NDBT

(This title narrowly beat out Cassowary attack! and Croc Attack! For more on drop bears: hmm… well I was going to post a link to Indie tits (Nov, ’05). But the site seems to be down? What’s up with that? Here’s the wikiality version:  “Drop bears featured repeatedly in webcomic IndieTits by Jeph Jacques in November 2005. When their existence was refuted by one of the characters the others explained that they must be real as they have a dedicated Wikipedia page.”)

Ahem. The Rainforest! (Hey – an honest to god travel post! Whodathunkit?)

Ok – so we left Cairns early in the morning, stopping to walk through part of Mossman Gorge, which is part of the Daintree National Park. We stopped at a local zoo for lunch, where we saw crocs, cassowarys (as our guide explained what to do in case we were attacked by one), cockatoos, and got to hold a couple of wallaby and kangaroo joeys, which were very adorable. Then we did another walk at the Marradja boardwalk, up near Cape Trib. Both the walks were incredibly lovely. The boardwalks made walking really easy (and ensured people had a minimal impact on the area), and the temperature was absolutely perfect (as opposed to the rainforests in Madagascar where I just about died of heatstroke). And I saw a brush turkey in Mossman. Lots of hanging vines and epiphytes (there was one type that grew all over the largest trees, making them look shaggy).

Got to my lodge in Cape Trib, the Ferntree, which had 4 bed cabins (which I was in) all the way up to resort accomadation. It was very lovely, and had great views of the park’s mountains. Also, lots of lizards and gecko and crickets at night. I had stupidly stayed up the night before (the Da Vinci code was on, and I heard it was a good travel movie. Meh – like the book) so I was knackered when I got in. Read some of the book thief and took a nap. Then I had dinner in the lodge’s restaurant, which was very nice, and I met up with a British girl, Amy, who had come up on the same bus.

The next morning I was picked up early to go horseback riding, which was absolutely great. Although it was completely bizarre to be in a western saddle. Especially once we started trotting – I wanted to post. But the ride was lovely. I was on Topaz, the bitch of the group. I don’t know why I always get paired with the mean horse. Maybe I look like someone who’s unafraid to kick them (and how awful is that?). Anyways, the guy said afterwards that I did well on her. We rode out through the rainforest to the beach (so, so gorgeous and lots of sandpipers), and then trotted and cantered on the way back to the stables.

Finished the Book Thief that afternoon (which is totally brilliant – I highly recommend it, although I cried all through the last chapter – unsurprising given that the protagonist is a 14 year old girl in Germany during WWII). I didn’t get a chance to go to the exotic fruit farm (which turned out ok – more on that later), or a night walk, which I would have been disappointed about, but I ended up seeing plenty of animals. I did go to the bat house, which is the environmental centre for the area and had a couple of rescued fruit bats hanging around. On the way back to the lodge, I heard scuffling in the park off to my side and froze automatically, waiting for a giant cassowary to come charging at me. Then 2 scrub hens (about a foot high) emerged from the bushes and scratched around in the leaf litter some more. Nearly gave me a freaking heart attack. Later that night Amy invited me to join her and her roomies at PKs, the local bar. She and I went to the BBQ there for dinner, and ended up staying, and staying, and joining the staff for the after party. I had planned on going home at 8 or 9, not 2 in the morning. But it was a lot of fun.

The next morning, I did the Dujubi boardwalk on my own. The path was really lovely, and I saw lots of birds. Then, the woman in front of me froze and motioned to me that there was a cassowary ahead. She urged me to get close to get a picture, but obviously I didn’t feel like getting super-close, even once a few more people had joined us. However, the bird must be used to people because it walked towards us and then crossed the boardwalk just a few feet in front of us. My photos are all a bit fuzzy, given the low light in the understory, the fact that it kept moving, and I think my hands might have been shaking. Anyways, it was awesome. I got up close to a cassowary! Some locals don’t see any for years (they’re endangered) and I saw one!

Then I walked through the mangroves and out along the beach towards the point. I saw some kind of fish eagle that came quite close to me, and I got some great photos of it. There were crabs around and some black wading birds. The beach was really pristine and flanked by the forest. Very tropical-paradise.  I had lunch at a lovely little restaurant hidden in the forest (yummy veggie sandwich and earl grey. mmmm). The bus picked us up after lunch, and we stopped at the Daintree ice cream factory, where they gave us ice cream made from local tropical plants. The flavors were soursop, yellow jojoba (I think that’s what it was called), wattleseed (which tasted kind of like coffee), and apple cinnamon. Very yummy.

