We're back! Exploring the oldest rain forest in the world!

Once we got to New Zealand we had a hard time keeping up with the blog. There were so many fun things going on that catching up and writing about Australia didn't happen. Since the last post we explored more of Australia, spent a summer in New Zealand, I went to Montenegro for a few weeks to visit my parents, and now were back in the US! It's been a hard adjustment coming back (much harder than I thought), but things are going alright. Adam got a contract job for a few months out in Fort Collins, Colorado, so we packed up the car and drove out. I don't think I'm quite ready for work yet, so one of my goals while we are here is finishing the blog. Here we go!

Beautiful coast off Port Douglas

Tons of parakeets in Port Douglas - noisy ones too!

After we packed up our campsite and said goodbye to the cute little rock wallabies we headed towards the picturesque town of Port Douglas. It is on the coast and close rainforest, beautiful beaches, and crocodile territory.

Once we set up camp the first place we explored was Mossman Gorge. It is a great little swimming spot in the Daintree Rainforest - which ison e of the oldest rainforest in the world. I have also heard somewhere in Malaysia claim that they have the oldest, but since we visited Daintree and not Malaysia we will go with Australia on this one. It was smoking hot outside, so a swim in the refreshing waters felt great. I have to admit it took me a while to get in the water. They said there were no crocodiles in this river, but I was a little hesitant...you never know when one of them could go rouge. I have heard of alligators in the Chattahoochee in Atlanta, so the thought of a crocodile wondering less than 20 miles from it's natural habitat didn't seem like a stretch.


Nice swimming hole in the river

After swimming for a bit, we took a short hike through the beautiful rainforest. Australia is known for its unique (and sometimes deadly) animals, and this part of the country is no exception. It is home to the cassowary, which is a large flightless bird kind of similar to an ostrich or emu. It is fairly rare to see one, but if you do they can be aggressive. Some Australians that had been at our campsite had told us some attack stories and techniques to get away from them, so we were prepared. We didn't see any of the birds, but we did keep coming across places on the ground where something had been scratching and digging. That counts right?

dense jungle

After our rainforest walk we headed off in search of crocodiles. The murky water of the Daintree river is a popular spot to take a boat ride to see them in the wild. The river is lined with mangroves and looks like the perfect spot for crocs to live. Our guide, Bruce, had been doing tours for almost 25 years and knew all the crocodiles in the area by name and where they liked to hang out. Crocodiles are pretty lazy animals - they lounge around and sleep for most of the day and like to stick to their territory. I don't think that i would have been so nervous about swimming if the gorge if I had known this. Bruce could pretty much just drive up to where the crocodile sleeps and there it would be! It wasn't near as exciting as I had pictured it to be, but it was still cool to see them in the wild.



where are they?



Bruce even knew where a tree frog likes to hang out



a wee little baby croc



there's mommy

We spent the next day hanging out at the beach in Port Douglas and relaxing. It was box jellyfish season, which is one of the worlds most poisonous creatures, so if you went in the ocean you had to stick to a small area that was surrounded by nets so you knew you were safe.

In the morning we drove down the coast back to Cairns to catch a flight...next stop Sydney!





Queensland Road Trip

The freedom of having our own transport allowed us to travel at a much faster pace than we had been used to. In just four days we managed to see and do a whole lot in the northern part of the state of Queensland. The first day we did the "waterfall circuit" and checked out a few nice waterfalls. One of them had a nice pool at the bottom that you could swim in, but Steph wouldn't have any of it, so I swam by myself.

Millaa Millaa Falls

Ellinjaa Falls

Along the way we stopped at a little stream that is home to a few duckbill platypus (or should I say platypi?). We spotted one from a distance behind a little blind they had set up and thought we were pretty lucky, but when we took a short walk down a path along the stream we got really lucky and saw a few more from really close. What a strange animal. Apparently when the discovery of the platypus was first reported back to England around 1900 they thought it was a practical joke. A furry little mammal that swims in rivers, lays eggs, has webbed feet and a bill like a duck. Can't really blame them.

As I may have mentioned earlier, Australia is expensive! Easily the most expensive place we've been. Anyways, with the cost of a rental car we couldn't really afford to stay in a hostel every night, so we camped. Australia may be known for it's wildlife, but I didn't realize that this also included crazy amounts of bugs and other creepy-crawlies. Despite the constant buzzing of the insect life, our campsite at Granite Gorge was awesome! Literally on the side of a granite gorge, it's home to a huge colony of rock wallabies. Sort of like mini-kangaroos that love to eat food out of your hand. We had an awesome time feeding and photographing the little guys and seeing their little joeys hanging out of their mama's pouch.

gimme some

cute lil' guys

see the little joey? with his head and one leg hanging out

Day two was a trip to the "Outback," or as close to the Outback as we were gonna get. There's some cool caves a couple hours drive inland from where we are staying, so we made a day of it, stopping along the way to spot kangaroos, kookaburras, parakeets, cockatoos, and other stuff you've only ever seen in a zoo or pet shop. A quick side note on kookaburras: I don't think we ever saw one in a gum tree, mostly they were sitting on telephone wires, but that didn't stop us from singing that song over and over. And I can verify that those things really do laugh...and laugh and laugh... at 5:30 in the morning at an amazing loud volume. Anyways, it was a gorgeous day for a drive though the caves weren't super exciting. Still, we got to see some amazing wildlife, scenery, and even some aboriginal paintings on a rock wall.

kookaburra sitting on a telephone wire, laugh kookaburra laugh...

this could pass as the Outback, right?

a roo having a look at us

Steph in one of the caves near Chillagoe

big rock

aboriginal rock paintings

We liked Granite Gorge so much that we decided to stay two nights. Who wouldn't want some more time hanging out with our little wallaby buddies? Part two will (hopefully) follow soon...

come back soon!