Extraordinary landscape

There is an amazing number of gorges, waterfalls and swimming holes near Cairns. There is much to explore and be awed by. We’ve been to Crystal Cascades, Mossman Gorge, Babinda Boulders, Behana Gorge, Barron Gorge and Barron Falls, Davies Creek, Kearney Falls, and Crater Lakes National Park. These helped to convince us to make Cairns our base for the cyclone season.

Plastic paradise

We’ve also explored remote beaches near Cairns and Fitzroy Island. We’ve again been disappointed to see once-beautiful beaches littered with plastic detritus washed and blown in by the prevailing south-easterly winds and swell. Bottles, coloured lids, containers, crates, buoys, thongs, shoe parts, bags, toothbrushes, fishing line, rope, nets, you-name-it-we-found-it. Sadly, this stuff doesn’t break down, it just disintegrates into smaller particles, but something still thinks it’s a good dinner option. If enough is consumed the animal dies an unpleasant death. If not, the toxins in the plastic enter the food chain. Our food chain. We should care out of self-interest if nothing else.

Job satisfaction

There’s only one thing to do. We have purpose-built bags. We have time. It takes about an hour to clean a small beach. Instead of feeling disappointed by our species and helpless in the face of multiple impending environmental catastrophes, doing something about it eases this pain slightly. Picking up and removing every piece of plastic we can find feels good. It’s a small thing compared with the calamity we have dumped on nature, and considering the country-sized floating plastic zones in the ocean it’s insignificant, but it’s cathartic.

Strange tidings

Matey was interested to notice the tide at Cairns in the last months of 2013 (as the solstice approached). Until Cairns we’d encountered only semi-diurnal tides (two highs and two lows each day). But in Cairns, for a few days after the full moon the tide became diurnal (just one high and one low each day). This makes the water in Trinity Inlet unusually calm, as not only is the difference between high and low small, as it takes twice as long to occur the water flow is very slight. This was a welcome change from the usual strong flow, which when combined with opposing wind makes the trip ashore unpleasant at times. With even the slightest wind it’s a large enough body of water to create quite a bit of chop, so the slow flow made getting ashore a much more pleasant experience. 

Waitimg

Currently, we are tied up in a mangrove creek, with sandflies and the odd mosquito for friends, waiting to feel the effects of the likely cyclone tomorrow, assuming the tropical low in the Coral Sea develops into one. At this stage the forecast is for at worst a category 2 cyclone, so it should be an interesting experience without us being thrown in at the deep end. Still, it will coincide with king tides, which could add an extra layer of excitement. Maybe too much. To be revealed. The inland regions will no doubt be glad of the rain it brings.

Post Script: Cyclone Dylan hit the coast far to the south of us. Conditions were so calm in the mangroves on Admiralty Island the only damage occurred in final sandfly raid. The damage was not insubstantial.

Sunset at Fitzroy Island

Path to Barron Gorge

Barron Gorge

Lake Eacham

Doing it tough

View on the way to Fitzroy summit

Plastic horror

Capt with plastic bag and cleaning suit

A beach pre-clean-up

Once was turtle. Maybe this one gagged on plastic.

Something bit this 

A dinghy load of crap

Lashed down expecting cyclone

Hiding from cyclone Dylan in a mangrove creek

Sandflies were greedy friends 

Unusual view out of the galley window

Behana Gorge

Kearney Falls

Josephine Falls

Friends, family and forest fix

We were soon to be reunited with friends and visiting family. Cairns has a ‘city’ feel, which provided a shock at first, but it meant the facilities and services of ‘civilisation’ were available. A broken oar could be replaced and parts were sourced. Boat maintenance was possible. We caught up with Craig, Mya, Alan, Natalia and the wonderfully generous Megs, who has helped us out on numerous occasions. Matey had cousins to visit. On a trip to Port Douglas we met up with Susie, Mick, Nigel and Sam, and their amazing accommodation! We also had an evening in Palm Cove with Eleanor, Virginia, James, Patrick and the extraordinary Pippa. Great to see you all, folks!

Daintree delights
Not sure how long we had before the northerly winds arrive, which mean we need to go south again a.s.a.p. before cyclone season, we eventually decided to hope they'll hold off for a while longer and do a road trip into the Daintree. (Actually, it was supposed to include the Atherton Tablelands’ waterfalls and caves too, but Captain couldn’t be dragged from the forest. Matey wasn’t too disappointed about this, having always found peace in a fern-forest (yes, we did hire a Hippie Camper!) and was very happy to finally get to this beautiful place. Sadly, Captain found it much changed from when he muddied himself there as a lad on a motor-bike 30 years previously (perhaps the forest found Captain changed too? Cleaner and greener anyway.) We were relieved to find a Rainforest Rescue program underway, and by chance met two of its directors at a waterhole. It was delightful to listen to smart business brains put to good use.

We did every walk and boardwalk we could find, including climbing Mt Sorrow, apparently for ‘experienced’ hikers. Legs have felt the experience ever since. We searched high and low and finally, were lucky enough to see a Cassowary, wandering beside the path towards the picnic tables at the Jindalba Boardwalk. It decided on a nap there for the afternoon as when we returned after the longer of the two walks it was still not far from where we had first seen it, dozing peacefully. 

We explored the creeks where we could and found numerous waterholes. Being school holidays it was busy, and having to share these beautiful places with the crowds took some getting used to, but we managed to find some quiet places away from the throngs, just by walking upstream.

We were impressed with the Daintree Discovery Centre. Finding information about the environment we’re travelling through is not always easy, but this is a great example of an eco-tourism business doing it well. There was ample information, the staff were helpful, interested and well-informed, and there was even an ecologist giving quirky talks on aspects of the forest. It was worth a return visit and well worth the entry fee.

Sam and their view at Port Douglas

Matey muses on the magnificence of aged trees

Comedian meets tourist trail

Ancient work of art (the strangler fig)

Temporary accommodation

Climbing Mt Sorrow

Good rope?

Emmagen Creek upstream from the masses

View from Mt Sorrow

Wearied by Mt Sorrow?

Epiphytes

Scrambling down Mt Sorrow

Orange footed scrub fowl

Fan palm forest heaven

Blue water hole

First sighting

Nanna-nap time

Every incredibly old fern that has survived humans deserves a kiss!

Palm island

View from canopy tower at Daintree Discovery Centre 

Saw shelled turtle

The Matey is still pondering what might inspire one to wear teabags as earrings ...