Mom and Dad take Australia: Part 1 - Queensland

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted.  Primarily because we've been doing nothing but work work working, and the kids were in school and there was nothing exciting about that.  But now it's winter break time, and my parents are visiting!

It's funny seeing Australia through a newcomer's eyes again.  I forgot how strange everything was to me when I arrived, and seeing my parents go through the same confusion - walking to the wrong side of the car, ordering "coffee" at a restaurant and thinking that's a sufficient description, not understanding the money, how being so friendly doesn't really fit into the Australian culture . . . it's all coming back to me.

Mom and Dad wanted to spend time with the grandkids and also "see all of Australia" in the 16 days they were staying.  I settled for showing them the east coast - Queensland, Sydney and surrounds, and Melbourne and surrounds.  We didn't get to the desert or the west or north coast, but Fern hates the heat anyway, so I'm going to have to call it good enough.  I'm dividing our trip into three parts.  This is part 1.

Two days after my parents arrived I hustled them on a plane again to Cairns Queensland.  Queensland is the home of the Great Barrier Reef, lots of ancient rainforests, sugar cane and as we were warned in the airport upon arrival - dengue fever.  The weather was pretty great - about 25 C (77 F) and sunny and gorgeous.  We rented the biggest truck ever and drove one hour further north from Cairns to Port Douglas, the beginning of FNQ (or Far North Queensland).

Port Douglas is a town of about 1500 permanent residents that swells by a factor of 10 during holidays and sugar harvesting season.  One of our guides said about 20% of the population works in tourism, and 30% in sugar.  Not sure what everyone else does because those seemed to be the only games in town.  It has a lovely beach that we were a short walk away from, and the water temp was still fine for swimming and snorkeling.

Four Mile beach, about a kilometre from our hotel.

Bubbler crab homes

During stinger season in the summer you can't swim unless you're in a netted-off area.  Lucky for us, now is not stinger season, just a lot of fun.

Our hotel was a bit of a dump.  I had chosen it through TripAdvisor where people said it was "luxurious" and "very clean."  We found it pretty basic and dirty, and they charged us for every little extra thing we used - beach towels, $5 to hire, extra sugar or coffee sachets - $0.50 each, extra toilet rolls - $1.00 each.  I have stayed in some gross places before, and really don't mind them, but I don't like being sold a false bill of goods.  And if we're paying $300+ for a room, I need my damn TP to be free.  We had a three bedroom townhouse which I thought would be good for our family, but in hindsight I think my parents would have benefited from their own room to get away from all of us when Ruth went into temper tantrum mode or Joel and I had to argue.  But on to the fun stuff:

Cramp!

 We took a snorkel trip to the low islands.  The low islands aren't on the exact barrier reef, but an inner ring of coral and water life that isn't as spectacular but is a lot easier to manage for young and older people with whom we were traveling.  Very few companies will take kids to the outer reef.  Those that do say age 8 and over, so we were going to have to lie about Ruth's age to get her out there.  She was a tentative snorkeler in Hawaii and I just didn't think it worth the effort of the ruse to get her there.  Our tour was perfect because the guide gave her one-on-one attention and dragged her around on a lifeguard float until she got comfortable in the water.  We snorkeled twice, and the second time Ruth went out with me alone and did just great - she kept her face in the water the whole time and pointed out all the cool stuff she saw to me.  I was really proud of her.

I need a stylist before the next time I snorkel.

Yes, yes, I married my father.  Moving on . . .

You are not allowed to take anything from the Great Barrier Reef, so we took photos instead.

I think the kids liked the sailboat.

My dad was able to snorkel off the beach which was easier for him, and he wouldn't have been able to do that had we been off the actual reef.  My mom didn't get in the water, but had a good time on the boat and the beach while we swam.  So all in all, a good choice.

What we saw:  I didn't have an underwater camera, thinking managing the girl would be a full-time job, but I copied some photos of what we saw from other sources.  There were tons of giant clams:

Giant clam.

I'd never seen these in the Caribbean or in Hawaii - they were really impressive!  There were lots of varieties of coral but not coral that was really colourful like on the outer reef.  Still gorgeous, though.  We saw a clown fish, lots of butterfly fish, different varieties of parrot fish, some snappers and sea perch, and one teeny tiny clownfish.

Parrotfish

Another Parrotfish

Butterfly Fish

We snorkeled off our boat in the afternoon and saw a couple bigger fish - a reef shark who ran away from us the second we got into the water, and a huge flat fish whose name I cannot remember but he hung around and swam with us for a bit, which was cool.  We all came back totally satisfied although a little sunburnt.  They aren't kidding about that hole in the ozone.

We took a guided tour of the Daintree Rainforest on another day. The rainforest is over 130 million years old and is filled with all sorts of ancient plant life. The trip into the Daintree was really a trip back in time - no bridge to cross the river, we had to go on a cable ferry to get to the other side.  

The entrance to the Daintree National Park. Hope you're not scared of the water.

Male saltwater croc - about 5 m. long.

 Our tour included a boat trip in the Daintree river to spot crocodiles at the confluence of the freshwater and saltwater rivers.  We saw four - the big male above, a mature female that was about 3.5 m. long, and two juveniles, which our guide said were about 3 years and 1 year old.  The 1 year old was very tiny, and our guide said the male would eat the little ones in a heartbeat if he could catch them, but they usually went after wallabies or feral pigs for a really filling meal.    We were about 10 m. from the crocs on our tour.  Joel kept a strong hold on Ruth because the guide said the croc  could get to our boat and propel himself out of the water to our level in less than three seconds if he wanted to.

Ancient circle palms.

Creeper vines in the Daintree

More Daintree

Mangroves at Cape Tribulation

Cape Tribulation is further north in FNQ.  No swimming allowed - this is still croc country.  Captain Cook named the cape after what must have been a rough sail.  There is also a  "Mount Sorrow" nearby that he also named. 

Canoeing in a non-croc-infested stream. The water was so clear we could see down for about 2 m.

Bush turkeys wandering all over Cape Tribulation.

We saw a cassowary in the wild, but it was too fast for me to take a photo.  Our guide described the cassowary as a "walking dinosaur" because it had been around for so long.  He also told us that the cassowary is a linchpin in rainforest diversity, because the seeds of certain plants it eats can't germinate unless they pass through the intestines of the cassowary.  Cassowaries can be elusive, so we were really lucky to see one, and one with a chick with her as well.

Not my photo, but the bird is so gorgeous I wanted you to see it.

Stones from the cassowary plum that have passed through the intestines of the cassowary bird.  Isaac tried to pick one up and got a handful of poo for his trouble.  These stones, by the way, are about 7 cm long.  Ouch. 

Our last little trip was a couple hours into Mossman Gorge.  The Aboriginal people have built an intepretive centre around it, as well as a boardwalk and a cable bridge to help folks walk the track around the gorge.  It's a nice, fairly rugged walk that took us over two hours to navigate.  Ruth and my dad sat out some of it, but my mom walked it better than I did.

The Kuku Yalanji people are the traditional custodians of the area around Mossman Gorge.  The money from the interpretive centre goes to a job training facility on the property.

Could they be more adorable? 

Cool fungus!

We all had fun in Port Douglas, but I think we all wished we could stay a few more days and just chill on the beach.  It's such a nice, relaxed holiday town and there's so much more to do that we simply didn't have time for.  We'd like to go back, maybe in a couple years when we can effectively snorkel the outer reef with the kids. 

That's about it for Queensland.  Next post, on to Sydney!