Farewell Queensland!

27 - 28 May 2013

Sadly we've come to an end of our time in Port Douglas and in North Queensland. We had a memorable  time. We'll never forget our trip to the Barrier Reef and to Daintree rainforest but Port Douglas itself is a lovely town. 

In the last few days we enjoyed some excellent sea food. On two days we had fresh prawns straight off the fishing boats. Delicious and such good value! Also had an excellent seafood meal at a local restaurant and bar called "On the Inlet". One way and another we spent quite a lot of time at this place. Each day at about 5pm they try to tempt a huge grouper called George up to the surface for the admiring crowds. Depending on what literature you read, George weighs between 250 and 650 kilos!! Of course to get a good spot, you have to be there by about 4.15pm so we tested quite a lot of their beer and cider! Unfortunately George was a little shy the week we were there and only once did we catch a glimpse of him and the camera wasn't fast enough to take a photo. 

Expectant crowd waiting for George

Given the dangers that lurk in the sea, pools are important over here. Here's the one that was right outside our apartment at Mantra Port Sea.

Just when you thought it safe to swim!

 Spent a day in Cairns on our way back. To be honest Cairns is nothing special, you may as well just head further North where the beaches are great and the reef and rainforest are much closer. Did go to the botanical gardens which are quite nice and had a pleasant walk along the Esplanade. The Aussies spend a lot on these sort of walks with really good public amenities such as children's playgrounds, open air exercise stations (who needs a gym?), fountains and so on. Just as well as the sea goes out for miles so when the tide's out it's a bit like Blackpool beach!

A lasting memory of Northern Queensland will be the beautiful flowers and foliage, such bright colours and so large thanks to plentiful sun and rain.One of our favourites are the "Lipstick Palms" which have lovely red stalks. 

Lipstick Palms

Delighful Daintree!

May 23

As well as being handy for the beautiful Barrier Reef, Port Douglas also has the benefit of being an easy drive to the "Daintree rainforest". Supposedly the rainforest is 6 to 10 times older than the Amazonian equivalent meaning that it was around when dinosaurs ruled the roost. That's easy to imagine as you trek though the thick canopies of mangroves and enormous trees, many with long air roots hanging out. Lots of scope for Tarzan style tree swinging here! Quite spooky in places too as the trees block out about 80% of the sunlight in many places.  

Swallows getting a free ride on the ferry!

Stream in rain forest

Mangrove swamp

A rare break in the canopy of the rainforest

Probably the best time to visit is at dusk or at night as that's when the spiders, snakes, birds and numerous other inhabitant emerge. However there was no way that we were going to visit after or even near darkness! Bad enough that in places you walk through what feels like thick clouds of spiders webs! 

One of the unusual inhabitants of the Daintree National Park (that includes the river and the rain forest) is the Cassowary, a large but endangered bird that's appeared in this blog previously. It's thought that there are about 60 in the Park and hopefully numbers are rising. The Cassowary female has what some might think of as an incredibly cushy number! She mates, lays her eggs and leaves them for the male to look after and goes and finds another mate. She may mate up to four times each season! The Daddy Cassowary then looks after the eggs and the babies until they are between nine and eighteen months old after which they have to look out for themselves. Guess this doesn't work that well as they are an endangered species.

On the road we stopped at a local Ice Cream Factory. Nothing special to be honest but had a beautiful garden with some exotic butterflies including a Papilo Ulysses. Fantastic magnetic blue but very hard to photograph with an ordinary camera. 

Ulysses butterfly

The rainforest is pretty well protected by the Australian government these days after years of mistreatment by the English and other early settlers. It is a fantastic example of how left to itself, nature creates an interdependent world of flora and fauna. Everything has a purpose. Even the common cockroach which in the Mediterranean is thought to be a sign of insanitary conditions.  Here it works alongside ants and other insects to chew and clear up the waste from the trees and keep the natural pattern of regeneration going. Fascinating!

