FINCH HATTON

As I have caught up with our most recent photos on the blog, I am posting images of places visited when we were bush camping and had no power to update the blog. These photos will be out of order of our travelling but I will rectify this when I find time.
I am fascinated by the different types of fungi we see on our walks in National Parks.

Walking along the track through the rain forest


The Cascades near Finch Hatton


After crossing a creek the path is replaced with a boardwalk on the way to Firewheel Falls

The pool at the bottom of the firewheel falls is suitable for swimming

A Lizard spotted beside the path


This large Goanna walked in front of us as we returned to the car.

PORT DOUGLAS

We are at Port Douglas and it looks as though the rainy season has started. We have been having tropical rainfalls of an evening for about a week. The days are still warm and quite humid but by no means unbearable. Still enjoying every minute; we walked around the Port Douglas Marina and shopping complex this morning. The weather is a little too unpredictable for cycling as the heavens suddenly open up and send down a deluge of torrential rain; and then just as suddenly the rain subsides and we are once again enjoying pleasurable weather conditions.

We are in a caravan park in a great position, it is only 100 metres from the main shopping strip of Port Douglas and has access to the patrolled surf beach through a gate in the back fence. The beach was closed last week when a four metre crocodile was spotted off shore but it is open for swimming again; you need to have faith in the lifesavers.


Shopping arcade, Port Douglas Marina

Faye at Port Douglas Marina

We thought this catermaran looked rather groovy

David would like like to sail this particular yacht

Faye's favourite boat at the Marina

Fan Palms in the caravan park

This is the first time I have seen a couple of palm trees sprouting, its incredible they don't need any other sustenance to grow at this stage.

FLECKER BOTANICAL GARDENS, CAIRNS

We visited these gardens in 2007 and thought they were remarkable. The tropical plants are amazing and we saw lots of flora for the first time. This visit was at a different time of year so we saw a different selection of blooms.

Three stages of this particular plant are shown here. The large brown ball is part of the tree, then there are the buds and flowers. Below is a close up of a flower in full bloom.

There were so many plants in different colours to what I have seen previously



Amorphophallus Paeoniifolius -this amazing plant is actually indigenous and grows in the top end. The mis-shapened top is the flower and is filled with an abundance of pollen and spores and will eventually collapse. We were there when a nurseryman was collecting pollen from around the stem to enable manually pollination. In the wild it is pollinated by blow flies. This particular plant will flower again in two years. We saw it at its best before it releases a pungent odour.



Jade Vine

This creeper clung so closely to the trunk of the tree it looked like a pattern had been painted onto the trunk.






The photo does not show the vivid red colour of these large flower pendants

This trunk looked lethal with all the pointed barbs protruding. It is not native but we have a tree very closely related to it. It is a member of the capok family and has large fluffy bunches of capok at the tip of branches.

The head of this flower was so enormous it had bent the branch down and was facing the ground. I took this snap by putting the camera upside down under the flower head

These plant just pop up out of the ground.

CAIRNS

We enjoyed a week in Cairns, meeting up with Sam, cycling, spending a day in Karumba, a day travelling to the Daintree and Cape Tribulation and another at the Flecker Botanical Gardens, Cairns.

Enjoying breakfast in Cairns with Sam on her arrival to attend an international permaculture convergence

Sam the evening she flew back to Melbourne


We had a late night dip in the lagoon on the boulevard before heading for the airport




Cairns residents getting fit following the steps of the new exercise/dance craze sweeping the country



Fence and Letterbox we passed whilst cycling

Bush Stone Curlews at the caravan park

Entrance to Diane Cilento's Theatre & Gallery Cafe 'Karnak'


Karnak Theatre


David at lunch

Stained glass window in the gallery

Jack Fruit growing in the grounds

Banana Orchard

Choosing fresh veges and fruit from a roadside stall

We were held up to allow this sugarcane train to cross the road in front of us
The crocodile viewing train on the Daintree river

Faye on the beach boardwalk, Cape Tribulation

We saw this amazing sky just before sunset on our return trip from Cape Tribulation to Cairns

A view looking along the Esplanade toward the Cairns Pier.

Egret on the mudflats Cairns esplanade

Images of grafitti in one of Cairns' city laneways







One of the many street performances on the Esplanade. The pole is being held vertical by the performer's instructions to six members of the audience (all strangers to the performer and each other) whilst he performs balancing and juggling tricks.

Children having fun in the water playground running beside the esplanade.


The beautiful lagoon on The Esplanade, Cairns. We cooled off here after cycling around Cairns.
There are two vehicles in this video. The harvester and the truck catching the cane run alongside each other as they travel along the edge of the sugar cane field.