Back to the Tropics
Heat, sun, sand, and fish all welcomed us to Queensland. Apparently we haven’t spent enough time at the beach, so here we go again. We’ll head north again in three weeks.
The first stop was Cairns. There certainly was a bigger celebration in Sydney, but we experienced ANZAC Day up north instead. It is the Aussie version of Memorial Day, and celebrated in much the same way. We got a head start on the occasion by eating a whole bag of ANZAC biscuits (a delicious oatmeal and coconut cookie) a few days prior. In Cairns that day there was a small parade, a lot of military people around, and families having picnics at the beach. In this case ‘beach’ really means ‘park next to the ocean’. The beaches here are guarded by the incredibly toxic box jellyfish, ferocious saltwater crocodiles, and a selection of other dangerous creatures. The beach in Cairns also had the disadvantage of actually being a swamp, especially at low tide. Not very appealing. Of course that didn’t stop us from getting in the water, we just found a different spot.
That other spot was an hour off shore at the Great Barrier Reef. We went diving yet again, and saw the usual scenery. Beautiful soft coral, huge schools of fish, clown fish, giant clams, and turtles. No sharks this time, but Heather still managed to come in contact with some teeth. A rather large fish tried to bite her finger off. The guides decided to bring down some left over slices of ham from lunch and feed the fish at the bottom of the ocean. One got a little too excited, and tried to nibble a little more than was being offered. Nothing to worry about though, it was just a scratch.
The next town up the coast is Port Douglas. We spent a few days relaxing there to get away from the hustle and bustle of Cairns. There was also a long section of sand along the water here. No swamp, but a sign on the beach said the crocodiles were still lurking about. We tempted death and spent a good portion of one afternoon sitting on the beach watching tiny crabs create thousands of little balls out of sand. It was quite a bizarre thing to see. I guess that’s the sort of thing some animals do when they get bored.
Our final stop on this continent was the city of Darwin. It has been destroyed a few times in its history, so the current version was relatively new. The city was on the edge of the fighting in World War II, and was bombed two months after Pearl Harbor, by the same fleet. Hurricanes, or cyclones in this corner of the world, also roll through quite frequently and the town was almost totally washed away in 1974. Our evening there conveniently coincided with the weekly market by the beach. It seemed like the whole town was there watching the sunset, buying art, listening to the digeridoos, and enjoying the food. It was a nice end to our stay in Australia.
