Beautiful Queensland (1)
Well, I'm currently sitting in the fantastic reading lounge of the Silky Oak Lodge, the computer (free internet, yipee) is overlooking the Mossman river which is currently very shallow (= perfect, by my books). Sound of running water is soothing my ears and as night is falling they have just lit up candles all over the lounge areas and restaurant (no window in the restaurant area, totally open to the sounds of nature, high up on wooden stilts). It's just really nice. Our room isn't as big as we'd thought and we certainly wouldn't have paid the full price for it but we have a great bathtub with spa jets (that Janet is currently enjoying whilst I'm writing this) and we have a CD player with ambience music (sounds of the sea, etc which is a nice touch). We found the most beautiful kingfisher sitting on a branch just off our balcony (with hamac, of course). And we've just completed our usual 20 lengths in the pool (again, glorious, surrended by fern and palm trees, blends in beautifully with its environment) so we feel we've earned our dinner - in 90mns' time. Janet will soon enjoy a glass of wine whilst reading the international news in the comfy reading lounge (lots of newspapers to choose from). We do feel blessed... and though I thought I'd grab this spare hour to update you on the last leg of our ventures, even if it means making you a bit green sometimes. We do appreciate your emails ! :) Especially as we're both starting to feel the dread now the countdown has started (down to minus 3 days before D-day, Departure day, ahhh).
When we arrived in Cairns we were amazed by how busy it was after the tranquility of Brampton. I actually really loved it. All the tourist trap shops were open late (which is RARE in Australia, any smaller village and you stand no chance of buying a post card after 6pm). We even happened to pass the photo gallery of Peter Lik who is currently my fav Australian photographer. He had won many awards and had some incredible landscape shots. The kind that left me feeling I knew next to nothing about light and settings... It was just a wonderful feast for the eyes. And I'm sure he's got a website with samples of his best work if you wanted to share the feast and have a glance. Please do ! :)
We had booked a room in 'The Hotel Cairns' but it was so popular that they were overbooked. As compensation they booked us in a block of brand new apartments just 2 blocks away from theirs (10mns walk from the buzz of the city centre, fab) and this was a treat too. We ended up with an award winning designer flat (the best block in Cairns we were told by our cab driver) with a massive lounge, wide screen TV, huge sofa, balcony with chairs and table on it, and a fitted kitchen with all the usual gadgets. The bedrooms were flawless too, as was the bathroom (again, real designer stuff, beautiful bath tub). Sliding doors everywhere to maximise space. Just really well done. We even had a washing machine we didn't have time to use, etc. The pool was also very arty and the biggest we'd ever had. It was just very very impressive and it ended up costing us half what the advertised price is. I think the block was called '201 Living' on Lake Street, if you want to check their website out. We were seriously spoilt. We actually wanted to be booked there again in 2 days' time, when we get back, but unfortunately they had managed to find us a standard room at the Cairns Hotel, sigh, sigh.
The day after we left Cairns at around 9am and drove West to go to the Mareeba Wetland area (highly recommended in all the travel brochures as it's a great bird sanctuary) only to find out that the sanctuary was closed on Mondays & Tuesdays - something that none of the books had mentioned. We had therefore made a 40kms detour for ... nothing. Actually, no, I tell a lie because the journey there was quite beautiful. We climbed high up on top of the Atherland Table and enjoyed glorious views of rolling hills - something I had forgotten all about, strangely. It actually reminded me very much of Costa Rica - lots of bromelias on the trees, more fern trees, etc. We had also stopped at Kuranda on the way which was a tourist trap but great fun. Lots of quaint shops with all sort of crafts and jewels, clothes and soaps, etc. Janet was in heaven and bought yet another top. I failed in my duties to restrain her because it suited her so well. I stuck to buying more post-cards even though I still haven't written 3/4 of them ! Time fails me... again.
Yesterday we decided to focus on the waterfall circuit since I'm so keen on them. On the way we went to see the famous Fig Tree, the largest in Queensland. We were also on the look-out for tree kangaroos there. They are usually nocturnal but can sometimes be spotted in the middle of the day. We did see one run across the road quite ahead of us and a tourist who was nearby stopped our car, all excited, stating that it really was a tree kangaroo but they are so well camouflaged that we couldn't see it properly again. We expected them to be the size of koalas maybe, but they are actually quite high and have a different face from the more familiar kangaroo.