Daintree has several boardwalks with explanatory notes so it is relatively easy to explore different areas. Having trekked around several we decided it was time for something different and went to the "Cape Tribulation Exotic Fruit Farm". This is a great example of local enterprise. Set up over 20 years ago by Alison and Digby a couple who were previously teachers, originally from Melbourne. The tropical climate at Cape Tribulation can grow rare and exotic tropical fruit from the Amazon, South East Asia and the Caribbean, over 150 species in all. Patience is definitely a virtue here as some fruits can take nearly ten years to become productive! This area is also somewhat prone to cyclones and the one in 2005 destroyed much of the farm. Such is the tenacity of this couple however that they rebuilt it and today it appears to be a thriving enterprise. 

We had the pleasure of joining a tasting of about ten of the exotic fruits grown on the farm. Some looked weird, others were hard to break into, one was very bitter and most were delicious, opening our eyes to a whole new world of fruit. Shame that we're unlikely ever to be able to buy them in Tesco! 
 

Tasting fruits. The wooden bowl is from Samoa

Some of our favourite fruits are pictured here:

Mangosteen - their only commercial crop

Pummelo, sweeter than grapefruit

Rambutan. A bit like lychees but much nicer!

Then popped up to Cape Tribulation beach. So named because Captain Cook ran aground nearby. Beautiful stretch of golden sand which comes right up to the rain forest. Amazing to see mangrove swamps so close to the beach. Hazards here for the swimmers include stingers at this time of year but also crocodiles!
This is a much photographed beach but our pics weren't the best as the heavens opened just as we got to the beach!

Cape Tribulation beach. Where sea meets rainforest

A moody moment on Cape Tribulation beach

Revelling in the Reef!

May 18 - 22nd

From Magnetic Island we travelled the 550 kms or so back up North to Port Douglas, about 60kms North of Cairns. Known as the "Village by the Sea" Port Douglas is a lovely little town with lots of shops and restaurants and a beautiful powder sand beach that's about 4 miles long (rather unimaginatively known as 4 Mile Beach).

Here we're staying in a comfortable apartment with direct access to the beach and within walking distance to the harbour and town. This is our second "home swop" in Australia. The owners of this apartment will stay in our Cyprus home sometime next year. Great system! 

Tuesday 21st May was an awesome day! We fulfilled one of our long held dreams and went on a boat trip to the Barrier Reef. Port Douglas is the nearest town to the reef so it was an easy one and a half hour boat trip to travel the 50kms to and from the reef. We were incredibly lucky with the weather which has been a bit windy of late but it was calm and sunny so no sea sickness. Even better there were only 15 of us on a boat that normally takes 38 so it was a very personalised, relaxed and informative trip. There are several operators and they all charge quite a lot of money for this trip but we'd recommend going with "Calypso". They run snorkel only trips for non divers like us so you don't waste time trying to please both divers and snorkelers. The crew on our boat, Chris and Ben were really well informed about the reef and its inhabitants. 

We also had a chance to chat to our fellow snorkelers on the journey out and back. Interesting lot. We were the only ones from the UK (always nice), two lots of Kiwis (one a dairy, the other a sheep farmer) although one was married to an English lady, an American couple who immediately invited us to visit them when we were in the US (sadly we won't have time on this trip) and several Aussies. A good mix and we all got on well.



We've been really lucky previously and snorkeled in some fantastic places, particularly the Maldives and British Virgin Islands. Fair to say that nowhere has ever matched the Maldives but the Barrier Reef came pretty close in terms of fish and had better and more varied coral. Quite a relief as we'd heard so much about the dire impact that global warming is having on the coral. We saw some dead stuff but lots more that appeared to be thriving so hopefully the restoration programme is working. 
 
Before we took our first plunge into the sea, we ladies learnt a new dance! We all opted to wear wet suits as even in the warmest water, after an hour or so you do tend to feel cold. Ben was handing these out and got the men's sizes sorted pretty accurately but always underestimated the size needed for the ladies. Most of tried three sizes on before getting a fit but only after we'd perfected the "wet suit wiggle". Very reminiscent of a fitting room in a skinny jeans shop!

