Tjapukai is an aboriginal cultural attraction. Plenty to do, spear and boomerang throwing and diggerido blowing. Dancing, singing and their origin story as well as bush tucker and demonstrating that you can start a fire by rubbing 2 sticks together. The guy in the picture was a little better at playing the diggerido than I was. That's it for a day or 2, going on a short tour inland - and the sun is shining.
No. 1 industry in Cairns. In another 3 months they'll cut the cane and crush it. Evidently its uses are far too many to mention, but suffice to say they sell it by the bucket full over here as the famous 'Aussie' beverage, Bunderberg Rum! A little further down the road is the Barron River whose banks overflow when you get 6 inches of rain in 12 hours (which just happened yesterday!!) Cairns was virtually cut off from the rest of the world for a while, but the locals seem to take it in their stride. Luckily the floods subsided today......in fact the sun shone through and we made it to Tjapukai.
MARCH 2, 2008
Hot and steamy - that's the weather around Cairns. Tons of rain lately but managed to get to Port Douglas and poke around the outdoor market between showers. Bought some strange fruit - rambutan (photos), can't really describe what it tastes like but it's good. The young lad selling them has cut one in half so that's what the inside looks like. Had some delicious fish and chips and wandered through a small mall (croc photo). So far have heard a kookaburra (terribly noisy bird and I constantly have that kookaburra song I learned in Girl Guides running through my head), have seen a wild turkey or 2 and a field of kangaroos. The kangaroos were too far to get a good shot with my camera but was fun watching them jump around. A monsoon trough has moved in so I'm taking it easy the next few days. Won't complain about the rain - at least I'm not in the snow.
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| Rambutan |
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The trip here was interesting, almost as if someone didn't want me to get here. My boarding card in Toronto wouldn't scan and a red alert sign flashed on the computer. The airline personnel said they didn't know why and to just get on the plane. In LA everyone had to get in line to have their Australian visa checked and I was put in the special line because there was some problem. Never did find out what the problem was they just messed around on the computer and then OK'd my boarding card. When I arrived in Sydney for my connecting flight to Cairns I had been booked through to Brisbane instead! Australians being rather laid back said "never mind she'll be right no worries" which means they'll fix it, and they did. Arriving in Cairns was like walking into a sauna; Chris was there to pick me up - what a guy!
It's 9:15 Saturday evening (got here noon Friday) and think I've finally caught up on sleep. Looked around Cairns a bit, easy to get around, centre of town is compact and walkable. Spent a wee bit of time on the beach. It's stinger season so you have to swim in the net so you don't get stung. As you can see it was cloudy which was a good thing, wasn't too hot and the water was incredibly warm. Have tons of brochures to look through and decisions as to what to do first to make.
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| Not much fun swimming in a net. |