We then travelled to the most famous falls in the area: Millaa Millaa Falls which I had last seen 14 years ago. It was a bit smaller than I remembered and probably with not quite as much water as back then but it was still beautiful. The next waterfall was even better though we didn't have time to find the trail that would take us to the bottom of it - instead we made do with overlooking it which was pretty neat too. We then saw another 6 but there's no point mentioning names. I will try to send photos if any of them turned out ok. I took all of them with my tripod to (hopefully) give them a nice romantic blur where the water falls.
We ended up our tour by a fall that had a large water hole where platypus can sometimes be seen at dusk (we have lost about 2 hours of daylight since coming up North), but after 15mns, we had to give up. They are very shy and you have to be very lucky. We met a few people who told us they had seen them though. A platypus is a bit like a beaver with a duck bill in the front, if you can picture it.
On & off in the day we kept hearing the deafening sound of beetles. It was incredibly loud and someone said that they all start at the same second and all stop at the same second. Really bizarre. We'd be driving with the window down and we could still hear them.
We are still plagued with bad weather though. Well, 'bad' for us, 'normal' here I guess since this is rain-forest territory. But it was overcast a lot yesterday which was so disappointing. We even had some drizzle and shower which felt like England all over again... except that it's probably sunnier in England right now, going by the reports I've had from some of you ! We felt slightly gutted over this, needless to say. Wouldn't you ?
We ended up the day going back to the Fig Tree area by night, with a torch, trying to see the elusive tree kangaroos again, in vain. We assumed they would be everywhere, just like the baby wallabies in the fields of Kangaroo Island.... fat chance. We did see a cute possum and a bandicoot (a kind of nice looking rat) which was another two ticks in our box of wildlife spotting. Janet's 'fetish' on this vacation is to take photos of all the animal signs. Just like in the UK you'd have 'mind cattle / mind children', here you have SO many more great ones, I think she's 'collected' 6 great shots already. Our latest one today was 'mind the cassawaries'... this is their territory and if we see one in the wild we are to report it as they are becoming rarer & rarer. Sigh.
We ended yesterday with a nice meal in the historical town where we were staying and then went to bed.... having ordered an early breakfast to make the most of the last few days....
Well, I'm currently sitting in the fantastic reading lounge of the Silky Oak Lodge, the computer (free internet, yipee) is overlooking the Mossman river which is currently very shallow (= perfect, by my books). Sound of running water is soothing my ears and as night is falling they have just lit up candles all over the lounge areas and restaurant (no window in the restaurant area, totally open to the sounds of nature, high up on wooden stilts). It's just really nice. Our room isn't as big as we'd thought and we certainly wouldn't have paid the full price for it but we have a great bathtub with spa jets (that Janet is currently enjoying whilst I'm writing this) and we have a CD player with ambience music (sounds of the sea, etc which is a nice touch). We found the most beautiful kingfisher sitting on a branch just off our balcony (with hamac, of course). And we've just completed our usual 20 lengths in the pool (again, glorious, surrended by fern and palm trees, blends in beautifully with its environment) so we feel we've earned our dinner - in 90mns' time. Janet will soon enjoy a glass of wine whilst reading the international news in the comfy reading lounge (lots of newspapers to choose from). We do feel blessed... and though I thought I'd grab this spare hour to update you on the last leg of our ventures, even if it means making you a bit green sometimes. We do appreciate your emails ! :) Especially as we're both starting to feel the dread now the countdown has started (down to minus 3 days before D-day, Departure day, ahhh).
When we arrived in Cairns we were amazed by how busy it was after the tranquility of Brampton. I actually really loved it. All the tourist trap shops were open late (which is RARE in Australia, any smaller village and you stand no chance of buying a post card after 6pm). We even happened to pass the photo gallery of Peter Lik who is currently my fav Australian photographer. He had won many awards and had some incredible landscape shots. The kind that left me feeling I knew next to nothing about light and settings... It was just a wonderful feast for the eyes. And I'm sure he's got a website with samples of his best work if you wanted to share the feast and have a glance. Please do ! :)
We had booked a room in 'The Hotel Cairns' but it was so popular that they were overbooked. As compensation they booked us in a block of brand new apartments just 2 blocks away from theirs (10mns walk from the buzz of the city centre, fab) and this was a treat too. We ended up with an award winning designer flat (the best block in Cairns we were told by our cab driver) with a massive lounge, wide screen TV, huge sofa, balcony with chairs and table on it, and a fitted kitchen with all the usual gadgets. The bedrooms were flawless too, as was the bathroom (again, real designer stuff, beautiful bath tub). Sliding doors everywhere to maximise space. Just really well done. We even had a washing machine we didn't have time to use, etc. The pool was also very arty and the biggest we'd ever had. It was just very very impressive and it ended up costing us half what the advertised price is. I think the block was called '201 Living' on Lake Street, if you want to check their website out. We were seriously spoilt. We actually wanted to be booked there again in 2 days' time, when we get back, but unfortunately they had managed to find us a standard room at the Cairns Hotel, sigh, sigh.
