150 Million Years ago- it still exists here.

Next Stop? The Daintree Rainforest!

So 430 is my new 'rise and shine' time. Is that not insane? Either way, our 4WD coach was coming to pick us up at 6am to take us far up the Cpt. Cook Hwy today to visit the Daintree Rainforest.  

What excited me the most was that we were on our way to visit one of the oldest rainforests in the world - a World Heritage site and at minimum, a forest that has been in existence for over 150 million years.  Where in other parts of the world you might find a leaf or an animal that only exists in fossil form... we were going to get to see them in living color.  It's like traveling through time, getting to touch the hand of God, getting to see something that has been quietly and powerfully alive since before modern human beings were even a thought.  

The drive to the Daintree rainforest is like being transported back in time, to a place that has been virtually untouched.  It's almost as dark as night on the floor under the high canopy, and almost cold.  We walked past trees that were so tall that you couldn't see the top, King Ferns with arms that reach 9 feet in any direction, vines that could only grow up by reaching with spikes so sharp that just brushing by them, they'd grab you and give you a painful rash that lasts for weeks (no, the Lawyer vine as it's commonly called didn't get either of us).  The moss on the trees and boulders is so thick, running my hand over it was like running my hand over wet, luxuriously plush carpet.  

And the sounds of the forest... deafening silence broken only by the call of some exotic bird high above the visible tree line.  It's the stuff of brilliant dreams that you live you whole life to experience.  It humbles, inspires... makes you feel so small and so human.  The air is so pure, you breathe it in and you are charged with a very potent energy.   I've lived my whole life for this moment.  

I liken it to walking into some sacred holy land... a cathedral.  Above me the ferns and fronds and leaves form the highest ceiling - Michelangelo couldn't have done it better.  

There's a silence that speaks to me in this place. It quiets me in ways that nothing else could ever - and it's exactly what I needed.  I don't get to be that quiet that often, and when you're me, you take it where and when you can get it.  

One of our stops was Cape Tribulation.  Captain Cook suffered particular troubles while sailing in this area, running into large coral and putting a gaping whole in his boat.  Thusly, he named this cape, Cape Tribulation to mark this experience.  But it's breathtaking.  The beach stretches for miles along the coast.  You could walk straight to the Coral Sea for 500 feet and still only be chest deep.  And you'd do it walking along soft, powdery clay that glitters as though it's made of ground diamonds. 

We noticed very curious sand "sculptures" while walking along the beach.  I suspect this is the excreted sand from some sort of shellfish eating along the beach.  We'll have to do some research but this is my best educated guess.  

When walking into what can only be described as the warmest most perfect bath water, I noticed little crabs and fish right along the floor.  As I watched, a tiny striped fish swam by my feet and then turned around and came back to my left foot, curiously stopping by my pinky toe to inspect.  It stared at my foot, my pinky toe, and I stared at this little fish, wondering why it was so interested in my little toe.  And then I found out - it darted forward and took a little nip at my toe.  Of course I hopped clear out of the water out in a sort of shock, panic and dread.  This little fish wasn't so little in the first place, but I can tell you that it's amazing how quickly a little fish becomes several inches larger when it decides to snack on one's pinky toe.  It might as well have been a barracuda.  I realized very quickly that it didn't hurt that much.  It was really just this odd interaction that caused me to jump up and twirl above the surface, before plunking back down and  laughing with Brian.  Of course he caught my ballet move on camera before filming the fish take a nip at his foot.  It was really quite funny.  Just another experience I can add to the novel I'm writing! 

We also ventured to the Daintree River, home of some very large salt-water crocodiles, several species of mangroves and a few thousand birds and insects.  

At Mossman Gorge, you can hear the rush of falling water all around you, you can feel the mist in the air and you are surrounded by bus-sized boulders setting in cold, clear water at the bottom of the gorge.  Catfish and Perch swim by your feet and the ice cold water chills your legs with an ache of winter ice.  It would have been very easy to set up camp and live there for a few hundred years..

