exploring the Wet Tropics
Wait, how did it get to be Monday again? We got to my sister's last Tuesday and have been busily traipsing around North Queensland ever since. Today we've resolved not to get in the car at all - and in fact may not leave the property. Some highlights of the past week:
On Wednesday we swam across Lake Eacham (about 450m each way) and back and were not eaten by crocodiles. Afterward, we were serenaded by two guys with guitars and an excellent grasp of the 90s grunge catalog. Then we went to Lake Barrine (its sister lake - both formed by volcanic activity) and had a little nature walk on which we spotted a tooth-billed bower bird and a Boyd's Forest Dragon (see photos) before settling in for Devonshire tea overlooking the lake. We wrapped up that day's touring with a stop at the Opal Shop in Yungaburra and some cheese tasting at the Gallo Dairy (the Tablelands are daily country so there's heaps of awesome cheese and yogurt to be had).
Thursday was rainy but we ventured out anyway, further south this time to see Milaa Milaa falls. We arrived precisely as the heavens opened and dumped buckets of warm rain, so we ducked into a shelter to watch the raging falls and eat our PB&Js. There has been so much rain lately that the falls looked a bit like frothy cappuccino (but did not taste like it). From there it was off to another dairy - Mungalli this time, run by a crazy Swiss guy who said we should not get coffee because it's bad for you (despite the fact that his cafe sells it). We bought yogurt and cheesecake, then continued on to the Nerada tea plantation. Did you know that tea is grown in hedges? I didn't either. We got out of the car and it smelled like...tea! We each had a cuppa and fed a stale scone to a brush turkey who seemed to be a regular. After we got home, we took Riley (Marge and Bob's sweet pupppy dog) on a walk that involved a bunch of wildlife sightings: a water dragon, two pademelons (little wallabies), and a family of curlew among the highlights. And just to top off the day on a high note, we popped down to the river at sunset and were soon rewarded with the sight of not one but two platypus splashing about. Awesome!
On Friday we packed up the car with gear and food and dog and headed for Port Douglas, about 90 min away at the coast if you don't make stops. But why would we not make stops? Then we would not have tasted delicious liqueurs at the Mt Unkle distillery (great booze, horrible coffee), nor seen the gorgeous gardens and orchards at Bob's son's place (where the soil is so rich, you just stick a pineapple top in the ground and before long you have a tree!). David also kindly provided a quite drinkable coffee, to erase the abomination I'd tried to ingest earlier. By mid-afternoon we finally arrived at Port Douglas, where it managed to be even hotter and muggier than it had been in Cairns. We went immediately to the pool, where we found our friend Scott, who'd just arrived from the states and will be joining us on our dive trip later this week.
Port Douglas is in many ways a typical tropical resort town. There are many hotels and resorts, all named something like Palm Reef Cove Sun SplashTerrace. We stayed at Club Tropical, which is adequate and features a beautiful grotto pool and kitchens in the rooms. There are also many stores selling clothing imported from Thailand, although less schlocky than in, say, most of Hawaii. Every block features at least one coffee shop and one ice cream shop. Most are surprisingly good - we became quickly addicted to the gelato place, and are glad we didn't find the cake and coffee shop til we were leaving as I would have eaten every meal there and than exploded.
We had the obligatory overpriced cocktails at the bar overlooking the inlet, then had a really quite lovely meal at a place called 2 Fish. I had vanilla-cured ocean trout, which was unusual and heavenly. Scott had barramundi, and Shawn had nanagai, a tasty white-fleshed local fish. We alerted the staff to the fact that their background music was the same song playing over and over, which apparently had been happening since noon.
After a morning swim on Saturday, we three headed up to the Wildlife Habitat, a really wonderful nature preserve on the outskirts of town. With only a few exceptions (e.g., crocodiles and cassowaries), all the animals are roaming free - which means you've got tropical birds zooming around your head, and can feed the kangaroos and wallabies (and opportunistic ducks) by hand. You can pay to hold a koala or python or small crocodile, which we declined - but I did get to have a friendly pigeon hop onto my hand, leaving Shawn so stunned he forgot to get a photo. We did take plenty of photos, which will be posted shortly. I'll let them speak for themselves.
The heat got cranked up on Saturday and then even more on Sunday. I know this will not engender any sympathy from those of you watching it snow in Seattle and elsewhere, but....I finally found a place too hot and sticky for me. That place is Port Douglas in mid-January. It probably got up to about 90 degrees, with 95% humidity. All I wanted was iced coffee and immersion in cool water.
We finished up our stay there with some shopping at the Sunday craft markets, where we acquired some gifties for folks back home, and a quick drive up to see where Marge and Bob got married, overlooking the ocean. Then we got into our air-conditioned vehicle to make our way back to the relatively cool (although still sticky) tablelands. We stopped at Bruno's coffee plantation so that Marge and Bob could restock - Bruno being an 85-year-old Italian character who grows and roasts his own coffee. This process took close to an hour, as Bruno himself, at 85-year-old speeds, measured and ground and bagged several pounds of beams. I amused myself by befriending an adorable calico kitten which Shawn would not allow me to bring home no matter how prettily I pouted.
