisherman from South Australia, who engaged Steve in Aussie small talk - beer, politics, laughter - and said confidently that he was sure that in all our travels throughout the country that we'd never meet anyone who had anything good to say about their Prime Minister. So far he's been right....
Port Douglas is a small beach town, one main street filled with beachwear shops, restaurants and pubs, thriving on the tourist industry. It's the wet tropics and we now understand what that means - hot, steamy, torrential tropical downpours, everyone wearing beachwear and flip flops (I think they qualify as the official Australian footwear) everywhere, wring yourself out type of a climate. Best meal was at the century old wooden two story old hotel with the sidewalk pub - you can't beat a great wagyu burger and local brew after a long day on the water. We've enjoyed our time here - didn't know what to expect so it beat all expectations. Our wonderful hosts, Bob and Leona, at the Frangipani B&B, helped make our time here particularly wonderful. Now off to the Red Centre,
to explore the outback and Ayers Rock but...OH NO...we have to survive those 9 roundabouts again on the drive back to the Cairns airport - wish us luck.
For those who have been wracking their brains out about the only other country where the rainforest meets the reef, it's Costa Rica. You're just a smarty pants if you knew....
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leona
non-member comment
Port Douglas
Thankyou for your wonderful comments and we found reading your blog very interesting and so pleased you enjoyed your stay with us and also Port Douglas. (Bob said Jane the "jam" lady is only 75, just incase she reads this, I guess numbers matter at that age, ha ha.!!). Have a wonderful trip. x