At the end our day, as we cleaned the powdery, glittery sand off of our legs and feet, took a few last looks at the beauty that surrounded us...at this place...the only place in the world where two World Heritage sites meet....where the rainforest meets the reef - it was easy to feel at peace, easy to feel as though every little thing was going to be okay. It's the kind of place that makes troubles seem small and insignificant and connected you so wholly and completely to the earth that it was impossible to walk away the same girl as when I walked in.  I took my last few pictures and smelled the rainforest air one last time, felt the salt bath of the Coral Sea...I promised myself that we'd come back.  I am leaving pieces of my heart all over this strange land.  

Goodnight...

m

Agincourt Reef and my own action hero!

Early the next morning, we took a coach far up the Cpt. Cook Highway to Port Douglas.  

There we boarded a vessel that took us to the semi-permanent pontoon fixed in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef.  Our destination? Agincourt Reef – a ribbon reef near the edge of the continental shelf in the Coral Sea. 

The boat that took us out was a needle-hull catamaran that was over 150 feet in length and glided so effortlessly on the water’s surface that you barely knew you were on the water.  The ship was considered a “wave-piercer” and you really felt nothing as we shot across the water and headed out to sea.  As we travelled, we shared some tea and biscuits and booked a snorkeling tour with in-house marine biologists, Suz and Matty. 

 

In retrospect, I’m more than glad that we decided to book this bio-tour because otherwise, I really feel that we would be have been too awe-struck to swim anywhere, but would have instead just peered through our goggles and floated with the current until the end of time, staring and marveling at the beauty that lives just barely beneath the water’s surface.

Upon arrival at the pontoon, we put on all of our gear: Lycra body suit (to protect us from stingers such as jellies), black wetsuit (which was an excellent insulator and doubled as added buoyancy), fins, mask and snorkel.  We also had rented an underwater camera …which was essential for me.  I cannot go for longer than a few minutes without taking a picture of something.  This once in a lifetime experience was no exception.   

On a side note: I fell over laughing at Brian today!  First of all, I’ve learned that Brian is not a fan of wearing head-to-toe Lycra.  But really, who would be? Did you know Brian is a fan of Superman? Well if not, yes he is, ever since he was a little boy.  So this means that Brian owns several Superman t-shirts.  One of his favorites is a gray sleeveless T.  Brian scurried off to put on his Lycra suit and I waited holding our gear and ‘whatnot.’   And then it happened.  Out he came, head-to-toe blue Lycra, unzipped, exposing his “S.”   And of course, Brian works out, a lot.  So when one sees a guy, wearing head-to-to Lycra, with super “s” exposed, looking quite like a superhero, a girl just has to fall over laughing.  My husband is Superman.  Several people around me must have thought the same thing because in a variety of languages, I heard laughter and the word “superman” uttered. We all had a good laugh and exchanged a moment.  Some German lady said to me, “Picture!” and motioned for me to take a picture of him.  And take a picture I did.   

We followed our biologist down to the reef entrance level, where we sat on a semi-submersed deck and put on our fins.  Helpful snorkeling tip for you: before you put on your mask, spit in it.  Yup, spit.  Put a decent amount of spit on each lens, rub it around with your finger making sure to cover all the glass and then dunk it in the water to rinse it before putting it on.  Doing this will prevent the mask from fogging up. 

Brian and I gave each other one final glance before sliding into the cool, clear, salty water of the reef.  And this was the first moment that took my breath away.  Below me, approximately 15 meters below me, existed a blue world.  All I could see was an expanse of white sands and coral and thousands of fish gliding around.  I forgot to breathe for a second and inhaled.  All you could hear coming out of my snorkel, however, was an extended exclamation and sigh.  Something like “Wowaaaaaaahhh” followed by another gasp and then repeated exclamation…this time more like “whoaaaaa.”  Popping my ears up for a second, I realized that I wasn’t the only one.  Brian was reacting in chorus and the two of us exchanged diver signs for “OK” and off we swam, bug-eyed and awe-struck. 