Next we crossed the  Daintree river by ferry, and went on a 1 hour croc-watching cruise on it. This is one of the best things I’ve ever done in my entire life. It was AWESOME. If you ever get a chance – go! Most people see maybe 1 croc and a few birds. We saw; 4 crocs (1 baby – about a foot long, 2 females, and 1 jumbo male. It was huge), 4 snakes!!!! (3 green tree snakes and 1 amethystine python), birds galore (1 really super-rare heron, which the guy called a great blue, but it didn’t look like a GBH so I’ll have to look it up, cattle egrets, a greater egret, some raptor, flycatchers, and a Papuan frogmouth!! Which is related to a tawny frogmouth) a green tree frog, and a Cairns Birdwing butterfly. (Oh yeah – I saw one of the giant blue butterflies too as we were driving along). So – incredibly great cruise. I’ve got tons of photos I’ll post probably tomorrow.

On the drive back we passed a couple of flocks of hawks, which was very cool, if a bit odd, and some cockatoos. Then we got into Port Douglas, which is where celebrities vacay up north. I got dropped off at my hostel, which was solar-powered and cute (and served a pretty good naan and veggie curry for dinner). Watched some daily show/Colbert and went to bed.

The next morning I took the local shuttle to the RainForest Habitat, which is why I had stopped over in port Douglas. It’s won tons of eco-tourism awards, and was totally worth it. They had 3 walk through enclosures, wetlands, rainforest, and grasslands, plus a cafe in the wetlands habitat. They have the only mating pair of black-necked storks in captivity, and they kept doing their pair-bonding dance, which was very cool to watch. Lots and lots of birds and I snapped away happily (I am so thrilled to have my camera back). I took a guided tour through the rainforest section and got to feed one of the parrots some corn. And I pet a crocodile (a little one). Then I had “lunch with the lorikeets” where there was a 10$ all you can eat buffet in the wetlands, so the birds wander around the tables. I absolutely stuffed myself on salad and tropical fruits (oh my god – they had grapes and strawberries, and honeydew and watermelon – and the first bite of watermelon is really one of the best things EVER – and dates and kiwis and apricots and pears… )(seriously – all you can eat is such a blessing for a backpacker). One of the keepers brought around lorikeets for every one to see and my table was right by a bunch of birds – that were the same as the mystery bird I saw late at night in Cairns. Turns out they’re Curlews – and the aboriginal people believe that the devil rides on their shoulder and if you hear one laugh then someone in your immediate family has died. Then I wandered around the grasslands, where you get some roo food and get to feed the wallabies, roos, and birds. I really liked all the types of wallabies because they were supersoft, and they tended to grab your hand in both paws to hang on as they ate (scratchy claws – but not too sharp). The roos could get a bit pushy when they were hungry, which is saying something considering a couple were as big as me. Fed lots of ducks and geese, and made the mistake of feeding a grey crane which was about 5 feet tall, and it proceeded to follow me to get more, including snapping at one of the little wallabies I was feeding. And I fed an emu – which was also a bit nerve-wracking. It started to follow me, so I went over to the crocodiles. They had the largest crocodile I’ve ever seen in my life. I think it had to have been about 16 feet long at least. It was ginormous. They also had some koalas, which are such awesome creatures. They can fall asleep in almost any position. (Drop bears! Argh!) So – I felt fairly unprofessional all day (what with the petting and the feeding) but it was a lot of fun.

I had some time to kill afterwards so I wandered around the main street and did some window shopping. The town was very cute and chic. There was an outback-y pub that featured cane toad racing. I haven’t seen a cane toad, which is a good thing. Got picked up in the evening, stopped at a lookout on the ocean road, and got back into Cairns late last night.

Currently catching up on stuff, emailing about jobs in CC, finding an apartment, etc. Exchanged some books (6 for 4! Check that out – I’m paring down. I got Pride and Prejudice, the color purple, lady chatterly (so I can finish it – btw I’ve heard great things about the new movie version), and death’s acre, which is about the body farm. I’m actually enjoying P&P so far – quite the change from the last time I tried to get through it. Thinking about seeing the Simpson’s later. And finishing a reread of HP7.

musica: (does it make me a bad person if I find dance floor anthem by good charlotte insanely catchy?), Even flow – Pearl Jam,  Jenny was a friend of mine – the killers, pictures – sneaky sound system, fallin’ – alicia keys, lithium – evanescence

Tags: Travel

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