Advertisement
Published: December 1st 2009
Edit Blog Post
Tank Art Centre
I didn't take any photos of the actual pictures- I guess putting them up on the internet could get me into a whole heap of copyright related trouble Sorry about yesterdays mardy post about Cairns- I'd just gotten horribly scummy simply walking to the nearest shop to get a bite to eat and the experience put me in a pretty bad frame of mind.
Today I decided to use the hostels relative isolation to my advantage and popped over to the Flecker Botanical Gardens. These are quite a long way from most of Cairns... and quite close to where I'm staying. Also I felt that it would be good to actually go out and do something today. I thought when I arrived that I really needed a bit of relaxation time, just hanging around being lazy, but in fact all that did was make me bored and moody.
On the way to the Botanical Gardens I passed by the Tank Arts Centre, I went in to have a look and check directions and was a tad surprised to find it was still in the process of being put up. I mentioned this to the receptionist and she said I could go right on in and look at what there actually was. Well mostly it was an empty hall with a few pictures propped up against the wall.
Bush Turkey
Several of these running around and digging in the dirt I guess when completed the display will be some kind of spur to the social conscious, since the pictures were all arty posters on the theme of discrimination in it's various forms.
The Gardens were just up the road from the half-finished gallery so after grabbing some refreshments at the cafe I scooted around to have a look. There was a small area displaying plants used by the Aborigines in some way, each with a small plaque describing the plant and how the Aborigines eat the seeds and used the branches to beat up on kangaroos etc. This led onto a variously diverging and converging series of paths through the 'rainforest' with plaques describing the various, presumably non-useful plants. Some I assume were less useful to Aborigines because of their distribution in South America or Africa! I ambled along this, again it was quite short and I soon emerged onto a more park-like area of lawn bordered by various tropical plants, so I looped back to have peek into the Fern House and the Orchid House, which were pretty much as advertised.
After that was another tiny little walk through the 'Gondwanan Evolutionary Trail', planted out to include
Some kind of wasp?
Ha I can do macro photography! plants covering the origin of life to the most modern plants (flowers, basically). Actually that's a slight lie as there were some fossil stromatolites but I'm afraid no real ones, and I suppose I can assume there may have been some single celled blue-green algae (or cyanobacteria) lurking around being all microscopic, but I wouldn't say they were actually displayed. The 'Gondwanan' bit is because the trail naturally enough followed plants as they evolved in Australia (or what would become Australia anyway. Probably a palm tree from the Jurassic didn't go around saying “g'day mate”). And back in the day when the great continent of Pangaea, which included pretty much all the land, split in two, the bit that is known to geologists and their ilk as Gondwanaland included the future Australia. If memory serves, the other section (which includes future Wisbech) is known as Laurentia, but don't quote me on that (unless I've fluked being right, in which case, definitely quote me).
Anyhoo... that kind of finished off the Flecker Botanical Gardens, and rather quickly too. But next to it was the Mount Whitfield Conservation Park. Since all the stuff in the Botanical Gardens had been so quick
Rainforest
I saw a whole load of stuff like this today to do, and that was the main attraction (I hadn't heard ofMount Whitfield until I saw it signposted) I figured it would just be another quick walk.
Haha. Seriously boys and girls, don't go traipsing off into the rainforest without a map, on your own, and with no idea how far the walk is. If you do you are as “censored” stupid as me. Well alls well that ends well, but I got a wee bit worried after a while. It was all lovely at first, seeing all the trees and bush turkeys, and did have a real jungle feel to it. I even got to a lookout with a stunning view of the, uh, airport. After that was another trail leading in a downwards direction, which I assumed was the way down. Of course after a while it started going up again. It wasn't supposed to do that! In fact it went so far up, I got another look at the airport from a different part of the top of Mount Whitfield. But then it went down again, so I breathed a sigh of relief. This must be it. But then... up again! All the way to the top, again. I was beginning to feel like the Grand Old Duke of York. Gaaah.
Eventually of course I did get down, since I'm writing this blog about it. But really it took way longer than I was expected- I think I did a full loop around the mountain. The walk itself was OK and nothing I couldn't handle. I think I'm just a control freak; I don't like not knowing where I am or how far I have to go. It turns out it was 7.4km over very up-and-down terrain, estimated time 4-5 hours. That did give me a smug feeling- I'd done it in three. Hooray! And I'd even got back just in time to grab a drink from the cafe at the Botanical Gardens. I was very much in a state at that point, drenched in sweat and looking pretty flustered, and the lady at the cafe even commented on it and asked where I had been. “Did you do the blue arrow trail?” I confirmed that I had. “In this heat!” she exclaimed with a sorrowful look. “Yeah that's why I kind of really need this apple juice”.
But after apple juice it was time to go to the hostel for the most needed shower and change of clothes in the history of ever. And then of course to write all about it.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.111s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 14; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0573s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Agnes
non-member comment
wondering off on your own
Just a quick reminder, you know that you are not suppose wonder off on your own, don't you? I know that I am a worrying type, but I think this is just common sence honey. Just be careful. love agnes