Author: rogerluedtke

Once again I’ve been remiss in not adding maps of our travels. I’ve added them to the posts for May 6 (Silky Oaks to Cairns), May 8 (Cairns to Port Moresby), and May 9 (Port Moresby to Tari).

Now in full action travel mode (am quick start, meals can wait, afternoon shower) we met Steven at the bus at 6:15 for our first straight-up birdwalk. We got on the bus to go farther up into the mountains and had ridden a couple of miles when I realized I did not have a battery in my camcorder, having left it charging in the room. Our driver took me back while Steven and Dana did a little birdwatching on the road, We fetched it and rejoined them.

We rode a few more miles and stopped, and then the three of us got out and started walking. The weather was excellent, bright morning sun. We walked for several minutes with Steven hearing and spotting things, but nothing I could get in the camcorder. I was fighting off discouragement, when suddenly Steven said the words “a Bird of Paradise” that I’d been praying for, to be honest.

Actually there were two, a male and a female, high in the trees and quite far away. They were Ribbon-tailed Astrapia, the male with a 3 foot tail, which you can see flowing a little twice in the shaky, silhouetted video as he moves around the female.

I’ve added a screen shot of one split second, the tail forming a double crescent on the upper right.

The web photo shows what to look for…

and this was the best I had for the face…

and this shows a better view of the ribbon tail, plus a slightly lighter peek at the neon green crest at the very top of the photo.

We followed the pair for about 15 minutes as they wove through the treetops around us. Sorry to make so much of dodgy views, but I’m pretty pumped about such a good start – hopefully more and better to follow.

Back for breakfast and at 9 Steven took us on a Huli culture trip. First stop was a face-painting and general decoration demo, with a lot of info on materials and feathers used.

Next was a deep dive into the Huli Wig School – fascinating story, needs a web search to do it justice.

and then an interesting additional stop on widowed women… (main theme: disguising them at the funeral so that the deceased husband’s spirit doesn’t attack and kill them.)

The widows are sitting with the kids. The two girls standing are seeking compensation or revenge for the killing of a family member, and may walk through the village until either is achieved.

Final stop was a spirit dance, meant to attract good spirits, e.g. to help improve infertile soil, cure a sick person.

A unique twist:cross-dressing. The dancers wear skirts and flashy headdresses etc. to appear to be beautiful young girls and attract presumably lustful spirits that don’t undo their cures when they discover the truth. A further twist: missionaries convinced most folks that the summoned spirits would seek revenge when they discovered the truth. Now only 10% or so, in the most remote regions, still observe the practice.

We went back to the lodge for a late lunch. Steven asked us if we wanted to do the scheduled nature walk or more birding. We opted for the latter, and so at 4 we did a little walk around the grounds where we saw several birds, including another BOP, a Stephany Astropia…

and then went back up the road in the bus, walked about a little and saw more birds, including another Stephany Astropia.

Not satisfied, we will do a little birding around the lodge tomorrow before breakfast. We confirmed with Paul, the lodge manager, that we will be driven to the Tari airport at 8:30 for a charter flight to our next place, the Karawari Lodge, in a lowland rainforest on the Karawari river (no roads, only reachable by charter flight or boat). Should be about a 20 degree F temp swing up.

I need to add a note about the bellicose history of the PNG tribal groups (the groupings are confusing – Steven refers to clans – there are villages – over 400 languages). I read that the groups constantly fought until the Aussies got them to substitute sing-sings. There had to have also been a huge influence by the infusion of christianity. But Steven kept mentioning compensation or revenge (the latter including murder) for wrongs that immediately become group issues needing resolution, as still not uncommon.

This partitioning is physically present in the prevalence of mud walls separating family/clan property within villages, giving the appearance of mini fortresses.

And even the niceness to us has limits. The lodge assigned a security guide to us on all of our outings.

On a lighter note: most of the men look like they could be brothers of LeBron James.

We had things ready to go, so after a quick shave etc. we went up to the 7th floor, where a glorious sunrise greeted us.

Curious about the airplane? It’s real, and attached to the 7th floor – well 6th, I guess, since it can be entered from there.

We did the breakfast buffet, but since I was finally getting concerned about my growing girth (Dana had been coaching me on it for several days), I opted for a little yogurt cup and some granola – well ok, also a small croissant and danish.

Back down at the room we got our stuff and went out to the lobby to wait for Reuben, who showed up without a car and accompanied us to the airport in the hotel shuttle. There was a long line of people waiting to get into the domestic terminal (security equipment at the entrance and cops only letting a few people get to that at a time) – not a problem for Reuben.

There were two lines, one for Bus class etc and another for other. We were other, since we had economy seats (all they had on our little plane) but Reuben got us past that check quickly, then whisked us through the security check, got us checked in and went with us to the internal security check to make sure we got through it. We did.

We entered a long departure hall that was filling up with people. At the end, opening onto the tarmac were 4 numbered Gate doors, with no one attending them. One incoming flight with passengers for a very large flight was delayed, holding up all of the other flights. Then the others started getting called. An amazing number of people streamed through the hall and passed through two of the doors while we waited, Finally our flight was called, likely down the priority list because of its size.

