Life in Australia

Tues – 7/4/06 - Happy July 4th!

July 4th! Eating dinner at The Crown in Cairns (Northeast corner of the country) and celebrating with my 1st, and 2nd, Budweiser's in quite some time. Possibly 5+ months time! Yesterday I arrived in Cairns for the start of my three weeks of post-work travels. Went out for a bite; ended up seeing some live blues and then partying it up until the wee hours with a group of Irish, POMmies (Prisoner of the Motherland = English), and Aussies. Awoke at the International Hostel (where I'm staying, so that's a good thing ; )) with quite a headache... but a good start; ice broken.

Today I took a gondola ride to the town of Kuranda, over the Daintree rainforest. It was nice, not incredible, but nice. The train station at the end was very cool as well. Very old school and amongst the plant life. The train ride back to Cairns was nice, but squeaky, and packed tight. Squeezed out two great kid images which made it all worthwhile... in addition to a few other winners over the course of the day.

Tomorrow is the Reef... cruise, snorkelling, helicopter...

Wed - 7/5/06

Today I spent the day on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and kept busy between snorkelling and cruising overhead in a helicopter. I headed out as part of the Sunlover's Tour this morning. Grey, cloudy skies cast a similar greyness on the water and the cold winds and rough seas sent many heads into the nearest paper bag. Two Dramamine's and a constant horizon stare kept me friends with my stomach and breakfast. After an hour and a half at sea, we arrived at Moore Reef where we'd be spending the afternoon. (Many people don't realize, but the GBR is not actually one continuous reef, but is made up of nearly 3000 small reefs over roughly 1400 miles!)

Unfort the day wasn't as sunny and warm as I would have liked, but I couldn't visit the reef and not at least snorkel. Besides, it's my first time in the water (ocean, pool, etc) since my recent self-discovery... ok, haircut, but it just doesn't have the same ring! So yes, it was great being out swimming/snorkelling without having my hair in my face, or worrying about how the rough seas were going to pull the hair out of the locks. Ahhhh, so nice! But anyway, the snorkelling was great, as you can imagine. The plant life, the fish, it was all beautiful. I rented an underwater digital camera yesterday so that was nice to shoot with. Didn't get anything too special, but it was fun anyway. Upon returning the camera and getting a cd of the photos I took, one particular image caught my eye... I had done quite well! Only with a second glimpse and a quick check of the metadata, I confirmed my suspicions that the rental company actually throws this professional image onto their client's cds of photos. Sends people away excited and I would imagine brings in more business. Sneaky f@ckers. ; )

And onto the helicopter ride(s); definitely the highlight of the day. Well first off, renting a helicopter and/or helicopter rides are ridiculously expensive! Put it this way, 20 min in the chopper was about equivalent to my 7 nights of accommodation here in and around Cairns. I took two 10 minute flights and was fortunate enough to have a stunning female pilot who helped me out by visiting two different areas for the photographs. It was surely a different and amazing view of the reef from above as opposed to on the ship. And again, considering the size of the reef, the whole thing can only be seen in its entirety from space! Shooting from the chopper was great. I got a front seat and a large window I could stick the camera out to avoid shooting through dirty glass. The winds were difficult to work with but I managed just fine. Out of stupid curiosity, I stuck my whole arm out of the window... and well, damn near lost it! As the reefs are all split up, it makes for intense sites of deep blue water with patches bright green/blue/yellow/etc coral, and the closer to the water you get, the more you can see the reefs flowing with the water. Other sections are so shallow that there are sand bars/cays in the middle of the ocean. These are normally surrounded by striking reef that appear to engulf the sand, which supposedly changes its shape on a regular basis. Overall, great fun and great sites. Expensive YES, but shit, who's to say if the opportunity will ever present itself again!

Sunset silhouette in Cairns

Thurs - 7/6/06

Another fine day in Queensland! Picked up my silver Mitsubishi Lancer this morning in Cairns and began my northern journey to the Port Douglas area. The coastal drive between Cairns and Port Douglas was just as awesome as advertised, with rainforest to the left and the blue-green Coral Sea to the right. Similar beauty to the Great Ocean Road (outside Melbourne), but without the jagged cliffs. I stopped at several beaches along the way, including Palm Cove and Ellis Beach. With a cloudy start to the day, the sun broke through around noon, and came and went for the remainder of the afternoon. Surely nice to have when shooting on the beach! It was tough to resist the urge to stop every mile, but I finally managed, due to my desire to reach Mossman Gorge before the sun couldn't reach the rainforest floor any longer.

Cairns to Port Douglas beaches View from Rex Lookout

I arrived at the Gorge at 3pm, grabbed my equip backpack, camera w/ wide-angle lens on tripod, and camera w/ telephoto lens around my neck and began my hike. The first stop within the Gorge was beautiful and inviting with its green waters. Very relaxing, except for the Aboriginal man who wouldn't stop talking gibberish. I don't know his age, but he wore a full beard with much grey, and meanwhile acted like he was 10 yrs old. He constantly called out to a woman nearby, saying the same thing over and over. She seemed to understand his gibber-gabber, but when I asked her what he was saying, she responded "I have absolutely no idea, but just smile and nod." He must have complimented me on my cameras 3 or 4 times and even complimented a couple on their baby. "Is that your baby?!" (The father was carrying the baby... and pretty obvious whose it was.) 'Yes, it is' replied the father. "That's a niiiiiiiiiiiiice baby!" ... After enough of his wonderful conversation, I decided to move on further down the trail and while I found other subject matter, none compared to this first pool of green waters.

Mossman Gorge

I left the Gorge just in time as the sun began to set and the light was becoming non-existent. Made it into Port Douglas (roughly 13 mi away) just in time for the sunset and quickly found a boat ramp to set up at. I was positioned next to the Port Douglas District Combined Clubs restaurant and bar and caught a muted, but nice sunset to the right of the Club, while still keeping it in the frame so I can pass it along to the Clubs when I get home.

Port Douglas Sunset

Tonight I'm staying in Port Douglas at the Parrotfish Lodge. The town is really nice... much greater character than Cairns. While Cairns is nice, it's fairly commercial and many of the stores are the same, attracting to tourist souvenirs and tour packages. Port Douglas is similar to Newport with more boutique type shops, a variety of restaurants, and bars. I've been hanging at Paddy's Irish Pub for about two hours now, editing images from today, writing, eating, and drinking. It's a tough life, so very tough!

Fri - 7/7/06

Today was the first truly long day of the trip. Up and out at Four-Mile Beach in Port Douglas in the dark of the night at 6am, half-hour before sunrise. With a watchful eye out for crocs, I mentally composed possible shots, which would depend on the light, and awaited the sunrise. Unfort the dark clouds muted the sun and its morning colors. Nevertheless, I managed a nice early-morning beach shot with the help of my friend, Mr. Coconut. At 8am with the shot nailed and feet wet, I moved on to the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary where I stopped to photograph the animals. The Roos, of all varieties/locations, were incredibly friendly and cute, especially the joeys poking their heads and legs from out of their mothers' pouches. The Rainbow Lorikeets were beautiful and even the ducks were amusing to watch!

Four-Mile Beach, Port Douglas Joey Rainbow Lorikeet

By 10:30am I managed to make my way out of Port Douglas towards the Daintree rainforest and Cape Tribulation (Trib). The Daintree, while not the largest, is the oldest rainforest in the world. Cape Trib is reached by a short (2 minute) ferry ride over the Daintree River and then many more km's by car. With many fun spots to stop along the way, the 30km (18mi) of road could take hours (and did!). Rainforest boardwalks, palm-lined beaches, and country shops were all quite distracting. By around 5pm, an hour til sunset, I made it to Cape Trib, the northernmost point of my Australian travels. After hours in the dark rainforest, I walked onto the the Cape's beach and through the beach palms, was immediately blinded and warmed by the late day brilliant sun. What a truly amazing, fulfilling, and welcoming sun it was! Not a sun or moment to photograph, yet rather one to stop at, take a deep breath, smile big, close my eyes, and rejoice.

Continuing up the trail was a 150 meter boardwalk to a lookout over the Cape beach and bay. I hung around and conversed with the many groups of travellers as I awaited what I expected would be an uneventful sunset in the cloudless sky. As they came and went, the clouds began to slowly drift in as the sun was fading fast. With the arrival of the clouds, my doubt slowly became hope and finally excitement as they became illuminated with the intense warm sunset reds, oranges, and the evening sky's powder blue. Surely one of the most wonderful sunsets I've seen, and esp photographed, in years. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect ending to the day!

Marrdja Botanical Boardwalk (all 3 here) Noah Creek off the boardwalk Cape Tribulation - The web's limited color palette kills me here!

Sat - 7/8/06

Today was a fairly uneventful day with minimal shooting. Lots of driving; little shooting. Started off the day in the Daintree Village, where I stayed in a unit that was called a 'cabin' but felt more like a mobile home, at the Kenadon Homestead. The Homestead in an Osborne cattle farm and was quite picturesque. The town itself was very small and the town 'centre' consisted of a street with only around 6 places of business... a cafe, restaurant or two, art gallery, and general store. The restaurant I ate at last night was quaint and the owners were very friendly. I hung around til around 10:30pm, writing and chatting with Jan, one of the owners, and playing with their cat who would scratch you to shreds if not careful!

