IT STARTED IN CAIRNS (Savannah Way 1)

A few weeks ago I went on a trip from Cairns to Darwin with two friends Ann and George. It was the  'Leichhardt Savannah Expedition' with the 'Outback Spirit' company. We travelled in a small 4 wheel drive coach for 13 days and 3733k. We followed the road called 'The Savannah Way', which also follows part of the route that the early explorer, Ludwig Leichhardt, took back in 1844-1845. However, he started from the Darling Downs not far from Brisbane and it took him over a year to walk to Port Essington north of Darwin.

We flew from Brisbane to Cairns. It takes two and half hours. We were met at the airport by our tour guides Maddy and Robin and taken to the Shangri-La hotel.

The view from my room was stunning. It wasn't long before we were on the coach again for a city tour of Cairns.

 It included a ride up into the foothills of the Great Dividing Range to a lookout at Copperlode Dam, where we could see all over the city and suburbs.

Then it was back down the hill to the Cairns Botanic Gardens, where there was a magical display of tropical plants and butterflies.

 Opposite the gardens is a rainforest walk to the lakes.

Night falls fast in the tropics and so it was time to return to the hotel for our greet and meet dinner with the other tour members. There were 17 of us altogether. The trek across the most isolated country started the next day.

BACK TO CIVILISATION

 Our wonderful tour of Cape York was over. We flew back from Horn Island to Cairns, where we had two nights before catching the train home to Brisbane 1700k/1000m away. Cairns is the biggest city in Far North Queensland. It has a cosmopolitan population of 150,000. It is a very popular tourist town as it is near the Great Barrier Reef, heritage tropical rainforest and the Atherton Tablelands. They have the best seafood restaurants too. There are heaps of attractions, activities and site seeing for tourists. The best time to go to Cairns is in the cooler dry season between May and November, the other months are too wet and hot.

 On our free day in Cairns we set off for a walk along the esplanade to the man made lagoon for safe swimming. However, the weather was showery and windy so we turned back.

 We passed the council chambers and headed towards the Casino Dome.

The Casino was opposite our hotel. You can see the dome. Inside the dome is a zoo, rope courses and a zipline over the animals. As it was raining we thought this would be a good place to visit. My camera was getting worse at getting the exposure right so I used my phone.

 The main attraction was Goliath a huge 4 metre salt water crocodile. Part of the dome had to lifted off to get Goliath inside. He had to be lifted into the Dome by two cranes it took 1.5 hours. He has his own pool.

 There are many different birds all free flying around the 300 tropical plants.

Sorry that I can't remember the names of the birds. Bird bloggers Carol or Eileen might help out here.

There were many other Australian reptiles, birds and mammals there too.

Photo from wildlife dome website

  If you are crazy adventurous you can chose to balance, swing, crawl and climb over a ropes course way up near the roof of the dome

photo from wildlife dome website

For the very crazy  brave you can fly over Goliath on a zipline. ( I wished that I was 20 years younger, I would have been crazy enough to do it.)

We returned to our hotel for a rest and to say goodbye to Far North Queensland and we were looking forward to our 2 day train trip home..

We watched the boats returning to the harbour loaded with excited tourists who had spent the day snorkelling, diving and sightseeing on the reef.

PYTHON HAS COCKATOO FOR DINNER

I have a blogger friend, Cindy, who lives in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Cindy is an artist and photographer. The other night she heard a squawking and commotion in her back yard, so she went to investigate. This is what she saw and photographed...........

....a python has caught a cockatoo for dinner. It coils around the bird and crushes it.
Then opens its jaws, which are not joined so they can expand to an enormous size........ ...and then the python starts to swallow the bird whole.

Squeeze and swallow.

Beak, bones and feathers and all.

Nearly all gone.

The last feather.

Oh, yum, that was hard work but delicious.

My belly is full.

Now lets go and snooze for a week until this has digested.
Here I come....ssssssssssssCindy for dessert, camera and all.

Cindy took 63 shots and the media was very interested. Read more on her blog at http://www.artistsblog.com.au/

Thank you Cindy for allowing me to use your photos on my blog.

ADVENTURE UP NORTH

A few years ago Bill received a call from Werner, a friend who he hadn't heard from in 30 years. They used to work together in P/NG. Now Werner lives in Cairns and he invited us to visit him. We flew up in winter to avoid the tropical summer heat. Werner was our tour guide and entertainment officer for the week.


The swimming pool complex in Cairns.
Cairns City
Two old mates meet again
A trip up the ranges on the cableway to Kuranda.
The rainforest walk at Red Peak Station
The township of Kuranda.
We went back on the Scenic Railway from Kuranda Station.
The Baron Falls in the dry season.
Down the range on the historic train.
Another day we went further north to Mossman Gorge.
The river and rock pools were crystal clear and very cold.
Too cold for me to swim.
A walk in the jungle was a better idea.
Then a bit further north to Pt Douglas. A playground for the rich and famous.
On the way back to Cairns we stopped to admire the fabulous views.

You may have noticed we had jumpers on most of the time. It was the coldest week in Cairn's history. We had to buy extra long sleeved shirts. However we still think it was better than the humidity of the tropical summer. It would be nice to spend winter in FNQ, summer in Tasmania and spring and autumn in Brisbane.