We stopped at three spots on the Outer Reef, all around Opal Reef. Chris took us on a snorkeling tour at the last site, free diving down to the bottom to bring up sea cucumbers and to show us examples of soft and hard coral and different types of fish. Nature's so clever! We saw several examples of fish who begin life as females and the dominant female then becomes a male and vice versa.We also saw how coral emits a sort of sticky juice when it's out of the water. This acts as a sun cream, allowing the coral to survive at low tide or when it's no covered by sea.


At our first stop we were greeted by a rather large Hump Head Wrasse (fish) nicknamed Angus. He's so tame that he came right up the steps of the boat to
have his tummy and head tickled! Apparently he's the only male in a group of 50 adoring females. No wonder he seemed happy!

Angus, a fish with 50 wives!

Difficult to describe the feeling of sheer wonder when you plunge out into the open sea, get your head down and see what lies under the surface. By hanging loose above an area of coral for a while you see so much life both in the coral itself and all the fish and other life around. We've all seen the wildlife programmes but when you're actually there it is such a wonderful feeling! Very difficult to drag yourself away and move onto the next stop. In the words of Mr Blomfield - "Oh the light"!

We took lots of pictures and they probably don't do the reef justice but here's a selection. 

A giant clam

Mature blue parrot fish. The tale gives his age away!

Various types of soft and hard coral

 

A big red sea cucumber - its mouth is also its bum!

Look hard and you'll see the Angel fish

Yellow fish -not sure what type!

Rounded the day off in the Combined Service Mens Club! We've been to several variants of these clubs in Australia and all serve good food at reasonable prices. This one also has the benefit of being right on the water so a lovely place to complete a day that we'll remember for many years to come. We are so lucky.

An attractive force

14 - 17 May

Travelled South to Townsville, capital of North Queensland (also known as NQ which looks like "No"from afar, making it a rather negative abbreviation!). This journey of 250 kms should not have taken much over 2 hours but the main road, the Bruce Highway, is being upgraded and we were delayed by constant roadworks. Since this is pretty much the only road they can't close it so instead have a series of people operating traffic controls. The construction industry here seems to be encouraging equality. We saw quite a few women on the road working teams, admittedly most wielding the stop/go sign! 

Anyway 4 hours later we rolled into Townsville, just in time to grab a bite and get on the ferry to Magnetic Island. An easy 45 minute ferry ride. We were amused to see a ship in the Townsville Port that originated from Limmasol, South Cyprus. Guess the problems there means it's had to look for work in new climes. 

Large reddy brown ship comes from Cyprus

Magnetic Island is a lovely little island only about 8 kms away from the mainland. Great selection of beaches and not over developed. 

Weather was a bit variable but when not exploring the island we were able to luxuriate in our large three bed apartment which we'd rented at a very good price. This is one advantage of visiting in the shoulder season that we hadn't appreciated. The apartment even had it's own plunge pool but was also just steps away from an absolutely huge pool. 
 

Small pool outside our front door

View over the marina from our balcony

 

Spacious kitchen come day room

Master bedroom with bath!

The whole complex was very quiet so no problem with being able to do some serious swimming. Just as well since although the beaches were glorious, the water warm and calm there are numerous nasty stingers in the sea here so once again the pool was the best option. 

 Would certainly recommend a visit to Magnetic Island. It's a pleasant seaside resort and easy to navigate though presumably in high season it would get pretty crowded. 

Wildlife is a constant part of life in Aus. Here we came face to face with our first possum who used our balcony furniture as a sort of launch pad into the foliage. Very fury creature and quite endearing though somewhat noisy! On our drive back to Mission beach we also had a close encounter with a group of low flying  kites who seemed more interested in road kill then avoiding our car. Fortunately they did fly off before we collided.

Caribbean with Roos!

11 - 14 May

Drove about 160k south of Cairns to South Mission beach. Wow! The beach is about 40kms in total, lovely soft sand, calm sea, palm trees and with some warm sunshine (as well as the odd shower!). So like the Caribbean we would still have been confused about which country we were in had it not been for the local gardeners! There are loads of Kangaroos everywhere, mostly seemingly very content munching on the grass and foliage in the gardens of the homes across from the beach. They're pretty tame, hardly bothering to move when a car passes (admittedly it was a quiet street) and mostly staying still when people approach. Some even posed for photographs!

