In tropical
Queensland sunrise is at 5:30 am and sunset is at 6:30 pm. We've
been getting up pretty early, usually right around sunrise. Since
the partiers had only gotten to bed, I was very careful not to make
too much noise setting up our clanging gas stove and clunking gas
cylinder and yelling at Diana asking to bring the oatmeal and orange
juice over to the table. I mean, you don't want to wake the poor,
hungover, dears up too soon, do you? We had a little help in our
quieting scheme when park workers came through to empty trash bins
and clean up the mess the youngster had made. And even more
considerately, a big road work truck with four burly workers (the one
woman crew member was the burliest) stopped by for their break, and
we carried on a conversation comparing aspects of Aussie and Yank
life, of course in hushed tones to allow the babies to sleep.
I guess we weren't
'quiet' enough, because before long bedraggled and droopy kids
started pulling themselves out of tents and cars and gathered up
their stuff. Diana and I went down to the swimming hole for a quick
dip in the (croc free) river and upon our return greeted a very
blood-shot eyed young man dragging himself to the bathroom. Yeah, I
think they had a great time the night before.
More annoying than
the late night partiers were the March flies. We were happy to leave
the Outback flies behind somewhere in the Barkly's a couple weeks
ago. No more constantly waving your hand in front of your face to
shoo them away or counting them by the dozens on your partner's back.
But that morning we contended with March flies, a kind of small horsefly that will take a bite out of you if given a chance.
Faithful readers will remember our encounter with them early October
in Port Lincoln NP. Well, they were worse here. Before the day was
over I had killed 35, and had been bitten at least six times. But
I'll take them any day over the Outback flies. And their range has
so far been very limited. For the most part we haven't had any bug
problems in Queensland, no mosquitoes, no sandflies, surprising
considering it's a tropical rainforest.
Swimming in paradise
Our big hike for
the day was through the rainforest to see the Nandroya Falls. Not
mentioned in Lonely Planet, we were only expecting a pleasant hike to
see the falls, but after seeing the plants, insects, birds, and most
of all swimming at the base of the falls, it ended up being a rather
amazing experience.
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| Buttress roots |
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| Tree fern |
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| We saw some interesting spiders... |
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| ... colorful dragonflies ... |
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| ... and pretty leaves |
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Like the waterfalls in Iceland, these flow over volcanic basalt.
Unlike Iceland, they're not glacier fed, so you can swim in
them without freezing. See Diana near the base?
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The Tablelands
area in the coastal ranges is one of the most livable, scenic places
we've seen so far in Oz. I think I talked about the area a few days
ago, but returning to them after being along the hotter and more
humid coast was refreshing. Here are a few more photos of the
landscape around Atherton;
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| The Atherton Tablelands would be a nice place to live. ... |
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| ... Nice neighbors... |
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| ... and beautiful flowers. |
Having seen
crocodiles, I now wanted to eat some, reversing our kangaroo
encounters. We had tried to buy some crocodile meat at the general
store in Daintree village, but we would have had to purchase a croc
burger from the little diner there. The women said we'd be able to
buy croc in Innisfall at the butcher shop there. That was several
days earlier when we were with C&A. I had offered to fix some
for them, but they were headed south by the time we got to Innisfall.
Finding the butcher shop, I asked hopefully for some crocodile meat,
but they didn't carry it. However, we could go directly to the croc
farm just outside of town and they might sell us some.
Prior owners had
operated the farm as a tourist attraction, and the place is mentioned
in Lonely Planet. The new owners closed it to the public, not
wanting to put up with the hassle, and when we pulled up we saw a
'Sorry, we're closed' sign'. But I wasn't going to be deterred, having come so close; we could see pools of crocs lying in the sun
just over the tops of the fence. I drove up to one of the metal
buildings and asked the young man there if we could buy some meat.
Of course! He took us inside the large open shed that had once
served as the tourist facility, still having displays of crocodiles
and tables and chairs for the cafeteria that was there, to a small
room in the back with a couple freezers. Inside were frozen packets
of filets. I had hoped for minced (ground) croc, wanting to make
burgers, but they ship it all to restaurants as far away as Sydney.
But he said that he had made croc kebabs on the barbie just the night
before. That sounded good, so we bought a pound.
We needed to do
some grocery shopping so we went back into Innisfall. A cyclone
wiped out the city in the 1930's and in rebuilding many of the
buildings used a Down Under interpretation of 'art deco'.
Finding a Unicorn
Every country has
its iconic animals that tourists want to see. For Australia, you
know the list; kangaroo, kookaburra, koala, emu, dingo, crocodile... .Then
once you arrive, you begin to hear of other creatures that maybe
you've been dimly aware of, but now desperately want to see; wombat,
platypus, wallaby, … . One of those is the cassowary. The third
tallest bird in the world after the ostrich and emu, and the second
heaviest, it lives only in northern Queensland and is quite rare,
with only about 1000 left. We saw cassowary crossing signs all over,
and had been promised that in this place or that we would likely see
one. We were all pretty excited by the prospect, peering diligently
into the jungle or waiting expectantly for one to cross the road in
front of us. But the elusive cass stayed hidden. One of the Aussies
we met had said that he began to think that seeing one of the giant
birds was as likely as seeing a unicorn, and it seemed an apt
comparison.
At the caravan
park where we spent our last night with C&A the owner assured us
that if went down to Etty Bay south of Innisfall we would see a
cassowary for sure. Yeah yeah. But it looked like a nice place to
spend the night, and maybe we would get lucky.
Etty Bay was an
idyllic spot to stay. A sandy cove a few hundred meters long lined
with palms and bracketed by rocky slopes ending in mangrove, there
are only spaces for about 15 campers. There are also a half dozen
small cabins and a restaurant/ shop that we were told had good fish
and chips. The beach has a stinger net, the water was gentle and
clear, and the people friendly. Arriving an hour or so before sunset
I got right to work on dinner. However, the croc was still frozen
solid so we settled on eating leftover squaw rice.
As I was ferrying
supplies from the LC to the picnic table near the shore, Diana
shouted, “Oh my gosh, he's taking our stuff!”. I turned around
and saw a unicorn... , er, cassowary, pecking at the spice box. That
would be a funny photo, I thought. I grabbed the camera and took
several shots, but unfortunately the setting was wrong and they came
out way overexposed. Luckily, I quickly figured that out and got off
some more shots as he walked away. Too bad C&A weren't there to
see it. Hopefully they stopped at Etty Beach themselves the day
before and had their own Cass sighting.
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| Southern Cassowary ... |
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| ... looking for goodies to eat... |
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| ... and getting a little too close for comfort |
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| If you call it a bandicoot, it's sort of cute. Otherwise, it does look alarmingly like a large rat. |
I wanna see a "unicorn!" Awesome!!-KDB
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