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| Mangrove Orchard @ Winery |
Our first vacation together flying within Australia. We flew with Jenny's brother from Brisbane to Cairns (gateway to the Great Barrier Reef). It is just over a 2 hour flight from Brisbane. It was a short trip arriving Saturday afternoon and leaving very early on Wednesday.
Sunday we attended church at the Cairns Cathedral which has amazing stain glass windows with the creation story wrapping around the church. It was very cool to see the images emerge as the sun rose illuminating them for us to see. We started the day driving around the Atherton Tablelands the area inland (west of Cairns) checking out some of the beautiful waterfalls in the area. We drove by quite a few dairies and were lucky enough to have spotted a
Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo which another group had already found. The weather wasn't all that great with misting rain. We stopped at a dairy museum in Malanda which David toured and quite enjoyed. Later we stopped and sampled some mango wine and liquors. David, our chauffeur, drove us to Chillagoe which is considered an Outback town. In Far North Queensland, it is not very far to get to the outback (2-3 hour drive), however from where we live in Southeast Queensland it is at least a 10 hour drive. We explored some of the local rock formations and termite mounds and passed many cattle and a few road trains (semi trucks with three trailers or more) on the way.
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Giant Clam
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On Monday we spent the day on the reef. The Great Barrier Reef is immense stretching over 2600km (1600 miles). From Cairns it is a couple hour boat ride to the outer reef (recommended over the close Green Island). We visited Michaelmas Cay and Paradise Reef on our tour. The coral and variety of coral was quite amazing but I have seen greater numbers and variety of fish in the
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Anenome fish
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Caribbean and also likely in Julian Rocks. There are also giant clams up to 4 feet across (or even larger) which were amazing. The water wasn't cold but we still rented wet suits to keep us a bit more comfortable in the water. The water clarity was good and we didn't have to worry about any box jellies or other stinging jellies (see warning sign below) at this time of year (winter in the southern hemisphere). David and Jenny stuck to snorkeling but introductory dives and glass bottom boat tours are also available. Jenny's brother did two introductory dives and saw huge sea turtles on his first dive. Diving will hopefully be tried out in our future trips to the reef.
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Cow Bay Beach
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We spent Tuesday heading further north into the Daintree National Park (about 1.5 hour drive north of Cairns) which is a world heritage listed tropical rainforest. On the way we stopped and walked along the beach in Newell. Justin and Jenny managed to loose a "returning" plastic boomerang to the ocean where it sunk. However upon our return walk quite a while later it had, quite to our surprise, washed onto shore . We continued north and crossed the Daintree River using its cable run ferry (the only way to cross) and then made a stop in Cow Bay to take in the beautiful beach and scenery.
We stopped and did a walk in the rainforest in search of Cassowaries (large emu like birds where the males have bright blue and red coloring and a bony plate on top of their head, see photo below). On the way north to Cape Tribulation (as far as you can go in a two wheel drive vehicle) we did come
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| Male Cassowary @ Zoo |
across a juvenile or female cassowary running on the side of the road. We got out at Cape Tribulation where the reef and rainforest meet for a brief look around before turning around. After we crossed the ferry again we participated in a sunset/evening wildlife watching tour on the Daintree River. We choose to go with Dan Irby's Mangrove Adventures and we were not disappointed. We saw at least five salt water crocodiles, a tree frog, and many different birds and were lucky enough that the clouds cleared enough for some star gazing to take in the southern cross and scorpio constellations. We stopped for dinner in Port Douglas where there was a variety of restaurants to choose from. The next morning we were up quite early for our 5:30am flight back to Brisbane.
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Saltwater Crocodile (Daintree River)
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We spent Tuesday heading further north into the Daintree National Park (about 1.5 hour drive north of Cairns) which is a world heritage listed tropical rainforest. On the way we stopped and walked along the beach in Newell. Justin and Jenny managed to loose a "returning" plastic boomerang to the ocean where it sunk. However upon our return walk quite a while later it had, quite to our surprise, washed onto shore . We continued north and crossed the Daintree River using its cable run ferry (the only way to cross) and then made a stop in Cow Bay to take in the beautiful beach and scenery. 
