Whew – is it ever hot and wet here!! We spent two nights in the Daintree region and it was not quite what I expected – I had expected sunny skies, warm days, lovely beaches. Instead we had overcast weather with intermittent squalls, hot temperatures, and humidity that was off the scale – I complained about humidity in Darwin – well this was worse – in Darwin if you blinked you broke into a sweat – in the Daintree, if you THOUGHT about blinking you broke into a sweat!
Still we had fun – we went over the Daintree River on a ferry and explored the most beautiful rainforest with a number of interesting stops through to Cape Tribulation (really thick tropical rainforest. Various board walks, mangroves, lovely beaches, an exotic fruit plantation where they make lovely icecream with all the fruit – there were a variety that we have never heard of …. Soursop, mangosteen, yellow sapote, rollinia, sapodilla, posh te, marang, jackfruit, mamey sapote, breadfruit, durian, abiu, carambola – not to forget those that we know like mulberry, mango, lychee and banana. Lovely icecream! (However, I (Rich) want to know who allowed these guys to import and plant all these exotic trees in our most precious and sensitive tropical rainforests – what were they thinking? Ever the greenie).
The Daintree is so attractive because of its wildness, wetness and it’s greenness. The thickly treed mountains rear up over your head on the one side all misty and mysterious, and the ocean stretches away endlessly on the other. It is one of the only places we have been where you can literally SEE the weather forming – the moisture forming in a mist out at sea, blowing in towards the land, rising as it hits the mountains, forming clouds and then raining down. Fascinating to watch! Not much fun to camp in! Whilst we were at the Daintree the rain fell intermittently all day – one eventually gets used to it, especially as it is not cold. Beautiful things we saw while we were there – another large Lace Monitor (goanna), a vast range of gorgeous rainforest palms and strangler figs, a lovely shell and a lifer for Rich - a Black Butcher bird – only found in the rain forests of far north Queensland – he was very excited! Queensland is not really a friendly place when it comes to reptiles and sea creatures – everywhere you go there are signs warning about crocodiles and at the entrance to many beaches are warnings about stingers complete with bottles of vinegar and emergency numbers to call – makes you VERY wary of even putting a toe in the water!
Of course the rain continued its downpours every few hours and there was a very large one just before we went to bed – as a result, when Cass when to her tent – it was floating – so there was a ‘middle of the night’ relocation of her accommodation, which was great fun – no real damage (fortunately it is a good quality sealed tent so no water go inside), just a few laughs (Cas actually did not know until I went to say good night and walked through about 5 cm water, she then felt under her mattress and said the base of the tent felt like water bed). It wasn’t quite as much fun packing up everything wet this morning, especially as it was quite hot too, so we were literally steaming! (Best approach is to wet your shirt and put it back on).
We have now finally started heading south! We spent a few lovely hours window shopping in Port Douglas (we didn’t buy anything as it is tourist mecca and VERY expensive). Tonight we are ensconced in a caravan park in North Cairns, and feel much more comfortable temperature and humidity wise. We had a bit of an explore around Cairns, which seems to be a lovely place. Tomorrow, finally, we are going to the Kuranda market – which should be fun – and the day after we have booked a day on Green Island, a coral cay with snorkelling on the reef!
Some observations about the difference between the west and east coasts:
· West Coast – not much water about, but no water restrictions!
· East Coast – lots of water and signs everywhere asking you to conserve it.
· West Coast – large distances between points of interest.
· East Coast – points of interest every few kilometres.
· West Coast - information centres are just that – places to get information.
· East Coast – information centres are actually hard-sell booking places – East Coast definitely has its hand out for your money a lot more!
Follow us on Google Maps
No comments:
Post a Comment