Tidepools, waterfalls and kids

A walk up the Irrawong Track to a waterfall with the three grandkids was great for an afternoon’s exploring. Five minutes from the house and we’re in the bush. No koala sighting this day due to the cool and rainy weather. Another day, we spent a lovely if blustery day at Warriewood Beach. Kylie got a good boogie board tutorial from Dan and the kids found a wily little octopus in one of the tidepools.

Where the rainforest meets the reef…

…is definitely Cairns, in northern Queensland! This unique environment of wonderful tropical rainforest extends right to the ocean’s edge and the Great Barrier Reef beyond. A few days in Cairns are never enough to explore the region and I only had seven days at our unit this trip. I did manage a few serene hours at the Flecker Botanical Garden; its collection of tropical gingers and helliconias never fails to amaze. A family tradition is the climb up Mt Whitfield’s Red Arrow Track as well as the walk on the boardwalk and track through the Centenary Park swamp. The croc that has been eluding capture in the Centenary Lake was finally trapped, but I suspect there are more smaller ones lurking.

The mighty fisherman
Craig realized his dream of going out with a friend to fish for big rock fish just off Cape Tribulation. Good success, as you can see. A female croc has moved into the swimming hole on the creek that runs through our friends’ property, so no fish-cleaning remains can be left to tempt her out of the pool. I didn’t know that ducks would finish off all those tasty fish entrails, but between the ducks, chooks (chickens) and sea eagles, there wasn’t a thing left a croc would desire.




Nanniguy, soursop, mangosteen, and more
There is no end to tropical delights we enjoyed while at a farmstay north of Cairns at Cape Tribulation. You saw the big rockfish Craig caught, the nanniguy. In the fruit department, we had fresh soursop, durian, mangosteen and passionfruit as well as the normal stuff like fresh sugar bananas, pineapple, mango, and starfruit.

Friend or foe
It’s safe to assume it can harm you and resist picking it up or going in the water where it is cavorting. In the water category are the jellyfish (stingers) of several varieties that breed in the warm water of estuaries and inlets between November and May. Nasty to possibly fatal stings! Also nasty are the stings of cone shells (conus geographus) found when diving. Land-based critters common along the east coast include funnelweb spiders; thank goodness I’ve only seen one in a jar. Safer are golden orb spiders, whose legs would spill off the palm of my hand if I ever wanted to pick one up. I lounged beside the pool up at Cape Trib with a drowsy lace monitor, about two feet long, keeping me company. We spotted a lovely stick bug on the banana plant outside our accoms up there, a small one, about ten inches in length. The green ants taste like lemons and can be made into lemonade if you're brave. On the other hand, Australia’s complement of cute-and-cuddly is very high, and our resident possums are pretty frisky at night lately. Forget the snakes. I intend never to look for one.

More icons

Manly ferry, check. Opera House, check. Sydney Harbour Bridge, check. New Year’s Eve fireworks over the Harbour Bridge, almost check. I fell asleep. And white-lipped green tree frogs are definitely an icon of the tropical north. This guy was visiting our lanai on the day I left Cairns.

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