We were heading into town this morning to reserve three seats on a Barrier Reef bound catamaran for Friday, when I pulled over to get something out of my backpack. Talk about chance; I happened to pull over right by several trees in the middle of the road, that were laden with those enormous bats (flying foxes) that I was describing in my last post, but was unable to take any photo of. Well, this was not the case with this morning's daylight; there they were, hanging upside down by the hundreds, from branches of trees that, we are told, they love to drink the sap of.
You'd expect them to be calm and resting, but actually they were quite active and vociferous, even fighting among themselves. You know, they were actually cute! Here is one of the many photos I snapped, but really, you must see them in flight, at night; you'd marvel at the size of their wingspan.
This is Australia. So many strange creatures that are not part of our environments. Every day is like a stop at a different natural history museum section.
With reservations in hand (not cheap, let me tell you), we headed toward our destination, the town of Kuranda, a small village set in the world's oldest tropical rain-forest. Its beautiful setting attracted a strong hippie culture in the 60s and 70s, but it still retains a bohemian feel.
The village boasts several markets and restaurants. In the parks, several groups of aborigines loiter about, ignoring the visitors.
Talk about strange creatures. We stopped in an open air bar, and I counted three different types of large lizards, walking about or just minding their business under some stool. For the sake of space, I will only show you one, and no, it's not an iguana.
One of the places we all wanted to see was Kuranda's Koala Gardens. Though in a captive state, the facility holds several species of local wildlife for the benefit of those, unlike us, who are perhaps on tours and have little time to explore on their own. It was a good stop, because you learn much about the animals you wouldn't otherwise know. It had Quokkas and Wombats, Lizards and Crocs, Snakes and Wallabies, and yes, Koalas, which we even got to hold.
Kuranda is situated at edge of Barron Gorge National Park; after spending several hours in town, in very muggy 100+ degree temperature, we thought it may be wise to head to the canopied shade of the park. I know I repeat myself, but Australians truly do a remarkable job in creating walkable pathways to admire their nature. We followed a long boardwalk that starts at ground-level but soon reaches considerable height, with illustrative signposts of interesting facts. These forests are supposedly 60,000,000 years old, dating back to when this continent was still part of the single continent of Gondwana, which included Antarctica, Africa and India, before drifting apart.
We are on the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, a land that to Australia is akin to Hawaii for the United States. The nature lover in me could not help but marvel at the sight of Fern Trees, and the spectacle of the whole of the forest, titillating with the deafening sound of perhaps millions of cicadas.
Here's an another creature, smaller than others, but nonetheless of interest. Have you ever seen green ants? Of course not...only in Australia, mates. Later in the evening, sitting on a park bench, I was eyeing a small spider on a log, when a rapidly moving ant passed nearby. The spider, with bat-of-an-eye speed, actually jumped suddenly on the poor thing, en-raveled it in its legs and disappeared in a fissure in the ground. It was amazing.
Barron Gorge is home to Barron Falls, which normally at this time of year produce a stupefying sight of gushing water. With the long-lasting recent drought, they were not as spectacular as they could be, but, together with the gorge, they still provided a damn good show. The water is actually super clean; the brownish tint comes from the mineral rich soil that leaches along the way, and ultimately becomes the Barron River.
Stopping occasionally to take in some amazing views, we eventually made it back to our little town of Freshwater, where we enjoyed a good meal at the local Chinese restaurant Then, everyone pooped out.
Cheers.
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