Dec 26 Cairns

Boxing Day, a traditional English holiday, celebrated in Australia with lots of things on sale.  Just like the US.

We gathered again in the rental car and headed north, this time much further up the road.  We passed the sugar cane fields again.  Here's a set of boxcars on the narrow gauge railroad that runs along the plantations to transport the product to market.

Our first stop was Mossman Gorge, a narrow river channel through the Daintree Rainforest.  The visitor center has an interesting rain gutter system, with the rain channels down on the ground.  When it rains it probably comes too fast for anything smaller to handle it.

There's an elevated walkway through the rainforest taking you to the gorge.  You can see the remains of a wooden walkway down below which was the path during what Peter & Jenny refer to as the good old days.

 I don't know.  But definitely male and aggressively defending his territory.

 Rainforest

 

Bridge across the gorge.  Although sturdily built, it undulated as you walked across it.

Due to flash flooding concerns, swimming was not allowed at this time.  About half the people on the shuttle bus had towels and swim suits with them.

Place name translated from native language to English

 A long, winding road leads to the Daintree River which has not been bridged.  Instead, we got to ferry across -- both ways.  Ferry probably holds 20 cars at capacity and takes 5 minutes to go across.  And the captain and traffic controller do it all day long.

 An ocean overlook from the rainforest

 Cape Tribulation, named by Captain Cook after the Great Barrier Reef had put a large hole in the bottom of his boat.  Just north of here, in Cooktown, they beached the boat and repaired the hole so the voyage could continue.  This is the end of the paved road, and where we turned back south.

 We didn't see any crossing, but cassowaries are present in the area.  Based on the statue next to the ferry crossing, they are are near ostrich sized birds and eat large hunks of fruit.  In keeping with the Australian animal tradition, they are the world's most dangerous bird and can kill or maim humans if cornered.

 Overlook on the drive back.  There were miles and miles, excuse me, kilometers and kilometers of undeveloped coastline north of Cairns.  Of course, you can't go INTO the water since the creatures of the sea will try to kill you, but it's nice to look at.

 In a field just north of Cairns, wallabies were feeding.

 And most were smart enough to stay in the shade.  It was HOT.

 In downtown Cairns, right across from the Avis car rental stand, the tree was full of bats.  These guys were big, probably about a foot long from feet to head.  They were constantly moving their wings, perhaps to fan themselves even though there was fair breeze blowing.  They must eat something bigger than insects to grow that big.

 Back aboard at golden hour, the harbor of Cairns

 A great sunset over the hills surrounding the harbor.  If I had included the wider shot you could have appreciated the cement plant and oil storage tanks in the foreground.