Days 28-30: The Rain in Cairns
Flew from Auckland, NZ to Cairns, Australia. Note Cairns is pronounced like “cans.”
The Great Barrier Reef from the plane.
Spent three days in Cairns waiting for good snorkelling weather, but the 20-30 knot winds put the kibosh on that (you know it’s not good snorkelling when the commissioned sales people are telling you to wait – appearantly this has been going on for three weeks now).
So what do you do in the rain? You go to the rainforest. We rented a car for the day and went to the Atherton Tablelands and checked out the rainforest and some nice waterfalls (there was plenty of water). We got a few jokes about the tiny car we rented: “you could have lost that in a pothole.”
Us and Millaa Millaa Falls. Appearantly this waterfall is used in many commercials – Marcus felt compelled to shampoo his hair.
The wild brush turkeys were plentiful on our walks.
Lots of enormous strangler fig trees – this one was the Cathederal Fig. Huge!
On the way back to Cairns we stopped by the Mareeba Golf Course which was really hopping. On top of sandtraps, and deep rough, golfers are presented with an additional obstacle: tons of wild kangaroos. (We actually watched a lady barely clear some ‘roos and she didn’t even yell ‘fore’.)
A rare sight indeed! No, not the kangaroos on the golf course – Marcus has hair.
Whazuuuuppppp?
The trees in Cairns are filled with large flying foxes (or fuzzy fruit bats). They were quite fun to watch at dusk as they took to the skies. They were a very talkative (noisy) bunch too. We have noted that Queensland is remarkably free of flying insects (mosquitos, sandflies, etc.) probably due to the geckos, spiders, and bats.
Tags: Australia
Kelly & Marcus
April 14th, 2005 at 7:40 am
Are there still signs at Milla Milla that say “Caution: Stinging Trees in Rainforest. Do Not Touch”? That sign was the point where Eric and I realized that everything (snakes, platypi, spiders, now the trees…) in Australia seems to be poisonous. When were at Milla Milla Falls it was before the wet started, and there was a lot less vegetation than you guys are seeing. Cool to see the difference!
If you go to Port Douglas, be forewarned that there are sandflies (or something equally annoying) if you’re along the mouth of the river. But it’s a lovely place otherwise.
April 14th, 2005 at 7:44 am
Looking good guys…nice hair Marcus, good to see you can still grow it out if you want to. FYI – Don’t get too close to those Kangaroos…even though they look cuddly, they can turn on you (I saw it on “When Animals Attack”…viscious, think of the bunny outside the cave in the Holy Grail…).
Post more often. Great pics.
April 14th, 2005 at 8:14 am
Great pictures guys – love the ‘roos – how cool is that! Nice hair Marc 🙂
Good to know what you are up to…
Hugs xoxox
April 14th, 2005 at 10:59 am
Was the turkey picture the one with the hair?
April 14th, 2005 at 4:07 pm
Hi Marc and Kelly Your pictures are wonderful. Sorry about all the rain but it’s to be expected where you are. We were there in Sept and had lots of rain also. Ithink your kangaroo shots are wonderful. Ihope the weather clears soon for you ,you will love the Barrarer Reef. Love Gramdma Peggy
April 15th, 2005 at 1:32 am
Glad you guys like the pictures! Yeah, it’s gotta rain a bit for this place to look so good.
In the high-res picture you’ll see that turkey has more hair on its head than I do.
No “stinging trees” signs that we saw, but lots of jellyfish signs all over the place.
These roos were pretty calm. Considering they have people swinging clubs at them all day, a bozo with a camera probably doesn’t scare them much.