Suz lead us to a deep part of the reef where below lived this entire alien universe.  Pristine white stands, mountainous corals, incredible variety of exotic fish and giant clams.  Now on that note, when I say giant, I mean GIANT.  Picture Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck – the cartoon oyster that housed the pearl that closed around the shrunken Daffy? Well I think that either of us could have fit into that clam just as easily, but no one would have to shrink us!   It’s not likely for me to successfully describe it other than to say that it is the thing that inspires imagination and is impossibly large and old.  At minimum it was 4 feet by 3 feet by 2 feet perhaps? It had a scalloped edge that was covered with soft green algae.  It just sat there, allowing the current to bring food.  Suz dove to brush her hand by its florescent green eye-spot and slowly, ever so slowly the clam began to close.  One would have to be incredibly slow to get trapped within the giant reef clam, to be sure!

At any given time, in any direction you cared to look or point, you would, no doubt, be looking at something amazing.   Beneath us passed schools of baby barracuda, trumpet fish, fox-faced rabbitfish, yellow butterfly fish, schools of indescribably tiny blue and green fish.  Then of course you are looking at stag horn coral, brain coral, other varieties of hard and soft coral.  Suz would dive deeper and bring up various creatures.  Now you aren’t allowed to dive down and touch anything – coral is alive, as are the sea stars, snails, sea cucumbers.  Touching these delicate creatures would certainly harm them and it’s important to respect the environment.  Call me a bleeding heart liberal hippie (and I’ll thank you!!) but watching some of the other tourists disregard the rules of this World Heritage site, diving down and breaking off pieces of coral (at times razor sharp coral mind you), ignites in me a sort of rage that rarely bubbles to my surface.  But I digress.  Suz would bring a creature to the surface, talk a bit about it and then ask us to gently and respectfully pass it around and then she would return it to where it lived.  During this dive, we held a giant sea cucumber and giant sea snail, some staghorn coral and a mushroom coral. 

When holding the mushroom coral, it began to ooze this clear slimy secretion that I’m told offers excellent anti-aging qualities.  I also want to mention how amazingly salty the water is in the Coral Sea.  Once you enter the water, which is cool for only a second, but then instantly feels like the most luxurious bath water, it splashes a bit in your mouth and it tastes like the saltiest water on earth.  It also makes your skin feel delicious!  Not only did I get to experience the reef, but also felt as though I spent a day at the spa.  That’s a win-win for any girl!

The one thing both of us wanted to see was a shark.  Any shark would do of course, but I wouldn’t accept travelling for over 24 hours by plane, coming to the Southern Hemisphere, the other side of the world, go Down Under, take a 2 hour boat ride to the continental shelf and not see a shark! And wouldn’t you know, whilst diving, out from under a little shelf of coral popped a 4 -to 5-foot White Tipped Reef shark! Suz knew him and said he lives there year after year and has lovingly named him “Bitey.”  And being the superior photog that I am (sniff), I got a couple shots of him a mere 5 feet from us.  Of course, as soon as he saw us, he shot right back under his little coral shelf to hide from us.  Please don’t make the mistake of falling into the “Jaws” mentality and assume that sharks are violent people-eaters.  You couldn’t be more wrong.  In the case of most sharks, they are extremely shy, beautiful, sleek and subtle creatures that want nothing more than to live in their homes and eat their food and be, and do that as far away from things like scary human beings as possible.  Under the water, Brian and I exchanged our “OK” dive sign and swam along.  We slowly made our way back to the platform, taking in every single moment, stretching it with every push of my fin, every breath I took, and once again, to take it with me.  I will never forget this experience.  (and yes, I will be doing this again and again) 

 

We’re on to the rainforest tomorrow.  So after a day of paddling and diving and snorkeling, I do believe it’s time to get some shuteye and recharge for tomorrow’s adventure. 

 

Cheers and love,

m

**For ALL reef shots, you'll have to wait until we return to the states, as I have a card from the camera I rented with all 164 shots... and alas, no way to download them at the moment.  Guess you'll have to come to our BBQ in August!**

PS - Incidentally, the island below is the one where they filmed that God awful movie The Island of Dr. Moreau.  The woman that owned it used to rent it out to morons after the movie's debut for $45,000 per night ...Eh, a mere bag of shells!