My best profile

Roo gardeners out in force

I look quite good from this angle too!

There's another much more unusual inhabitant in these parts. Cassowaries are large flightless birds who are pretty rare these days. The Mission beach area is a conservation area for them and there have been several recent sightings, though alas not by us. 

 Cassowary - unlikely to attack unless protecting its young

The local road signs leave you in no doubt who's most important!

u

The thing about Australia is that it's got all sorts of dangerous animals. The sea here looks gorgeous but between October and June it has not one but at least 8 types of dangerous stingers in it. There is a netted area that's supposed to be safe to swim in but thanks to the Cyclone that passed through here about a week ago, we were warned not to swim even in the netted area. There are also crocodiles in some parts of the sea and local rivers. 

But the wonderful beach was right opposite our lovely apartment and we were lulled into a deep sleep each night by the sound of the ocean. We walked miles up the beach and had a thoroughly relaxing 3 days here. It's the shoulder season between Autumn and winter (equivalent of November in the UK) so there are very few tourists and it was very quiet. We were the only guests in Taihoa Apartments so it was like having our own private complex with pool etc

Only 4 apartments here, a fabulous place to relax

Mike, sans shoes

Early morning, South Mission beach

Wonderfully empty expanse of beach

Caribbean or Cairns? Good news for Costa!

8th -13 May  Inland from Cairns

Really confusing. We flew for a couple  of hours to Cairns in North Queensland, some 1712 kilometres from Brisbane but we seem to have arrived in the Caribbean! Palm trees,  loads of sugar cane, banana trees, very warm and lots of rain! For our first two days it shloshed down with rain! We had to unpack all our cases as they and the contents got wet at the airport. However, we're canny travelers so on day 2 we drove over the mountains to the Mareeba area where it was cloudy but mainly dry! Since then we've had a mix of sunshine, cloud but not so much rain and whatever the weather, it's gloriously warm!

Had a great day mooching around the Mareeba area. They make coffee, tea and chocolate here and there's a fantastic place called "Coffee Works" where you can test all three. How sensible is that! It also has a great little museum full of coffee and tea makers from across the ages. Learnt loads of useless information that may just come in handy for a pub quiz one day (or not as the case may be).

Great news. It's official! Coffee's good for you. The first record of coffee drinking is supposedly from 800 AD by the Mufti people in Yemen. Initially they drank it only as part of religious ceremonies or when prescribed by a Doctor! Once the religious leaders and medics saw the beneficial effects, the practice spread across mosques throughout Arabia and inevitably once news of this exotic brew spread, people began to drink it outside religious confines. Officially only Imams and Monks were allowed to drink coffee but try as they might, it's usage spread to us commoners. Bet they never dreamt that it would be quite as succesful as it has been!

Another coffee legend is about kaldi, a goat herd in the upland plains of Ethiopia. He noticed that his goats got very frisky after eating the leaves and berries from a particular bush and tried it himself with similar exhilarating effects! Kaldi took some of the "magic" leaves and berries to a local monastery where the Monks think they are works of the devil and chuck them on the fire. This releases the aroma of the berries at which point they're hastily rescued from the fire and after much experimentation, coffee production is born!

Some fabulous examples of early coffee makers. And we thought the modern day ones are complex!

1910 (ish) first expresso maker

How stylish!

Wonder if it's would serve quicker than Costa!

And even the humble cafetiere (or plunger as they call it here) is nothing new. 

Know that this dates us, but who's parents didn't have one of these?

Clue- it wakes you up with lots of whooshing noises and tea!

Couldn't go home without trying some of the local spirits. Sugar Cane is put to good use here. For rum predictably but also for gin, vodka and a range of liqueurs which are mixed with other local produce such as mango's and bananas. We sampled the rum, gin and vodka and all were delicious. What really swung it (for Maggie anyway) was the design of the rum bottle. So pretty. So once again we've added to our luggage!