Australia 1 - Cairns to Wonga

Cairns

Wednesday 11th April, 2011

“Mysterious and Big” was John's pronouncement as we looked down upon Australia on our approach to Sydney in the early morning light after our night flight from Singapore. 


Second pronouncement was “Refreshingly Cool Weather” from John and “Deliciously So” from Celia. We cannot over emphasise how lovely this sensation is when you have been pretty much overheated for the last 5 months. 


 We just skipped along to the terminal in high spirits and went straight to get our connecting flight to Cairns, Queensland and a few short hours later, flying up the coast, we landed back in the tropics!

Cairns is flat as a pancake and the city is laid out on the grid system (we know it seems absurd, but it was a surprise to us, coming from the land of very bendy roads), so it is extremely easy to get around and not get lost, plus you always have the seashore to guide you.

We plunge into this wet, warm and welcoming town with ease. Everything works and we understand what everyone is saying. We shop at Woolworths (it's a supermarket here) and buy food to eat back at the motel. Cold chicken and salad – heaven, plus, of course, some gorgeous wine.

Detail of the Day: Lots of motels here provide you with wonderful practical aids to make your life 'too easy' as they say here. Knives and forks, plates and glasses and a barbecue and microwave and kitchen sink. This is quite a standard offering, sometimes there is a small charge, often nothing at all. We hardly know ourselves, as we can choose what we want to eat and when. After months of 'where shall we eat?', 'is it safe?', it was bliss.

As you can tell from our descriptions of Australia so far, it is all about the facilities and practicalities. So what about Cairns? Well, everyone here is really, really friendly and helpful. Plus, they are the most upbeat and cheerful bunch of people, who want you to buy their product or use their service and be happy with the choice you have made, and it is completely genuine. We love it here straight away. 


This is A GOOD THING as we will stay for 5 days while we wait for our camper van to be available. This may seem like a rather long delay and we thought so too. However, as it turned out was the best thing, because it rained almost the whole time. Then the day we collected our camper van it stopped and we didn't see rain again for a long time! Anyway, the rain is warm and the temperature mild so it's no hardship. Also, we are a bit jet lagged and disorientated after leaving the far east and it takes us a few days to get adjusted.

As we walk through town at dusk, the sky is suddenly filled with thousands of fruit bats. They live in big, tall trees on a couple of streets near the esplanade and then head out of town every night to feed. They are protected and therefore a cause of grief to local farmers, because they reckon as much as a third of their crop is consumed by the bats. We just enjoy the sight.

Next on our list of needs now that we are in the 'Land Of Plenty', is some new clothes. As anyone who has travelled with a small bag of clothes for several months will know, all your clothes are ragged and slightly grey. What started out as smart and crisp cotton shirts and trousers now look like you just slept in them for a week, even when they are clean and ironed. The only way to free yourself of these clothes is to throw them out and then you are forced to buy some more. The reason you have to do this is that you are on a budget and it feels like every purchase must be justified. So, until the offending item is gone, you just can't buy new. 


So, off we go to The Central Mall, (frighteningly identical to any mall in the world) and purchase pants, socks, shirts, trousers, so that we no longer invite sympathetic stares and we rejoin the properly clothed of the world. Then it's the hair salon for Celia, who is now very grey and in desperate need of having the colour encouraged back up to the roots. It is a successful visit, although the owner is a little eccentric – like Morticia on speed. It costs a fortune and John nearly falls over when he hears the price, but Celia reminds him “You wear your hair every day” and he has no response but a smile.

An esplanade runs along the sea front and it's an enjoyable walk, watching bitterns and crabs and reading the frequent signs warning you not to wander on the beach as it is salt water crocodile habitat. If you want to swim, you have to go to the enclosed area in town that is free of 'salties' and 'stingers' (it is jellyfish season).

And so our days in Cairns drift by and we walk a lot in the rain and plan the route we will take in our camper van for the 25 days we have booked. All we know is that we will deliver it to Brisbane at the end of that time and we are very excited about it.

Wonga Beach

Tuesday 17^th April 

NOT RAINING!!   We collect our camper van in Cairns. We've rented it from a company called Jucy, and their staff are great, giving us lots of hints and tips, maps and information.

We are beside ourselves with happiness to be free to do as we please, eat what we want and cook once again! Plus, it's fun to drive after all these months. Although John hasn't driven an automatic before but soon gets the hang of it after a few unscheduled emergency stops, with Celia saying “forget your left leg exists”. We head for the nearest supermarket and stock up on beer, wine and food, like giddy children going to a party, and head north. We go through Port Douglas and Mossman and arrive at Wonga Beach council camp site on the Coral Sea. It is hot and humid and run by a widowed lady called CC (the first other Cecelia we've met on this trip).

This is our introduction to tropical North Queensland and so let's set the scene. CC explains to us that she has a BYO happy hour from 5 – 6 in her large marquee that is attached to her caravan. She also tells us that there is an Early Starters BYO just across the site, that runs from 4 – 5 under a nut tree. We are then filled in on the politics of the two BYOs – apparently the early starters weren't arriving at CCs until 6 and then expecting to carry on drinking and there was a falling out. 


