A Wildlife Wonderland

Once we had dried out a bit from the wet, we took our friends the Fields for a bit of a sightseeing exploration and had ourselves a taste of the wonderful local wildlife. Our favourite Trevethan Falls, made famous nationally for the front cover of the Weekend Australian, was bursting with water and impossible to get too close to or even attempt swimming in the pool below it.

So we tried a bit further down stream and came across the rare and usually nocturnal Tree Kangaroo - two of them - that went bouncing up the trees with their long brown tails hanging down and then sat there watching us. They look like real teddy bears with their little brown ears and bear-like snout. And amongst this amazing sight were the beautiful blue Ulysses Butterflies darting around in the sunshine. Just amazing. The on the way out we ran into (or almost over) old man Lace Monitor - a huge old one by the look of things who then sat in a tree and watched from on high.

After that we headed to Archer Point which is just stunning and it was a clear blue day with vibrant colours. As we stood at the lighthouse watching the world go by we discovered that the sea below us was full turtles and a few dugongs taking their fill from the sea grasses below. Just a magical sight.

To finish the wildlife adventure we headed off to the reef the next day for a spot of fishing and some snorkelling. Cooktown is the closest town to the reef and it doesnt take long to get out there amongst the coral and lovely fish. Toby and his friends Tom and Charlie put down some handlines and not long after Toby had caught something pretty large. After almost taking his hand off with the line he handed it over to the Capt'n who waged battle with what turned out to be a very large shark! As toby is only slight, it was a good thing he didnt end up overboard! After that one of the rods caught something big and fast so we all had a go at reeling that in and managed to land a lovely big Spanish mackeral. Sean went spearing for cray fish and got a huge one so it was a lovely seafood feast that night!

Wet and Wild

Ok...I deserve it. The incessant rain for three weeks I mean. There I was in January and February saying how amazing the wet season was because it wasnt wet at all - just lovely days of sunshine with a few showers thrown in to make it green and lovely. Then the wet season arrived in mid march - just in time for the holidays and for our southern friends to arrive. And when I say wet I mean wet. In total we had just on 2 metres of rain and it was the rainiest season in 70 years or something. Funny thing was it didnt feel that wet at the time - not that much different from those rainy periods in Sydney.

Ofcourse the damage it does to the roads is enourmous and then the council get their graders out just about now and fix up the roads for another year so the tourists etc can come back up and go exploring. The other downside is that with about 98% humidity nothing dries at all. Yuk. Mould/damp etc. I have discovered this weird thing called a Hippo that is a bright pink container you stick in the cupboard and it collects the excess damp in the air. After 3 weeks it was full - a litres worth!!!!! Mmmmmm.....................................

My other memory of our first wet season will always be the night I went to the local Camber of Commerce and Tourism AGM and somehow found myself the President of the damn thing a couple of hours later. So I trot home feeling good about life, step out of the car on our concrete driveway and go slithering into a whole lot of bushes in a most ungracious manner! Oh yes the dreaded moss that had built up made a beautiful skating rink for the new Pres, who definitely came down to earth with a bump!

Anyway.. our lovely friends the Walshs experienced the wet and our inability to take them anywhere as all the roads were awash. The kids didnt mind as they just wanted to do things together and play so that was fine. They got out of here in a hurry back to the delights of Port Douglas before the roads closed.

Then the Fields tried to arrive and at the last minute decided not to take the Bloomfield track (only passable in the truly dry period in a serious 4 wheel drive) in their little white Hyundai (!!!) and opted for the safer inland route. They struck problems on the first day however because the Little Annan river was over and there was no way through. So back to Port D for a night and they made it through the next day.

I have included a couple of pics of the river to show you as whole trees were racing through the water which the day before had been a little trickle. And now that the wet is mostly gone it is lovely and cool and the famous Cooktown wind has returned for the dry season.