Hello Cairns (Pronounced “cans” as in cans of soda)

Unlike the buzz of Brissie or the quaint country charm of the Glass House Mountains, Cairns is centered in a tropical paradise – through its veins throb a lifeblood provided by tourism and a thousand backpackers – all of it centralized around little trendy bistros and cafes.  It’s decorated with palms and the music is provided by the lorikeets that live in the mango trees.  You can smell the pawpaw (passionfruit), pineapple and bananas, and everywhere you look, you see hectares of sugarcane.  Did I mention the sunrise over the salt flats, where the sea birds and plovers catch their early morning breakfast? Of course, this is all bordered by the aquamarine of the Coral Sea.  There is nothing like it in the world.  Nothing. 

 

By the way, this was the view from my room. 

 

Day one in Cairns really was just an evening.  We arrived pretty late.  We walked around town and looked for a laundry.  We had accumulated quite a bit and had intended to do it ourselves in the hotel.  Having never stayed in a 5-star hotel, I guess we didn’t realize that they don’t have DIY laundry room…and I certainly wasn’t going to pay a maid 6 bucks/per to wash my undies and whatnot.  We walked through the twists and turns of the bent grid of Cairns, finding a tiny laundry filled with backpackers and no coin machine.  Drat! You know what that means? Hoof it back to the hotel.  Except that we didn’t want to flip-flop it back, so we took a cabbie and went out to dinner instead. 

 

We landed in the Waterbar Grill – a chic little steakhouse and bar.  On the menu? Salt and pepper squid and garlic bread.  A burger and chips for the main.  But the salt and pepper squid … AMAZING!! I’m hungry just thinking about it!  Think calamari…but better. 

 

We didn’t spend much time out however.  We had an early day exploring this little tropical paradise. 

 

The beauty of Cairns is that no matter where you look, you see something beautiful.  On our way to the Scenic Railway up to Kuranda, we had some morning tea and biscuits.  A little fun fact for you: biscuits are really cookies.   

 

Step one of our journey was to arrive by coach at the Scenic Railway station.  From there we would begin our ascent up to Kuranda.  After exploring Kuranda, we were to take the Skyrail back down the mountain range, high atop the tree canopy. 

 

The train up to Kuranda took us through the heart of the rainforest.  Every 15 meters we went forward, we also went up 1 meter in height – over amazing bridges and through various tunnels.  Through the twists and turns of the track and all throughout our slow but steady ascent, there were spectacular views of the area – the Coral Sea all the way to the endless green of rainforest.  

According to the locals, Kuranda was settled by hippies.  Here people escaped common society to live together far up in the rainforest, living off the land, sharing their talents and helping each other survive, while entertaining tourists who ventured to visit this small rainforest town.  Today, the town is still small, and can only be reached by the one road that goes to and from it.  Of course there are several tourist shops, cafes and other attractions. The one we visited was the butterfly sanctuary.  Once again, anyone that knows me knows that I adore butterflies.  The amazing thing about this sanctuary was that there were so many exotic and beautiful butterflies.  So many butterflies landed on us, drank us a bit and fluttered away.  The Ulysses butterflies were everywhere.  These are my favorite of all butterflies – the underside of their wings is brown and very moth like, but all the artwork occurs on the topside of the wings.  There you see a stunning aqua, blue and purple iridescence that glimmers and shimmers as they flutter by.   Most exciting was the Cairns bird wing butterfly unique for its bird wing-shaped wings (in case you couldn’t figure that out for yourself!)  We spent quite a lot of time in the sanctuary, soaking in the quiet and the beauty in a meditative state.  I love when butterflies land on me.  They kept trying to drink Brian’s Steelers jersey and my blue tank top.  I never get tired of butterflies and their magic.  And yes, I pretty much expected to feel right at home in a town founded by hippies.

Anyway, on the descent down the mountain, we floated down on a sky-rail high above the tree line.  At a few points we were permitted to get off the rail at a station and walk around a bit – we were able to see waterfalls, spiders, cockatoos, ancient trees and breathtaking landscapes. 

