12/31/07

A quick flight on Virgin Blue Airlines carried us from Sydney to Cairns, and into another world. North tropical Queensland comprises only a tiny area of Australia but has about 50% of its plant and animal species. We stayed in Port Douglas where our villa was surrounded by palm trees full of parrots, budgerigars and cockatoos. At night, the flying fox bats swooped around. From Port Douglas we drove to Daintree National Park and Cape Tribulation where we walked through rainforest and mangroves. We went to Mossman Gorge where we swam under a waterfall and let the river currents carry us from granite boulder to boulder. There were no crocodiles in this river as there are in many.

We headed south along the coast to Townsville and Airlie Beach, through undisturbed rain forest, and plantations of banana, avocado and papaya (they call ‘em paw-paws here). Like many tropical areas, this region is subject to flash floods so homes and schools are built on stilts. Locals drive 4 wheel drives (they call ‘em utes here) fitted with snorkels to allow driving on flooded roadways. As we traveled further south through Rockhampton and Bundaberg the land became drier, hillier and dominated by sugar cane fields.

At this time of year there are marine stingers (poisonous jellyfish) in the northern oceans so swimming is treacherous. All along the coast there are dozens of gorgeous palm-lined golden-sand beaches which are deserted. Cities like Cairns and Townsville have created attractive saltwater lagoons on their waterfronts (they call ‘em esplanades here), surrounded by manmade beaches, parks and playgrounds which simulate the beach experience well. Each city, town and village has its own charm and unique flavour largely due to the circumstances of its settlement and its climate.

We are here during “the wet,” which means we are experiencing some of those unique tropical rainfalls in which the “heavens open” and dump torrential rain for 20 to 30 minutes, after which the sun comes out, the ground steams and then it pours again (they call ‘em showers here). The locals wear the ubiquitous tank tops, shorts and flip-flops suitable for these extremes (They call  ‘em singlets, boardies and thongs here.) For the past four days there has been a cyclone lying offshore bringing gale force winds and heavy rains. There is a surfing competition in Gold Coast where records are being broken due to the extreme surf. The locals are delighted with the rain as they have been experiencing a drought and water rationing. We just wish it had held off a few days.  

A couple of highlights of this stretch were our two trips to two World Heritage sites. We took a boat trip from Airlie Beach through the Whitsunday Islands (kind of like the Gulf Islands, but with palm trees) to Hardy Reef on the outer Great Barrier Reef. We snorkeled for several hours amongst the colourful coral and reef fish. Jordan went scuba diving. He thought it was great fun. We also toured Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island which has developed an amazing ecosystem including crystal clear lakes lined with sparkling white sand, unique forests of hoop pine, Queensland kauri and satinay, 350 species of birds and the last pure strain of dingoes (i.e. they haven’t interbred with domestic dogs.) We took an escorted tour since transportation consists of balloon-tired buses over rough sand tracks and bare beach. An authentic Crocodile Dundee was our delightful and knowledgeable guide.

From here, we are flying from Brisbane to Singapore and on to Phuket, Thailand, then back through Singapore again, to Hong Kong and home on March 16. We don’t know what internet access will be like for the next while, so don’t worry if you don’t hear from us. Rest assured we are enjoying ourselves somewhere.

Sending our warm wishes,

Erich, Carol and Jordan