Now the two happy hours run on strictly separate lines. We were 'neutrals' and therefore able to attend both. The 4 – 5 session was 4 or 5 blokes and one woman, consisting of Shorty who had a squint eye and the most perfectly coiffed quiff ever seen and an accent that neither of us could follow, a gorgeous redhead called Nicole with the bluest eyes ever and swore like a trooper. The others were equally difficult to follow because they talk out of the side of their mouths but we still had great fun and were welcomed into their group but were careful to leave the Early Starters at 5 and head for CC's where the talk was more restrained but equally good fun.

CC was a kind and fascinating woman and, in the way of all Queenslanders, told Celia all about her early and later life; orphaned at 8, (said she still misses her mother), fostered, wicked stepmother, very happy marriage, children, widowhood and current life. She tells Celia she used to run a hotel further up the state at Cow Bay, but gave it up because of “Too many ferals”. Celia asked, “Cats?” The reply was “No, people”. CC explained that further north in Queensland is classified as 'Remote' by the authorities. So if you are unemployed and on state benefits you don't have to go and sign on, you just telephone in and your cheque arrives. There are people living back up there who grow a little weed and go fishing, maybe do a little casual work and kick back, drinking beer and getting a little rough round the edges – too rough for CC anyway!

There are even larger signs than in Cairns at the edge of the beach warning about crocodiles and CC tells us it's not good to go on the beach at night as they are more active then. Celia asks if they ever enter the camp site and is assured “not yet”. There is a creek running into the sea at each side of the beach and it is still the breeding season. There are a couple of salties at the moment that swim in the sea between the creeks in the day as well as at night and every time we walked on the beach there was no one else there at any time!

Having said all this, we spent a month in Queensland and we never saw a crocodile! John is convinced that it is all a fake (not sure why they would bother with all the signs if it wasn't true says Celia) and just done to amuse the Queenslanders as us visitors are so scared.

We cook our first meal of pork steaks, with salad and wine – a bit squiffy after two happy hours but thoroughly enjoy it nonetheless. Our first night is very hot and the wind is blowing through the trees and the general night insect sounds are punctuated with loud bangs as, what we call, Wonga nut trees, jettison their round, hard, green, plum sized nuts, from a great height and they land on vehicle roofs. Apart from these interruptions and being rather hot, we sleep comfortably in our van.

Cape Tribulation Trip

Wednesday 18^th April 

Up early and on the road north to see the oldest rain forest in the world, and the only place in the world, where it comes down to the sea. 




It is a magical and majestic landscape on the road as we stop to take pictures at a dozen scenic viewpoints of the coast and forest. Cross the Daintree River on a small car ferry and get really remote up past Cow Bay where CC said the 'ferals' live.

Cape Tribulation itself is a beautiful curving bay with rollers breaking and the usual signs warning of crocodile habitat. There are also signs warning of Cassowarie birds and not to approach them as the talons will shred you – we never saw one and we understand they are very rare. 


What we did see were two large Goanas. They are metre long iguana-like creatures and hang round the picnic tables for scraps.


We are surprised at the sight of a tea plantation in Daintree and see a stall with an honesty box and pull in to buy a box of tea bags at the same time as the owner's wife, a larger than life South African called Babe and her two children. Babe had come to stock up the stall and she told us that the climate and altitude just here are perfect for growing tea. 

The difference here is that it is a flat plateau just here and so they don't need lots of labour to hand pick the tea as they do in India and Sri Lanka. Babe's husband created a machine of his own design that goes along and picks the tips of tea every few weeks.  They don't use pesticides as the reptiles eat the bugs and the bandicoots eat the reptiles and the eco chain is complete (at least we think that is what she said and we would appreciate being corrected).

We stopped at a shop on the road that advertised wine and beer sales. It was a wooden building set on stilts. As you walked in there was a caged off area with the grog behind it (this was the first time we had seen the drink behind bars and the last time until we reached Sydney). There was a small general store and and a lost and lorn woman serving behind the counter. We asked for some wine on the list on the counter but none of that was available so we pointed vaguely at a bottle, paid and left. We can see why CC left; it's beautiful to visit but life can be a bit cut off here.

We head to a rain forest board walk that the Conservation Department look after. It was a fascinating walk through mangroves and creeks, vine and moss covered trees. Birds could be heard but not often seen and small black and white crabs and what looked like small mud skippers and of course all sorts of insects to be seen and heard. The walk took you to a viewpoint over a creek and we looked hard for crocodiles – but no.

Then it was back to Wonga Beach in time for Early Starters and Happy Hour, being told crocodile tales, how to pronounce Berlina (it's a favourite sandwich filling here, apparently – baloney said John) and what everyone got up to during the day. We meet a few more guests, some of whom live here all the time in caravans or some who come up here to escape the cold in Victoria (the locals call them Mexicans). 


When we say that we are heading ultimately for Sydney, people ask us “Is that somewhere near Dubbo?” This is a Queenslander joke about Sydneysiders and how insignificant they appear to them. Yep, being from Queensland is a matter of great pride and is talked of as THE ONLY PLACE to live and is actually a very refreshing thing to hear.

It's been an adventure already and it's only Day One! It's cooler tonight and we sleep well – no crocodiles! Tomorrow we head for Atherton and The Tablelands so more of that next time.