Tropical North Queensland

We’ve returned from Tropical North Queensland after a successful two weeks of adventure. We left on Saturday, July 5^th the day after Mark’s 49^th birthday and America’s 232^nd birthday. There was a noticeable absence of fireworks here. We flew up north to Cairns (pronounced ‘Cans’). We met Diane, Tracy and Andrew up there as they’d gone up two days before us. Together we barely stuffed all 7 of us and our luggage including someone’s golf clubs into a mini-van and drove an hour north to Port Douglas to a 3-bedroom apartment where we stayed for eight days.

Port Douglas reminded me some of Seabrook Island, one of the resort-style barrier islands outside Charleston, South Carolina where my Grandma lives. But it is more wild and tropical than that. The little town hosts 5 blocks of high-end stores and restaurants with diving, boating and snorkeling outfits scattered conveniently throughout the town for tourists to pop in and book their dream trip to the Great Barrier Reef.

These are the Sunday Markets where we watched a skillful man crack open coconuts with a huge machete and stick a straw in them for people to drink.

There are quite a few interesting aspects to the northern tropics of Australia, not the least of which are the resident crocodiles. The relatively small and non-man-eating freshwater crocs thrive in the rivers but they will get scarcely more than a nod on this blog compared to their menacing, spiny, evil-looking giant relatives: The Salties. Saltwater crocodiles are the reason there are signs everywhere warning tourists of their existence. Apparently, Germans need to have it spelled out for them more than any other non-English speaking tourist as all the signs read, “Achtung” (‘danger’ in German) next to the picture of the open-mouthed crocodile.

Salties live in the muddy rivers that flow down from the jungled hills into the ocean but they can also live quite happily in the ocean itself. You just never know. There are signs around areas where crocs have been spotted so we just took their word for it and stayed out of the water altogether. However, Port Douglas, in its civilized way, has one beach that is patrolled and in which it is safe to swim. It’s far enough away from the mouth of the river that crocs aren’t likely to swim up that far.

While we were up there, we saw two crocs on our own, three on a crocodile cruise down the Daintree River and two more in captivity. None of them failed to stop us all in our tracks. But the thing about crocs is that mostly, they don’t move. Especially in the winter (which it is down here right now) because they are in semi-hibernation mode, focusing all their attentions on staying warm enough to remain alive. It is because they don’t move that I found it most interesting how long each of those seven crocs could hold our attention. They were so not moving that they might as well have been made of plaster and yet, we were mesmerized. There’s something indescribably fascinating to human beings, it seems, to see an evil looking prehistoric animal that has not just the power but the inclination to come chasing after us to eat us up. It was as though we could all see blood dripping off its teeth and hear the screams of the person it was currently digesting.

In keeping with the wild carnivorous animal theme, I regretfully report that we only saw two non-venomous tree snakes, though Queensland is the home to more venomous snakes than any other state in Australia and Australia, as many of you know, is chocked full of deadly snakes. We also didn’t see any sharks or deadly jellies. We came across many insects and spiders, but none who wanted to kill us.

Traveling with Diane, Tracy and Andrew was fabulous. Gabe and Andrew played like brothers without the sibling rivalry. The four adults had a wonderful time doing things in all combinations of twos, threes and fours. And Jordan, who earned the Trooper of the Month award, weathered the boys’ antics well and enjoyed some special attention from the adults, especially as there were many mamas to bounce between. She did struggle some from feeling left out and sometimes pushed out but I’m hoping the beaded bracelet she got to make for herself as a special gift for not getting to have her own friend along helped a little. We all spent time on the beach, rode bikes, walked around the shops, ate ice cream and cooked some fabulous dinners together. I can’t say enough how wonderful it is to have our close friends come visit us here.

There were a few days when we went off in search of adventures: a crocodile cruise, an Aboriginal walkabout and presentation, a trip through the Rainforest Discovery Center, Breakfast with the Birds in the Rainforest Habitat and of course, our snorkeling trip on the Great Barrier Reef. As we may have mentioned before, we are not great tour group kinds of people. The kids get bored and Mark and I get boreder. So we didn’t do a lot of that. We spent a day driving around in the rainforest and stopping at several places to get out and walk around in it.

This creature is a tree kangaroo. We'd never heard of or seen anything like it. It hopped like a roo but climbed like a monkey!

I think our general consensus was that the rainforest was “cool” and everything, but we wondered if maybe there was more to it than we were getting by the little roadside samples and views from the beaten paths.

Then one morning, I got up before sunrise in search of hills to run on, something the town of Port Douglas has essentially none of. I drove about 10 minutes into the rainforest and found a good spot. The sun came up and the soft light of morning made me feel safe enough to start running. Within a few minutes, I started to understand the rainforest’s appeal for so many people, ancient Aboriginals and modern-day locals alike. There was a mysterious feeling. I sensed that these hills, thick with vines and palms and big-leafed trees ten stories high held not only snakes and
Cassowaries and parrots and exotic flowers but also secrets, a history and a blueprint to sustain life that defies taming. The Rainforest is often talked about as though the entire forest itself is a living entity. That morning, looking up at the mist nestled into the sides of the dense green hills, the diversity of plant life leaning over the road that had been carved out of its mid-section, I understood. It is not a place I’d like to live. It is not even a place I need to go back to any time soon because it doesn’t feel habitable to me. There are some people who are drawn to live in that part of the world but it seems to me that their attempts at doing so have been just barely allowed and accepted by the land. There are so many things they have to take into consideration—deadly animals, a whole season of torrential rains, half a year when the ocean is unsafe to stick a toe in (due to deadly box jelly fish) and humidity that can slow people down to snail’s pace (which I know is part of the appeal for many) but that keeps most everything from ever drying. Mold appears on bread within days. Clothes don’t dry, long, curly hair doesn’t dry, kids shoes don’t dry. So it is not a place I’d like to live but it is a place I’m glad I’ve experienced.

When 7 people get together for a week, there are bound to be some unforgettable comments made. I will spare you the bulk of them but there were two that were funny enough that, while cognizant that I’m risking telling you some of those ‘had-to-be-there’ sort of stories, I’m going to share with you anyway. The first comment came one afternoon when we were having some down time back at the apartment--not the kids’ favorite time of the day, as you might imagine. Andrew, who was experiencing a severe case of restlessness but who had enough cunning to know that complaining about it was not a good idea, came to Diane and said,

“Mom? I’m boredish.”

Translation: I’m excruciatingly bored but I know that I’ll get in trouble if I tell you that so I’m not going to come right out and say it but I am going to test the waters to see what you will say if I confess my true feelings about our painfully understimulating situation right now.

The other funny comment was when we were driving in the mini-van, all 7 of us, on an hour-long ride to Cairns for the day. At the beginning of the drive, the kids were already silly and wild in the back row. Diane, in her wisest parental voice said to them, “Why don’t you guys just relax, close your eyes and enjoy the scenery.”

Okay, I guess you had to be there afterall.

Sadly, after our 8 days as a 7-person family, we had to say good-bye to Diane, Tracy and Andrew. We also packed everything up and got on a plane ourselves but we still had 5 more days of vacation left. To be continued on the next blog...