The day after we left Cairns at around 9am and drove West to go to the Mareeba Wetland area (highly recommended in all the travel brochures as it's a great bird sanctuary) only to find out that the sanctuary was closed on Mondays & Tuesdays - something that none of the books had mentioned. We had therefore made a 40kms detour for ... nothing. Actually, no, I tell a lie because the journey there was quite beautiful. We climbed high up on top of the Atherland Table and enjoyed glorious views of rolling hills - something I had forgotten all about, strangely. It actually reminded me very much of Costa Rica - lots of bromelias on the trees, more fern trees, etc. We had also stopped at Kuranda on the way which was a tourist trap but great fun. Lots of quaint shops with all sort of crafts and jewels, clothes and soaps, etc. Janet was in heaven and bought yet another top. I failed in my duties to restrain her because it suited her so well. I stuck to buying more post-cards even though I still haven't written 3/4 of them ! Time fails me... again.
Yesterday we decided to focus on the waterfall circuit since I'm so keen on them. On the way we went to see the famous Fig Tree, the largest in Queensland. We were also on the look-out for tree kangaroos there. They are usually nocturnal but can sometimes be spotted in the middle of the day. We did see one run across the road quite ahead of us and a tourist who was nearby stopped our car, all excited, stating that it really was a tree kangaroo but they are so well camouflaged that we couldn't see it properly again. We expected them to be the size of koalas maybe, but they are actually quite high and have a different face from the more familiar kangaroo.
We then travelled to the most famous falls in the area: Millaa Millaa Falls which I had last seen 14 years ago. It was a bit smaller than I remembered and probably with not quite as much water as back then but it was still beautiful. The next waterfall was even better though we didn't have time to find the trail that would take us to the bottom of it - instead we made do with overlooking it which was pretty neat too. We then saw another 6 but there's no point mentioning names. I will try to send photos if any of them turned out ok. I took all of them with my tripod to (hopefully) give them a nice romantic blur where the water falls.
We ended up our tour by a fall that had a large water hole where platypus can sometimes be seen at dusk (we have lost about 2 hours of daylight since coming up North), but after 15mns, we had to give up. They are very shy and you have to be very lucky. We met a few people who told us they had seen them though. A platypus is a bit like a beaver with a duck bill in the front, if you can picture it.
On & off in the day we kept hearing the deafening sound of beetles. It was incredibly loud and someone said that they all start at the same second and all stop at the same second. Really bizarre. We'd be driving with the window down and we could still hear them.
We are still plagued with bad weather though. Well, 'bad' for us, 'normal' here I guess since this is rain-forest territory. But it was overcast a lot yesterday which was so disappointing. We even had some drizzle and shower which felt like England all over again... except that it's probably sunnier in England right now, going by the reports I've had from some of you ! We felt slightly gutted over this, needless to say. Wouldn't you ?
We ended up the day going back to the Fig Tree area by night, with a torch, trying to see the elusive tree kangaroos again, in vain. We assumed they would be everywhere, just like the baby wallabies in the fields of Kangaroo Island.... fat chance. We did see a cute possum and a bandicoot (a kind of nice looking rat) which was another two ticks in our box of wildlife spotting. Janet's 'fetish' on this vacation is to take photos of all the animal signs. Just like in the UK you'd have 'mind cattle / mind children', here you have SO many more great ones, I think she's 'collected' 6 great shots already. Our latest one today was 'mind the cassawaries'... this is their territory and if we see one in the wild we are to report it as they are becoming rarer & rarer. Sigh.
We ended yesterday with a nice meal in the historical town where we were staying and then went to bed.... having ordered an early breakfast to make the most of the last few days....
posted by Sylvie at 8:44 AM
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