Last Day in Oz

In less than 24 hours, we will be on our way back home. I thought I'd leave you with a few images of our last day spent in Palm Cove and environs.

Palm Cove's uncrowded beach

The Nunu Restaurant

This one's for Laurel ... the upscale Nunu Restaurant's logo.

This one's for Ted

Didgeredoo Player and Dancer

Ray's Retro look

A Rainbow lorikeet on our table, a "Breakfast with the Birds" guest

Kookaburra

Anyone need a new battery?

We went on a tropical wet rainforest boat ride along the Daintree River yesterday. Saw a couple of salt water crocs, a few birds and lots of different types of tropical trees. We had expected to see a few of those big bats - flying foxes they call them here. They have a wingspan of around a meter and bear a strong resemblance to small foxes with wings. They are usually active around dusk when they go searching for their favourite food, fruits like papayas, grapes, melons etc. Unfortunately there were no flying foxes to be seen on our cruise.

Driving home later, we found out why there were none along the banks of the Daintree River. They were all hanging out beside the golf course at Port Douglas!

One of several trees with "batteries"

These guys were making an awful fuss, screeching and fighting with each other, and constantly moving to new perches. They paid little attention to this Canadian who was pretty fascinated to see several hundred of these big boys in one spot.

Uncropped flying fox image just above a telephone line

For those of you who are perhaps a bit skittish about sharing your space with bats this size, well, just think of how many fewer flying insects there are around thanks to these guys and their cousins. Altogether not a bad trade off, no?

Palm Cove - a little slice of heaven ...

We are staying at a community north of Cairns called Palm Cove. It more than lives up to it's name. The beach is fairly narrow, maybe 50 meters wide, and runs for kilometers in both directions. The edge of the beach is fringed with coconut palms, and a variety of other tropical pines and broad-leafed trees. This band of trees is shallow, maybe 30 meters wide and borders the Esplandade, Palm Cove's main street.

Palm Cove beachfront

This two lane street is cobblestone/brick, and a vehicle passes along maybe once every 30 seconds. You can usually find a place to park wherever you like.

The Esplanade walkway

On the other side of the street are restaurants, shops, apartments, hotels, bars, and even a few detatched homes; none are low end and a few are quite high end. None of them are taller than four stories, by local by-law. You have to actually walk in to them to see how lovely some are. It's clean, uncrowded and safe.

Ray out for a stroll

We love it here. As Roni described it, “tranquil with a casual sophistication”. I'm heading out right now to sit under those trees in the top photo and to do some reading.

No Barriers On Great Reef Experience

Yesterday we stroked a couple of items off the bucket list.

Seastar Reef Cruises took Roni and I from Cairns to Michalmas Cay and Hastings Reef on the outer Great Barrier Reef. The fast catamaran took about one hour to make the trip. Before we even had the anchor down, a green sea turtle cruised by. The 20 or so guests on board donned snorkeling gear and dove right in.

I think this might be Nemo, the clown fish....

Now, Roni and I have snorkeled in some lovely places, but none could remotely compare to this. It was amazing! Something to lie awake at night and recall with wonder. Every few feet brought a new variety of coral or a new type of fish. Reds, greens, yellows, blues, whites, oranges and so on through the spectrum. All sizes and shapes. It's an unfair assault on the senses. No wonder it's a world heritage site.

The water was warm, around 28C, the surface was calm, winds were light, skies clear – idyllic. Visibility underwater was maybe 100 feet or more. Probably more. We were so lucky to experience this. Wow!

The second item on the list was that I got to try SCUBA diving! Yes, even an old goat like me can still float well enough to try new things. I hope Ted and Colleen are proud of me.

In we go!

....and out again!

A lot of my energies and attentions were taken up in clearing my mask, and trying to maintain proper buoyancy, but in between those challenges, I got to touch a giant clam and swim through schools of fish and someone's bubbles. With practice, one would surely be able to spend more time on the experience, and less on the process.