Update 24 - Cairns - The Countryside

We picked up the rental car on Sunday 28th March and drove up the Captain Cook Highway to Palm Cove. Disaster (no, not kangaroos on the motorway), high humidity stops my camera working, however being an IT person, I have a backup, our mobile phone cameras.

 

Sunday - we drove up the coast from Cairns as far as The Daintree Rainforest

 

 As you know I love signs, they say a lot about local attitudes

 Now you don't see this sign on Broadstairs sea front

 Where are the fairground attractions?

Which way to the city from here?

Beautiful, but potentially deadly!

Palm Cove from the Rex Lookout

View over Port Douglas

Port Douglas High st

Bay at Port Douglas

St. Marys Non-denominational historical church

We had a nice seafood lunch here over looking the sea

Proof of the nice seafood lunch

After Port Douglas we drove up to The Mossman Gorge

Our first real walk in a rainforest

Impressive rapids flowing down the gorge

Stef got hold of the camera..

Then she couldn't resist a dip - crocodile!

We drove on towards Daintree Rainforest until the road turned into a river, complete with boatman!

So we drove back and took a rope ferry over the swollen river. The English ferry master told us that he had seen a 3M crocodile in the road only a couple of hours previously. Although he'd been working there for 8 years, he said it scared him $hitless, so i planned on driving fast! On a sadder note he also told us stories of how over populated the river is with crocodiles and how they had taken several young childrens lives in previous years.

We drove down to Cow Bay - I've always found 'achtung' to be a very effective sounding word...

..and so the story goes that if the crocs don't get you the marine stingers will! If you look closely at the sign behind, it tells you that the contents of the bottle should be used if you do get stung - I hoped it was Remy Martin XO..

Just in case you don't get the message - click twice to read

After all that trauma, we drove back to the luxurious Shangri-la hotel for many free evening drinks - after all, life should be a celebration! After a good nights sleep and breakfast we got the car out again for a second day of adventure, this time we would drive the southern part of the region to the Atherton Tableland - home to the much less dangerous waterfalls.

Stef takes an early bath

It was certainly a very wet day all round

We saw 6 waterfalls hidden amongst the rainforests

Now this was impressive

 Told you - it's not small is it!?

 The curtain fig tree(s) - can you see a French girl in the picture?

Yungaburra village looked like England 100 years ago - probably because it was built between 1890 and 1929

 We couldn't believe the colour of the soil - can you?

 Some of the palm trees were brilliant!

 You thought the Curtain Fig was big - check this out!

That's me just under 2M, 36" chest, bit over weight according to the Doctor's - apparently beer and doughnuts don't count as nutrition at the moment. However, I'm sure they will in a few years time..By the way they're trees in the background, not buildings. They're Australia's largest trees called Kauri and stand 45M with a girth of 6M. After these amazing sites, we drove back to the Shangri-la and yes, you've guessed it - the usual. The following day we went scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef - see Blog 25. However, the day after scuba, we went on another countryside trip to Kuranda village in the rainforest.

 Kuranda wildlife park with an emphasis on koala's

 Lucky we didn't fly there..

 ..and we saw our 1st under excited stoned koala's - you can guess what's coming next can't you?

Yes, someone who has a gold medal in dangerous animal handling

 Not sure who is cuddling who here..

 They look quite menacing to me!

 That should cover it..

 They saw Dr Doolittle coming

 Again they look pretty menacing to me, hence the role of camera man

We discovered kangaroos don't queue up like the British

Even the wallabies wanted a piece of the action

I notice Stef didn't feed the fresh water crocs

We saw some cassowary's by the road 1 day and here they are in bird land. They're like prehistoric emu's - 1.8M tall and weigh 60kg

In Bird Land 90% of the birds weren't in cages and flew all over you..

Stef with new friend the Tawny Frogmouth Owl - probably a joke in there somewhere

We bought 4 authentic boomerangs which were hand painted by Jim Edwards

Jim's wife is Dutch

We took the Skyrail over the 120 million year old rainforest - the oldest on earth and home to dinosaurs at one point! Home also to over 2,800 vascular plant species, 380 of which are considered rare or threatened and about 700 are found nowhere else in the world. They are also home to the most primitive Kangaroo, the musky Rat Kangaroo, 2 types of tree Kangaroo, Australia's biggest butterfly the Cairns Birdwing and the Cassowary.

Tourism came to the area in the early 1900 and Kuranda, with its famous untamed Barron Falls, was a big attraction for honeymooners. In the 1960's, the hippy generation adopted it.

Some further info

The Barron Falls - the picture doesn't do the enormity and the noise justice..

The Barron Falls Hydro-Electrical power station

The Barron Falls with hydro-electric power station in the background

Spectacular - you had to be there...

Having got off the cable at Barrons Falls we continued down to Red Peaks lookout

Excellent walkways through the rainforest at Red Peaks

Finally, our last stage down to the bottom - you can see the sea from here!

That's it for Blog 24 - only took me 4 weeks to do this one - oh dear!  From here I'll get us up to date in the coming few days...Mind you I didn't get any complaints, so either people are being kind or no one's reading them - either way not a problem, its a good diary for us ;o)