And now we are back in Malanda, for one day of yoga, reading and catching up on email before we head back to Cairns - and then to our dive trip!
On Wednesday we swam across Lake Eacham (about 450m each way) and back and were not eaten by crocodiles. Afterward, we were serenaded by two guys with guitars and an excellent grasp of the 90s grunge catalog. Then we went to Lake Barrine (its sister lake - both formed by volcanic activity) and had a little nature walk on which we spotted a tooth-billed bower bird and a Boyd's Forest Dragon (see photos) before settling in for Devonshire tea overlooking the lake. We wrapped up that day's touring with a stop at the Opal Shop in Yungaburra and some cheese tasting at the Gallo Dairy (the Tablelands are daily country so there's heaps of awesome cheese and yogurt to be had).
Thursday was rainy but we ventured out anyway, further south this time to see Milaa Milaa falls. We arrived precisely as the heavens opened and dumped buckets of warm rain, so we ducked into a shelter to watch the raging falls and eat our PB&Js. There has been so much rain lately that the falls looked a bit like frothy cappuccino (but did not taste like it). From there it was off to another dairy - Mungalli this time, run by a crazy Swiss guy who said we should not get coffee because it's bad for you (despite the fact that his cafe sells it). We bought yogurt and cheesecake, then continued on to the Nerada tea plantation. Did you know that tea is grown in hedges? I didn't either. We got out of the car and it smelled like...tea! We each had a cuppa and fed a stale scone to a brush turkey who seemed to be a regular. After we got home, we took Riley (Marge and Bob's sweet pupppy dog) on a walk that involved a bunch of wildlife sightings: a water dragon, two pademelons (little wallabies), and a family of curlew among the highlights. And just to top off the day on a high note, we popped down to the river at sunset and were soon rewarded with the sight of not one but two platypus splashing about. Awesome!
On Friday we packed up the car with gear and food and dog and headed for Port Douglas, about 90 min away at the coast if you don't make stops. But why would we not make stops? Then we would not have tasted delicious liqueurs at the Mt Unkle distillery (great booze, horrible coffee), nor seen the gorgeous gardens and orchards at Bob's son's place (where the soil is so rich, you just stick a pineapple top in the ground and before long you have a tree!). David also kindly provided a quite drinkable coffee, to erase the abomination I'd tried to ingest earlier. By mid-afternoon we finally arrived at Port Douglas, where it managed to be even hotter and muggier than it had been in Cairns. We went immediately to the pool, where we found our friend Scott, who'd just arrived from the states and will be joining us on our dive trip later this week.
Port Douglas is in many ways a typical tropical resort town. There are many hotels and resorts, all named something like Palm Reef Cove Sun SplashTerrace. We stayed at Club Tropical, which is adequate and features a beautiful grotto pool and kitchens in the rooms. There are also many stores selling clothing imported from Thailand, although less schlocky than in, say, most of Hawaii. Every block features at least one coffee shop and one ice cream shop. Most are surprisingly good - we became quickly addicted to the gelato place, and are glad we didn't find the cake and coffee shop til we were leaving as I would have eaten every meal there and than exploded.
We had the obligatory overpriced cocktails at the bar overlooking the inlet, then had a really quite lovely meal at a place called 2 Fish. I had vanilla-cured ocean trout, which was unusual and heavenly. Scott had barramundi, and Shawn had nanagai, a tasty white-fleshed local fish. We alerted the staff to the fact that their background music was the same song playing over and over, which apparently had been happening since noon.
After a morning swim on Saturday, we three headed up to the Wildlife Habitat, a really wonderful nature preserve on the outskirts of town. With only a few exceptions (e.g., crocodiles and cassowaries), all the animals are roaming free - which means you've got tropical birds zooming around your head, and can feed the kangaroos and wallabies (and opportunistic ducks) by hand. You can pay to hold a koala or python or small crocodile, which we declined - but I did get to have a friendly pigeon hop onto my hand, leaving Shawn so stunned he forgot to get a photo. We did take plenty of photos, which will be posted shortly. I'll let them speak for themselves.
The heat got cranked up on Saturday and then even more on Sunday. I know this will not engender any sympathy from those of you watching it snow in Seattle and elsewhere, but....I finally found a place too hot and sticky for me. That place is Port Douglas in mid-January. It probably got up to about 90 degrees, with 95% humidity. All I wanted was iced coffee and immersion in cool water.
We finished up our stay there with some shopping at the Sunday craft markets, where we acquired some gifties for folks back home, and a quick drive up to see where Marge and Bob got married, overlooking the ocean. Then we got into our air-conditioned vehicle to make our way back to the relatively cool (although still sticky) tablelands. We stopped at Bruno's coffee plantation so that Marge and Bob could restock - Bruno being an 85-year-old Italian character who grows and roasts his own coffee. This process took close to an hour, as Bruno himself, at 85-year-old speeds, measured and ground and bagged several pounds of beams. I amused myself by befriending an adorable calico kitten which Shawn would not allow me to bring home no matter how prettily I pouted.
And now we are back in Malanda, for one day of yoga, reading and catching up on email before we head back to Cairns - and then to our dive trip!