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Published: February 8th 2007
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A Golden Orb Weaver
Our guide through the Daintree rainforest told us that this one (as big as my hand) is small - they usually are 4 times this size. After a short flight from Alice Springs we arrived to what felt like 90% humidity in Cairns. We were staying at Cairns Central YHA and were pleased to see it was the most 'resort' like hostel so far, a pool, spa, huge restaurant-like kitchen and even a hairdryer in the ladies made it all worth the extra few dollars compared to our previous nights stay.
Cairns sits in Northern Queensland and its currently the wet season up here, meaning the plant life is luscious and green much like you would expect from any tropical holiday destination, a stark contrast to the desert we had left at Uluru. The city is fairly small and after a quick browse through the guidebook and local information we decided the only thing we really wanted to check out was the esplanade. The day after we arrived we headed down, the esplanade would have made a good walk (about 3km) had it not been for the grey clouds rolling in! With no beach to speak of the man made lagoon beside it gives tourists the ability to swim and get some sun, it was here that we bumped into Matt and Dawn (who are also
Once a Twitcher....
We were beggining to resign ourselves to the fact that this was as close to a real Cassowary as we would get... from Milton Keynes and we had originally bumped into in Thailand) along with a Scottish couple (Lauren and Ian). We ended up spending our second and final night with the four of them, drinking cheap wine and catching up on what we had been up to since we last met.
The following day was 'Campervan Saturday' and after being picked up by Bill from the company we were hiring from he drove us to the depot and introduced us to Martha (a.k.a a Toyota Hiace and home for the next 5 weeks).
Before we had arrived in Cairns loads of people had spoken to us about Cape Tribulation, we had never heard of it but with so many recommendations had decided to make it stop number 1, a good job really as flooding had closed the road south of Cairns.
We hadn't been in the van long when the rain began to pour, I camped quite a bit as a child and to me there are three sounds that mean you are camping;
- Clanking of tin cups and plates
- Zipping of tents/sleeping bags
- Rain on a metal roof
After a
Something to tell the grand kids
If things continue as they are, the 1,200 Casowaries left will go the same way as the Dodo. Pretty special sight after 3 days of looking for one. rainy night in Port Douglas followed by a ferry crossing to Daintree (where I saw a toad nearly as big as my head in the toilets), and then a rainy night in Cape Tribulation we were beginning to understand why they call it a rainforest. On our second wake up in Martha we were pleased to see blue skies and headed off towards the Cape Tribulation lookout about 2.5km away, passing loads of wildlife along the way including a monitor lizard. Predicatably at the furthest point from shelter the heavens opened and by the time we had made it back to camp even my underwear was soaked. The realisation that we had left the van windows open meaning the chairs (which at night become our beds) did little to improve our moods.
Cape Tribulation is one of the few places on earth where the rainforest meets the sea (in this case the Great Barrier Reef) and it's pretty awe inspiring. In an attempt to learn more about the wildlife in this area we visited Daintree Discovery Centre where a giant walkway (at points 27m above the ground) winds through the rainforest. Here we learnt about the Cassowary, this huge
"lets not go any further"
Our walk along Cape Trib beach was cut short by a small creek that we didnt fancy wading through bird is a relative of the ostrich and considered fairly aggressive, its numbers are diminishing and at currently just over 1,000 left spotting one is quite rare; the closest we got at the Discovery Centre was a lifesize model.
We also took part in a guided nightwalk around part of the rainforest. 10 of us along with our guide Tony, originally from Kent, set off around 8pm all armed with huge flashlights and plenty of mozzie spray. Matt was first to spot something with the gruesome looking Huntsman spider and after that we saw water dragons, boyds forest dreagon, huge crickets, a golden orb spider and others, but thankfully none of the snakes that live there (Tony told us that 19 of the 23 world's deadliest snakes live in Australia and numbers 2-9 are in the Cape Tribulation rainforest). After 2 hours, and one point where all of our torches were off for a good 5 minutes whilst Tony spoke to us, we headed off to the river to catch a glimpse of a crocodile, they are fairly common here and signs everywhere warn against swimming due to the risk of attack, unfortunately we didn't see one.
Upon
Martha heads North
The landscape as you approach Australias Wet Tropics is pretty spectacular, but no match for martha leaving Cape Tribulation we were discussing what a shame it was not to have seen a crocodile or Cassowary when a car at the side of the road with its hazards on alerted us to one of the giant birds at the side. Seeing one in the flesh was fantastic though they are pretty odd looking; about 6ft tall with synthetic looking black feathers, a hanging bit of skin like a turkey has and a piece of crown like skin on its head making it look very prehistoric. We watched it for a while from the safety of the van, whilst I took pictures out of the window, Matt sat poised to accelerate in case it got too close for comfort.
Our next stop is a town called Mareeba where the outback meets the rainforest (or so the guidebook says) I imagined a desolate place with no shops etc, we decided to stock up on vital supplies at Woolworths (a supermarket chain in Australia) en route only to arrive and find a bustling town which even had a KFC! The signs welcoming us into town proclaimed it has 300 sunny days per year, we obviously arrived on one of
How to make 'Ear Scones'
wake in the middle of the night from the noise of heavy rain. Remove 2 corners of a slice of bread and eat remainder (midnight snack). Insert in ears. Awake 8 hours later and remove, eat warm for breakfast, maybe with some 'nose jam' the remaining 65.
We made our way to Mareeba's Granite Gorge where cheap camping was available. The gorge, surprisingly, features huge granite rocks as well as cascades of water, wild rock wallabys which can be hand fed (though we were both scared of them), some caged exotic birds and a fairly mad caretaker/owner called Collette. That night was the night that the novelty of camping wore off; the rain was so heavy all through the night that in the absence of ear plugs Matt ended up stuffing his ears with bread to be able to sleep.
In the morning the rain continued and we eventually decided to head back to Cairns stopping at 'Barron Falls' along the way. They were pretty spectacular and reminded us of why we picked a campervan; the ability to stop where we want and see things we might not otherwise see.
We face a few problems with our trip south many roads are still closed as a result of flooding so we may have to sit tight for a few days, hopefully the next blog won't be Cairns Part 2.
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Chris-top-her
non-member comment
Carla you didn't have to ring NHS direct again after Matt had put the bread in his ears did you? Glad you guys are enjoying it despite the rain. Speak to you and SEE you soon!!!