Cairns pics two

All the traffic light switch boxes in Cairns are painted in literary themes.


The outer ribbon reef.
It looks totally different from underneath. More fish for one.


The Shaolin: the Chinese junk we took out to snorkle with the sea turtles.
Sea turtles.
It's not as easy as it looks, is it?

Youcef offered fellow passengers a ride on his Canadian junk. I'm not quite sure what he meant.



Chinese Pheonix. The Shaolin has sailed round the world twice but has spent the last eighteen years ferrying people out to the inner reef.

Cairns. Making Tracks.

Water tracks


Human tracks


Crab tracks


Mudskipper tracks


Bird tracks.

The Daintree

Cape Tribulation

Cape Tribulation.
Where things that were ship-shaped went pear-shaped for Captain Cook.

Where marine worms make their casts.



Where armoured sand-bubbler crabs shape their shot.


Where molluscs sign their names on the sand at low tide.




They don't know it but they are making pithy statements as to the fleeting nature of fame. Molluscs are smarter than they seem.


Cape Tribulation is also where Canadians complained there weren't enough crocodiles.
Or monkeys.
Stupid Canadians.



And also where we reached the end of the tarmac.

"Although we've come (urg) to the end of the ro-oad.."
"Shut up, Harry."
"...still I can't le-et go-o..."
"Shut up, Harry!"
"I hate you Youcef."
"I hate you too. This rainforest sucks: no monkeys."
"Stupid Canadian."
"Or Tigers."
"You're an idiot."
...
"I want to kick one of those brush turkeys."
"Yeah, me too."



Day's end: Sunset over the Daintree River at the town of Daintree.

Environs of Cairns

I really recommend Cairns. Hire a car and whizz around the area.
We went up to Cape Tribulation and did a whole bunch of forest walks.
Port Douglas was our launching point for a whole day outer reef snorkling/scuba cruise and a half day turtle snorkling cruise.
A bunch of the beaches on the way to Port Douglas have stinger nets so you can loll in the warm murky water.
Kuranda has a surprisingly good Birdworld and a Butterfly Farm.
Driving on the road that passes through sugar cane fields ; winds it's way up rainforest hillside and out onto the Atherton Tablelands beyond is very pretty. Mareeba has a military museum nearby.
Further south thyere are crater lakes and dozens of water falls.

If I had to sum up the whole area I'd say; peaceful.



The peaceful crater lake, Lake Barrine, ironically formed by a volcanic explosion.


A saw-edged turtle tries to peacefully eat the foot of a peaceful duck.

A tree kangaroo, very peaceful on account of being dead.

Peaceful World War I kinetic munitions Mark1. Pretty much fin stabilised lead slingshot for tossing by the handful out of your plane when you pass over enemy trenches. Beck War Museum.

One the last day Mads, Lenny and I went to the Biodome on top of the Cairns Casino. It's a bit pricey ($25) but it does have some cool stuff including the only crocodile I saw the whole time. Birds fly round the whole thing and there are a half dozen fenced off areas for specific creatures. They also have short shows of various animals. We were in time for a mammal show where a bonny English woman let us stroke a bandicoot, a koala and a bettong. She explained that most of the mammals were nocturnal and described some of their habits.
I asked about her nocturnal habits.
She smirked.
I waggled my eyebrows.
She smiled.
I made suggestive hand movements.
The security guards were called Simon and Steve.

But I bumped into her later on and we laughed about the whole thing and made love for hours.

Cairns Randomness

I've experienced a lot of 'firsts' in the last eight months. First time I've been blessed by a cripple; first time I've seen a one-armed man playing a guitar; first time I've eaten conger eel - that sort of thing.


The first thing that happened once I'd walked from the tarmac and through the door into the terminal at Cairns was a young blonde Irisher asked if I'd like to buy her car. Dinner certainly, but not a car.
Of course, if she'd been raven-haired and had lips that were all dark wine and lurid promise then I would have become a car owner again.

I stayed with a Marly mate, Lenny, and met up with two other ex-Marly foreigners; Mads (Tasmanian) and Youcef (Canadian).
Lenny is living a blissful bachelor existence where the milk has made the leap to cheese, and the bedbugs have made the leap from the previous residents to Lenny.

During the week we had the Cairns Film Festival.
They were:
Rocky 2 - shithouse.
OngBak - Impressive. But the girl wins the most annoying and penetrative voice of all film history award.
Pirates of teh Carrybean 3: Cool, but I'm not sure what Chow Yun Fat was doing plotwise. Pretty though.

Up in Cairns I met a bunch of people who have a different way of life. They offered me a place with them. And special footware. And a special one-piece zip up costume ala dodgy James Bond villian type. They initiated me into their special sign language, and then informed me that I could only leave if they paid me money.
I know what you're thinking, but it's not a cult at all!

It's legitimate and non-exploitive. They've shown me things I've never seen before.

"Welcome, brother!"

Ok. So, I joined a cult.


See how happy I am with my new friends?
I would be smiling in this photo, but we're not allowed to until after 4pm.

Cairns pics

I was going to by some presents but I didn't want to get anything brilliant, impressive or merely good.


The mudflat was created by mangroves which have since been cleared. The difference between high and low tide is not great at all. Each pebble that stands above the mud is a palm sized mudcrab. The mud is glutenous yet beckons so temptingly "Walk on me".


So I walked up one of these channels which had sand on it's bottom rather than mud which I figured would mean it was firm under foot. It was thus I am a genius. About halfway to the water I found a patch that was not so firm, sunk up to my knee and snapped a thong. I handed in my 'genius' hat back at the sand.