September 17-19
Spring break (yes it's spring here on the opposite side of the equator) had come and our plans for an epic trip along the tropical NE side of Australia were finally to become reality. We flew to Cairns, Queensland on Thursday night to find a humid, hot, Miami-like town on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. A bit of exploration the next day revealed that every other shop in the CBD was either a cheezy souvenir shop or an adventure booking company urging us to go snorkeling, scuba diving, skydiving, bungee jumping, four wheeling, rafting, etc. etc. There was also no beach. Their substitute was a man-made swimming lagoon complete with saltwater and real sand that set on the edge of the ocean (this may have been beneficial considering the ocean off Cairns is teeming with more things that can kill you than I can name: saltwater crocs, sharks, poisonous jellyfish, poisonous shellfish, you get the idea). If you've ever seen Seven Pounds with Will Smith, he kills himself with one of these box jellyfish. They're terrifying and apparently put you through the worst pain UNimaginable before you die. However, I didn't have to rely on any of these terrible creatures to make me sick, for I had arrived with a sore throat and clogged ears that wouldn't pop for a few days after flying. Oh well, at least I didn't have to listen to the screams of drunk tourists at night.
I did have the pleasure to listen to a number of buskers throughout the CBD, both at night and during the day. I have to say some of them sucked. I swore I saw some people actually take money OUT of their turned over hats and guitar cases they were so bad. However, Friday night we found John Butler's twin outside the local McD's.
The next day, Chris and I killed time in the morning and then rented two banana yellow scooters for the afternoon. This was probably the best use of $40 I'd ever come across. We zipped around town, on the left side of the road which is ridiculous, and then took off into the hills. It felt like we were driving through Nam. The rain sporadically poured on us as we meandered through sugar cane fields, large open expanses of farm and fields, and eventually made our way into the rainforest. Our destination was Crystal Cascades, where a creek cascaded through the rainforest. This was the first true tropical rainforest I had been in, and it was an incredible experience. The density and complexity of vegetation was mindblowing. Once I got over that, I began to look closely at the things I was passing, what was on the ground, growing on the trees, etc. and found a whole nother world of life. In the creek, schools of some kind of spotted, bass-like fish swarmed the pools and investigated as we waded into the clear but brown-stained waters. On our way out of the forest, the rain began to pour harder than I have ever experience and I realized why it is called the rainforest. However, it was incredibly enjoyable and cleansing, even despite my lingering cold.
The following day, with nothing planned, I set out on foot to explore the marina and new parts of downtown. I ran into some exotic birds along the way, but what was most interesting was the batcave I came across. It wasn't actually a cave, more of just the day time hang out for thousands of large fruit bats known as Flying Foxes. They were stationed in only a few trees in a small park corner of downtown but made enough of a racket to be heard from blocks away. At dusk, we watched as they all flew up into the hills, towards the rainforest we had visited the day before, to feed. Sure enough, they returned the next morning at dawn to rest in their daytime downtown abode.
Next installment: snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef
No comments:
Post a Comment