 

It’s hard to explain what it feels like for me to be exposed to so much beauty all at once.  There is this calm that washes over, coating me like a thick, golden honey that doesn’t wash off – it has soaked in and through and imprinted itself on me and my memory.  I’ll take it with me where ever I go.

 

Xo

m

PS - we also went to Hartley's Crocodile Adventures - home of the "original" crocodile death roll show.  Here's two shots of a croc leaping out of the water to eat some fish...by the way...these are NOT pet crocs or part of any zoo...these are wild crocs that the Hartley people bait off the shore to show us their intense power.   When their jaws slam shut it is the most intense sound I've ever heard... 3000 pounds per square inch.  Brian likened the sound to taking a cast iron lid and slamming it down perfectly on a cast iron pot.  WHOMP! and there's no way to impress you with it. But just know that if you were a wallaby who bent down to take a cool drink from the river - up from a the water would leap a croc and it would clamp down on your head with such ferocity that you would be dead instantly ...which of course would be a good thing, because it would rip you to pieces, twist by twist.  Crocs should be respected.  End of story.

Our Farewell to Crookneck

Though it was our last day in the Glass House Mountains, we really couldn’t do that much because our flight was fairly early in the day – certainly morning hours… The night before, talking to Bret, he mentioned that if we had the time, we could all climb Mt. Ngungun.  Obviously, we wanted to do that! So, we got up at 5am (not that difficult, because for whatever reason, we can’t seem to sleep much past 430 these days.)  Out we went at 630 to climb with Bret. 

 

We entered a fairly flat path through the gates and the world was instantly transformed into untouched earth.  And that might be what I most love about this country.  There is just so much of it that hasn’t been destroyed by human beings.  There’s a respect for nature, a law in fact that nothing can be removed or destroyed – yes, that means even crocodiles make the rules along the estuarine rivers. As we walked, we saw indigenous flora and fauna (mostly flora, as the birds are easier to hear than see, and the wallabies are sleeping or sunning at that hour in grass plains.)  

And before too long, the paths were climbing.  Equally as beautiful is how the paths are thoughtful.  Unlike hiking trails and paths I’ve often walked in the States, these paths have charm.  They are made from the nature around them – large rocks for stairs, packed clay for the path itself…no smelly blacktop pavement.  And every once in a while I saw a tree with initials carved into it…from some couple that must have walked it before us. 

 

Before to long, the path was virtually at a 45 degree angle, over rocks and boulders, roots and clay.  And we were climbing and getting the blood flowing right good! We passed two caves that according to legend, were the original homes of the aboriginal elders of the clan of that area.  By the way, on that note: Ngungun is pronounced with a not quite silent “n.” So technically it’s not “gun gun”…just first make the “n” sound.  It’s really quite simple. 

 

After our 25-minute climb over what we later discovered was a moderate- to difficult-rated climb, we arrived at the gorgeous, breathtaking summit.  We had climbed about 600 meters and could see all of the Glass House/Hinterland region.  Our amazing and very cool host, Bret, had arranged in his pack a thermos of Milo and a pack of Chocolate TimTams for our brekkie atop Ngungun.  He pulled out some mugs from home and graciously offered us this amazing, once-in-a-lifetime breakfast that will certainly stay with me the rest of my life.  For those of you that have never heard of it before – Milo is basically a chocolate breakfast drink, similar to hot chocolate but with more healthy benefits such as added protein, vitamins, etc.  It also lacks that “tooth rotting” sweetness of American…well American anything – This was absolutely lovely, since neither of us really love painfully sweet things.  It was simply delicious and was perfectly paired with the delectable TimTam.  The three of us sat on top of the mountain, took pictures and talked about what people talk about when they are sitting on top of a mountain, watching the sunrise. 

 

We so enjoyed our time at the Crookneck Retreat and have already decided that when we return to Australia, we will be returning to Bret and Megan Standring and their amazing retreat tucked into the macadamia orchard within arms reach of Coonowrin and company.  It was nothing short of magical and we loved every single second. 

 

 

 

have you climbed a mountain today?

love, peace and milo...

m

More from our morning hike: