It’s the bird du jour around almost any given sub-tropical picnic area and car park, so it should have been easy to get a good shot.  However, my shots of Australian Brush-turkey in the dark depths of Natural Bridge*, part of Springbrook National Park’s lushly magnificent rainforest, all had something missing.

Clarity.

Although it was mid-afternoon this warm and sunny July day, the sun had already well and truly set at the bottom of the valley.

We’d descended the 1 km circuit trail, and a dank chill was rising from the rushing stream below.

Natural Bridge was formed by erosion and weathering by the full force of the creek flowing into the valley. It is actually a hole in the rock where water rushes into a grotto below.

As we left the park, the otherworldly gloom of this abundant and spectacular rainforest reserve fell behind us.  We emerged onto the New South Wales road – aglow with bright, late-afternoon sunlight.

• Natural Bridge
• Australian Brush-turkey (Alectura lathami)
• Springbrook National Park

* Natural Bridge is also known as ‘Natural Arch’

The post Beauty at Natural Bridge! appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

‘I would NOT like to fall down there,’ the backpacker remarked to his mates with that peculiarly British mixture of overconfident understatement and blinding obvious as he stared down into the depths of the crater.

They nodded wisely, unsure whether or not they’d heard something profound, but deciding to play it safe.

Banal though his utterance was, however, he was right. 58 metres (193 feet) WAS a long way down to the green water-weed infested pool at the bottom of the crater. And I didn’t want to fall down there either.

Acrophobics* like me clung to the heavy duty railing to peer over the edge. Mt Hypipamee’s famous crater was giving me the heebie-jeebies. I wondered how long it would take a falling object – say, a human sacrifice – to hit the green depths far below the crater rim.

I didn’t have to wonder for too long.

The backpacker’s girlfriend picked up a stick and casually twirled it like a baton as she glanced at me sideways. Come to think of it, they were ALL glancing at me sideways as they hogged the railing, showing none of the usual tourist hot-spot etiquette whereby each gets an equal turn at the best photo vantage point.

It was pretty obvious I was the only one not of their kind with my tan, thongs and 20+ year head start.  What were they looking at? My hair-dye job wasn’t THAT bad, was it?

After shooting around them without using my elbows for their god-given purpose as they continued to take up most of the viewing space at the railing, I’d taken as many photos as I could. Their glances were really starting to creep me out.

What were they waiting for? A human sacrifice??

Approximately 5.918 seconds later the stick hit the water, trailing greenly through the native waterweed on its surface.

Judging by the number of similar trails in the water, I guessed she wasn’t alone in ‘testing’ the depth of the water.

What we couldn’t see, however, was the depth of the pool beneath the protective waterweed layer. Estimated at around 82 metres (273 feet) deep, the pool lay still and silent, or would have but for the stick-and-stone-throwing tourists.

Managers of the stunning Millaa Millaa caravan park where we’d based ourselves in July 2011 on the Tablelands above Cairns in Far North Queensland had given us a list of local attractions. One of several was Mt Hypipamee National Park on the southern Evelyn Tableland and within the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.

Although due to a little flirtation with the facts its technically incorrect colloquial name – ‘The Crater’ – is pure Aussie overstatement. More accurately known as a diatreme or volcanic pipe, it’s thought to have been formed by gas from an underground explosion that expanded to form this deep, cylindrical hole.**

The fact sheet suggested the we look out for platypi*** in the pool and I’d assumed them to be the cause of the waterweed trails. But now I knew the REAL explanation, I wondered if it were possible for platypi – or indeed any creature that couldn’t escape the pool’s closed ecosystem – to survive.

Where was a Platypus Whisperer when you needed one?

On a previous trip to the area, we’d discovered Pilchard’s remarkable talent for spotting platypi, as like the Pied Piper of Yungaburra, he’d seen them at every turn along a river walk. After a while, I and the delighted Swiss family trailing in his wake gave up looking for them ourselves, and just waited for him to point them out.

But Pilchard, the only Platypus Whisperer I know, was busy at the forest edge (aka ‘carpark’) with a couple of other twitchers**** spotting North Queensland endemic Golden Bowerbird (Prionodura newtoniana) high in the trees above.

Later we would go to a TOP SECRET location through leech-dripping rainforest to see the Bowerbird’s bower – with only one use, the avian equivalent of a teenage boy’s chick-magnet hot-rod (I’ve included a mediocre picture of it to satisfy your prurient curiousity) (oh, and you’re now one of not very many people in the world who’ve seen a Golden Bowerbird’s bower)(albeit virtually).

But a more than passing knowledge of the mating habits of bowerbirds wasn’t going to help me with the platypi question. And neither were the backpackers who, having confirmed the depth of the diatreme wasn’t an illusion with their scientific stick, left in a gaggle, speaking loudly of their impending pub-crawl.

And now, gazing into the green waterweed down the green, green vegetation clinging to the granite wall 70 metres (233 feet) away on the other side was making my eyes go funny. If there WERE platypi, they hadn’t made an appearance yet.

I peered more closely into the depths. Was there a movement?

Forget the platypi.  Could there be a Ness-like monster lurking in the depths, trapped by time and a prehistoric explosion?

I wondered whether the Mt Hypipamee Crater had ever claimed a victim. A little introspection goes a long way in a place like this Or maybe I just needed to get back to normality.

That is, if a group of twitchers intent on hunting down a (feathered) bird’s love nest was normal. But it says a lot for the Mt Hypipamee Heebie-Jeebies that as I emerged from the rainforest into the relative sanity of the car park, it was!!

* Acrophobia = fear of heights

** According to the Tablelands Parks and Forests brochure produced by Queensland Parks & Wildlife Service

*** Platypi = more than one platypus

**** twitcher = birdwatcher

Want MORE?

• Mt Hypipamee National Park (The Crater)
• Millaa Millaa Tourist Park
• Atherton Tablelands, Far North QueenslandC

The post The Hypipamee Heebie-jeebies … appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

Cairns is one of the best Australian travel destinations – and I’ve got the photos to prove it! This laid back city 2000 km north of Brisbane between World Heritage Listed Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef, has come a long way from its sugar-cane farming roots to become Far North Queensland’s tourist hub.

Cairns has just as much to offer travellers seeking cheap holidays as it does to those looking for luxury! In fact, the only problem will be limiting your visit to a week!!

Luckily, I’ve been travelling to Cairns for 20+ years – the time period over which these photos were taken – and Pilchard even longer!  So use our 7 Day Cairns sampler itinerary guide to get you started …

Day 1: Cairns Botanic Gardens

The pint-sized bag-snatcher at the Cairns Botanic Gardens Cafe was probably a one-off. No, really!! The toddler who picked up my handbag didn’t take kindly to Pilchard’s attempts to remove it from her grubby grasp.

Attracted by the shrieks, her rampaging mother berated Pilchard for making her darling cry, gave the child my bag to play with and turned back to her glass of wine table. With a) child clutching b) the handbag.

Now you tell me. Was it so unreasonable for Pilchard to insist on its return?

Sadly, this whole stultifying display of disturbed parenting could have been avoided if only I’d taken my handbag with me to the ladies room …

Happily, in addition to the Scenic Public Toilet, the large Cairns Botanic Gardens complex is full of distractions, with wonderful displays of tropical plants; several interpretive trails, magnificent butterflies and brightly coloured birds!

Although ‘wild boar’ sounds so much more exotic than ‘feral pig’, they’re both equally destructive when crashing through the undergrowth on the mangrove boardwalk through to the Centenary Lakes picnic area. Although I’d rather meet a wild pig than an unsupervised homo-sapiens (juv) allowed to run amok by overindulgent parents …

Spending the whole day in the gardens is easy – the 6.6 km Mt Whitfield trail loop gives splendid views over the busy international airport and Cairns itself. But I’m not sure if the group of school kids led by two young and ever so perky teachers we dodged on the track were a fair replacement for the cassowaries once common in the area.

Day 2: North to Port Douglas

The block of land for sale a few metres below the Port Douglas Lookout platform has the same staggering view. But would that be enough to counteract the 24/7 comings and goings above? Maybe the local residents were on to something when they tried to get the lookout closed …

The Lady Douglas probably isn’t the ritziest craft to cruise Dixon Inlet – but I’ll bet she’s the classiest! And if you want to take a look behind the scenes of what once was a small fishing village but is now amongst Australia’s most expensive real estate, the inlet is awash with wildlife – including crocodiles!

Time it right and attend – or miss, depending on your point of view – the Port Douglas markets, but whatever you do, DON’T miss Mocka’s Pies! This FAAAAABULOUS Bakery (come back for the cheese pasty, potato & pea pie, apple, lemon meringue – hell, come back for ANYTHING) has the well-deserved distinction of being our ALL TIME favourite!!!!

Day 3: Northern Beaches

Although the artificial lagoon, sandy beach and infinity pool are a good substitute for lack of foreshore beach, nothing beats the real thing! And heading north, the real thing is abundant starting about 20 km from the CBD.

Spend a day exploring all the beaches; or stay on one beach all day; or take an extra day and do both!! From the unspoiled excellence of Wangetti Beach (below the hang glider launch spot I’ll always be too gutless to try) to the ritz of Palm Cove; Ellis Beach between the highway and sea to the fabulous curve of Trinity Beach; Yorkeys Knob cliff and marina to the vast sand flats and rock wall at Machans – eateries, picnic and BBQ areas, walks, birdlife … there’s something for everyone!

Take your pick – and if you got it wrong, try again tomorrow!!

Day 4: Esplanade … and Cairns itself

Want a perfect day on the Cairns Esplanade?

WELL … my guest post on 52 Perfect Days will tell all!!

But because I’m a tease nice person, here’s a glimpse!!

Of course Cairns is much more than its foreshore! There’s shopping and eating precincts – yes, a bakery or two – the Visitor Information Centre, galleries, restaurants, museums … do I need to spell it out??

Day 5: Outdoors in the Rainforest …

Snakes, goannas, birds, butterflies, hungover backpackers – I’ve yet to visit Crystal Cascades without finding something interesting to watch!

This popular series of swimming holes on – you guessed it – Crystal Creek buried deep in the rainforest is a water supply access point but walkers can take the track for 1.2 km to the barrier for a taste of REAL rainforest and wildlife. Near the start of the trail, a track – classified as ‘strenuous’ and ‘rough’ – heads almost vertically upwards to Copperlode Dam in the ranges far above …

… and as if to prove it’s not all sunshine and serenity in the tropics, the temperature dropped 8ºC in the 25 km drive from Cairns CBD up the ranges to Copperlode Dam aka Lake Morris, 365 metres above sea level. And the hot soup that sounded so ridiculous in the balmy, high 20’s temperature on the coast was more than welcome in our efforts to counteract the chill wind!

It’s best to be sober when attempting this steep, twisting track with several one-way sections, and breathtaking (aka ‘hyperventilating’) dropaways, often being repaired after heavy rain at which time they become ‘washaways’ … But the stupendous views on each side of the range show just how much unexplored rainforest remains.

Ambitious walkers undaunted by the steep gradient can attempt further exploration on the 3km track dropping straight down from the dam to Crystal Cascades below …

Day 6: Islands

‘Tropical paradise’ is such a cliché – there’s only so much blue sky/clear water/white sand/palm trees you can take, right?

Perhaps. But a trip to the Frankland Islands or Green Island will leave you begging for more, cliché or no!

Trust me.

Day 7: Skyrail and Kuranda Scenic Railway

Despite the jaw-dropping views above the unspoiled World Heritage listed rainforest canopy to the spectacular Cairns coastline, acrophobics* may find the 7.5 km Skyrail cable-car journey from Cairns to Kuranda (or vice versa) ‘challenging’.

But luckily, a couple of stops for the rainforest interpretive centre and Barron Falls lookout break the journey and allow equilibrium to be regained before another 6 person gondola – and the next leg!

But is going up the Kuranda Range by Skyrail any worse for acrophobics than dropping nearly 300 metres through 15 tunnels and across 40 rickety bridges crossing drop-away chasms down the super-steep Barron Gorge if returning via the 34 km Kuranda Scenic Railway?

As a recovering acrophobic I unreservedly recommend both trips – just breathe normally into that paper bag while taking photos all the way. And don’t look down …

Well, how quickly 7 Days can pass!

And I haven’t even started on heading south to the other side of Trinity Inlet, the Goldsborough Valley, and Gordonvale’s Cane Toad World!

Or west to the Atherton Tablelands …

That’s another 7 Days all by itself!!

I developed this 7 day guide based on visits to Cairns totalling MANY weeks over 20+ years!  Photos all taken 2009-2011, except the Kuranda train (1998) as that pic was better than the ones I have from later trips.

*Acrophobia= fear of heights

Want MORE?

• Not quite enough photos here, right? There’s plenty more on Flickr !!
• Cairns and Tropical North Queensland
• Cairns and Tropical North Visitor Information Centre
• What I’ve done in and around Cairns
• My other 7 Days in … Guides

The post 7 Days in … Cairns! appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

We Arrive on Green Island

Although it was 20 LOOOONG years since our last Green Island National Park visit, Pilchard’s first action on our return just MAY have been a little bit extreme.

I mean, propelling a perfectly good hat into the sea wasn’t some kind of superstitious ritual, was it? Did he perhaps think it meant we wouldn’t have to wait another 20 years before our next visit??

But the capricious gust of wind that had plucked the hat from Pilchard’s head and flung it into the depths where it sank like a stone was pure accident.

AND embarrassing.

From the frenzied clicking and suppressed giggles behind us, I strongly suspected the whole episode had been captured on film …

Our return to Green Island wasn’t going well …

Green Island – the Facts!

The 12 hectare rainforest-covered coral cay – known as the Green Island Recreation Area – is one of the most popular and accessible tourist destinations in the Great Barrier Reef, a short 27 km (~17 miles) boat trip from Far North Queensland’s Cairns.

Green Island’s Fascinating Past

Estimated to be several thousand years old, post-colonial plunder and exploitation have threatened the island’s continued existence since its charting and naming by Captain James Cook in 1770. But luckily, the multi-layered protection that several regulatory authorities jointly brings will prevent further structural, environmental and biological damage, given the accountability and harmony so often seen in competing bureaucracies. Right???

But changes to the island landscape since 1770 are far greater than those observed by Pilchard and I after our 20-year hiatus! Green Island’s new (to us!) interpretive boardwalk charts the effects of human interaction – and the changing demands for its resources.

From Guru-Gulu Gungandji Indigenous people’s hunting and initiation ceremony site to present day recreation area of reef, resort and National Park has been a long and bumpy road for this beautiful spot.

‘Plunder’ and ‘pillage’ the 1800’s themes, the island was exploited trashed cleared by bêche de mer fishermen who had no use for pristine rainforest and reef while involved in this labour-intensive industry. But in the 100+ years since the processing plant, living quarters and gardens replaced the forest, it’s grown back completely – with 134 charted plant species today.

During this time drunken ‘picnic’ parties, like those described in this postcard facsimile above, decimated island resources with activities including, but not exclusive to dynamiting fish, shooting birds and souveniring coral!

In what the unkind may describe as ‘poetic justice’, one local character’s arm was amputated after a nasty accident with the dynamite while ‘fishing’! Could this have been the rise of the notorious Aussie ‘yobbo’**??

In an almost complete turnaround, the island’s potential for tourism was exploited developed in the 1900’s complete with world firsts – including glass bottomed boats for underwater viewing, films of life on the Barrier Reef and Cassius, the largest crocodile (5.5m or 18′) in captivity in the only crocodile farm – Marineland Melanesia – on a coral cay. If that’s important.

Green Island – Now What?

now, around 300,000 tourists visit Green Island each year, continuing to exploit its resources, albeit more sustainably. In theory, anyway – imagine the impact of so many on the beaches, coral reefs, walks and wildlife.

But the multi-layered management model would have changed all this for the better, right? Well … look at what’s changed in the last 20 years – do the changes contribute to island sustainability? Or are they just cosmetic? You decide!!

20 years ago, you got a Green Island cruise or day-trip – now it’s a Green Island ‘Eco-Adventure’, although weirdly, most activities haven’t changed … and neither has the snorkelling equipment!!! How jealous would my friends have been in the early 90’s to hear about my Eco-Adventure!!

20 years ago, visitors could cross the island on a dirt track through the centre, and the only restricted areas were the resort grounds, and crocodile farm (as if you needed to be told that!!). Now, a boardwalk follows the beach, leaving the centre free from human activity. Oddly, the ‘walk’ from one side to the other is now marketed as a ‘self-guided tour’!

20 years ago, Emerald doves wandered the forest floor – but now, after a successful rat eradication program, large numbers of Buff-banded Rail aggressively hunt and gather from the main food court – and appear to be the only ground-based fauna. Like house-guests from hell, they bathe (and defecate) in the pool, snatch food from unwitting tourists, and hog the best sunbathing spots. In a strange zoological reversal, tourists unable to fend them off are invited to eat in a wire mesh enclosure (aka ‘cage’) the birds can’t enter …  The attractively marked Buff-banded Rail normally shuns human contact, so getting a close look at one isn’t that easy. But now? I don’t care if I never see another one …

20 years ago you were left to your own devices upon arrival on the island – now, there are warnings for the aged. Apparently a high risk group, tourists aged 50+ (aka ‘old’) are encouraged to alert the lifeguard when entering the water in case the exertion is too much. Although the only danger I faced was from Pilchard himself when I offered to tell the lifeguard that he was about to go snorkelling.

Green Island’s Natural Attractions

But these are minor points in the context of the magnificent beauty of the natural attractions. Broad white beaches. Water so clear and blue you could spot a hat through it. Superb corals, giant clams and fish. Lush, green rainforest. Ample birdwatching opportunities. Turtle spotting. And the ultimate? Whale watching!!

Sitting on a shady beach after the trauma of keeping our reef fish wraps and chips** from the hovering anxiety of a brace of Buff-banded Rail, we watched a pod of whates frolicking for a good 30 minutes before they moved out of sight. Then, another pod was spotted from the return ferry. Happily not required for scientific testing that day, the whales were free to cavort for the Aussie, American, French and Japanese photographers lucky enough – and thrilled – to capture them on film.

A stunning end to a fabulous day, our return to Green Island had certainly picked up from its inauspicious beginning.

SO … will we return? Hell, yes! After all, we’ve got Pilchard’s hat to look for …

* Yobbo = Aussie term of endearment for people (usually blokes) who indulge in ‘exuberant’ behaviour, usually taking the format of alcohol-fuelled best mate bonding sessions involving various combinations of camping, fishing, barbecues, hunting and cruising.

** Chips = fries

The post Return to Green Island – via Cairns, Far North Queensland appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.