The drive from Daintree south to the Atherton Tablelands was nice, nothing too special, but nice (I think I'm getting spoiled and growing slightly numb to these incredible surroundings!). I passed by Yungaburra, where I'd stay the next 2 nights, to hit the Mt Hypipamee National Park before dark. In the park is a massive 138 meter (roughly 450 ft) deep crater (50m above water level and then another 83m below the eerie green water) that was created by a 'violent gas explosion' under the ground. From the nearby signs:

"During volcanic activity molten lava and gases make their way to the surface. Cracks in the granite allow the fast moving gases to escape. As they near the surface, the gases expand, blasting a hole in the rock." ..."The Crater is not a vertical cylinder but a submerged passage. It turns under the lookout, 80m (~240 ft) below the water level. The water's surface is covered with a thick layer of duckweed. Underneath live perch-like fish and small crustaceans. Deep silt and tree litter cover the cave floor. Further exploration may reveal the crater's extent and facets of a unique habitat."

There were also 3 levels of 'Dinner Falls' which were flowing nicely after the recent rains. The falls provided several photo opportunities to shoot them from both the sides as well as from directly in front, with minimal rock-hopping.

Mt. Hypipamee Crater Dinner Falls Atherton Tablelands

Just prior to sundown I headed up to the Lake Tinaroo lookout to catch the sun's final rays for the day. Following sunset I started off down into town, but quickly stopped to catch an unexpected mellow sunset behind me. Managed to catch a nice silhouette of a wooden fence gate and palm trees with the soft colors of the sunset behind.

Tinaroo Sunsets

I eventually made it into town and to my accommodations, the Kookaburra Lodge. The lodge was small with a ton of character. 12 small units, each with a porch area and plenty of plant-life. The owners Mike and Nita both seem very friendly and accommodating. Tomorrow I'll check out some more of the Atherton Tablelands and Millaa Millaa waterfall circuit.

Sun - 7/9/06

Today was a good, long day. Up for sunrise and out at the town peninsula, but left hangin by the dense clouds. Ah well, back to the lodge for some 'brekky' and work at the computer for a while until the sun made its presence known. Another great brekky by Mike and Nita. First pancakes I've had in quite some time... probably since a good ole' home-cooked breakfast in the Jerz!

Made it out a while later and first came upon the Curtain and Cathedral Fig Trees, each a tourist attraction on its known and separated by some 20 km's. The fig trees are really quite a marvel due to their sheer size, in addition to the manner in which they form. See if you can follow this...

Picture 2 trees next to each other. On the left tree, a seed is deposited (from a higher branch) onto one of the lower branches and that seed germinates and sends its roots down to the ground from the branch. So a little tree starts on that branch. Aerial roots develop on the main root that is sent down to the ground and these aerial roots begin to wrap themselves around the original host tree. They continue to do so, so much that they cause the host tree to fall over to its right and lean on the other tree. The new tree continues to send more and more roots down to the ground but now they are at an angle, leaning over to the right. Eventually the host tree rots away, leaving just the new 'curtain' fig tree. ...Pretty impressive!

Cathedral Fig Tree Standing inside the Cathedral Fig and looking up

So after these massive trees, I headed south to the town of Millaa Millaa and the 'waterfall circuit'. The circuit starts in town and there are three main falls within a few km's of one another. Each as impressive as the next, but unfort due to the recent cyclones, there was a lot of distracting trees and brush in the way of two of them... severely impacting the images on one. After these three, I continued south and stopped at another two which were also quite breathtaking, but also impacted by the storms. The weather of the day left a lot to be desired, but I pressed on, did my best, and managed to come out pleased. At times, esp at higher elevations in the hills, the fog was extreme which I took great joy in. There are many a day that I drive to work in the morning in a thick fog upset that I must go sit behind a computer with such mysteriousness to be had outside.

Mobo Creek Millaa Millaa Falls Tchupala Falls

Tablelands in Fog

For dinner I visited the highly advertised Nick's Restaurant. It was a late dinner and similar to the rest of the week, I brought in my laptop to review the images of the day. After finishing my dinner, Nick, his wife, the chef, and one of the waiters became interested in what I was doing, and once they realized, also became interested to sit down with me and take a look for themselves. All interested in photography, we spoke for a long time about the land, photography, the local magazines in need of new images, and it went on and on. To make a long story short, they were all very nice, and Nick passed along the business card for the woman in charge of the publication for me to contact to get my images published. "Tell her Nick told you to call." I guess that's all he needed to say, I have a strange suspicion that my Italian friend is hot shit in the small town of Yungaburra. In addition to the restaurant, Nick owns a connected B&B and even one of the many local churches. He's keen on me moving to Yungaburra to become his wedding photographer, as he leans in and whispers "you could make a lot of money". ; )

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This was the end of the last of my OZ trips... I'd go back to my room, pack, and fly out in the morning to Brisbane for the night, then onto New Zealand the following day (Tues). What an incredible trip, from the landscapes to the country-folk, and everything in-between! It was sad to leave Australia once and for all, but with New Zealand ahead it was easier to not look back! And after all, I'm sure I'll make it back one of these days...

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For all the reef, rain forest, and tableland images... click HERE.