We got airborne pretty quickly, considering. Our FA was a huge guy who seemed out of place, especially on such a small plane. There was growing cloud cover as we went into the mountains, but when we landed at Tari the weather was ok.

I need to add that all along the way people were very friendly to us and downright kind, offering help and God’s blessing. While we were waiting for our luggage, a guy walked up to us in a well-worn jacket and said he was the manager at Ambua Lodge where we were to stay, as Indeed he was. Said his name was Paul and he was here to shuttle us up to the lodge, which he did, in an oldish bus, with John, our driver. Not an imposing impression.

Turns out that the lodge has been struggling to get going again after getting trashed by COVID when they laid off all staff, and, desperate for guests, it’s likely they now have to moderate hiring. After a short drive up 7000 feet we reached the lodge, which made a very good impression, exterior…

and interior.

Paul gave us a briefing and showed us to our room and we got settled and returned for a very nice lunch. Four places were set and we were later joined by a young Polish couple, Olga and Andrew.

The weather got a little wet, but around two we went down the hill in the bus with Steven, the lodge guide, to a break in the grass that led to a Huli village. We saw a woman planting a crop in a fresh, round earth mound…

one of many in what I had not realized was a crop field. Pretty sure the mounds are for aeration, but also where the debris from a harvested crop is put back into the soil. Steven explained that the soil is then so so fertile that no other fertilizer is needed.

We went on to a where other women were sitting together doing various handicrafts for essentials. They were wearing traditional clothing, and face painting etc. – likely for the pics. Per Steven, 25% of the population in the countryside still lives this way.

I will likely be using pics rather than photos for awhile. We will be beyond good wifi for several days, relying solely on our phones as hot spots.

Wherever we are going the kids love to come around – these as we left the village.

They love to shake hands, do fist bumps etc, and they don’t ask for anything in return.

We went on up the road to another path that led us into a waterfall.

Back at the place we hung our wet clothes to dry, did a little unproductive birding, and then miscellany til dinner – same after til turning in, Dana again quite early.

Alarm set for 3:25, I woke up before it – good sleep, since a little after 8pm. We quickly cleaned up, dressed, did a last minute check, and went down to the lobby. Driver waiting, breakfast boxes ready, but we only took one – would be breakfast on the plane. Quick ride to the airport, checkin not open until later so we waited in a large International Departure Hall.

We happened to have business class for this flight, so we checked in at that counter. The agent wanted to see the receipt for the eticket and I managed to find it after some searching – part of my exhaustive trip prep to put it somewhere I’d be sure to find it, and couldn’t.

Unhurried security screening but I had forgotten to put the pockets stuff in my carryon and so it all went into the big tub in a heap and I was rushed putting things back in pockets so I mistakenly stuffed my reserve US dollars in my cell phone pocket. A little panic when I couldn’t locate it where it was supposed to be, but in a quieter moment I found it in the cell phone pocket. Gotta be sure to do that from now on.

We boarded and left on time. The Fokker we were riding in rose rapidly and we were soon getting to cruising altitude, with developing sky scenery.

Breakfast was served and was robust, with a selection of the standards and good juice.

We were soon landing in Port Moresby, immediately noticing the heat and humidity. Very few arrivers, so quick entry (careful document prep paid off) and we were met by our driver, Reuben, nice, middle-aged, exceptionally competent, clearly-well-educated guy.

Five minute ride to the Airways Hotel, billed as “PNG’s leading hotel and one of the most unique airport hotels in the world”. It lives up to the name. We had a room upgrade to a suite on the main floor near the front desk, ultra-convenient. No info on meeting others in our group however – a little concerning.

Dana immediately went off snooping and later texted me from the weight room and then the pool, on the seventh floor. I went up to connect with her and discovered what the “unique” was all about. The hotel is built into the side of a cliff, and the 7th (top) floor is actually on the top of the cliff, with the front entrance, checkin desk, and our room at the bottom of the cliff, and an elevator tower to get from the latter to the former.

The pool looked inviting, and the heat made it more-so.

We paddled around in the pool for awhile – more for the cooling effect than for exercise – and then I ordered and ate a BBG chicken sandwich under D’s disapproving sneer. There were a lot of people in the space, which combined what appeared to be a bar, a couple of restaurants, and viewing deck with the pool. It was just a really nice space.

All of the staff and most of the customers appeared to be Papua New Guineans, and almost all were folks of color. The staff and everyone we met had big smiles and greetings for us, with polite, slightly formal English. It had a really nice vibe, reminding me of the atmosphere of the nicer hotels and the government offices in Nigeria.

Dana got on a mission of finding the name of good friend Judi Barr’s dad on a WWII memorial here. He served in the Australian Air Force and was lost in combat. We hired a taxi to find the memorial.

En route we passed a lot of local folks going about their business, with countless vendors selling what they could along the streets and at the roundabouts. Our driver, Steven, confirmed my impression that there was widespread poverty, coupled with corruption in government – a tragic and common story.

The memorial site was impressive – exceptionally well-maintained.

The white crosses looked to be mostly for unknown soldiers.

There was an impressive memorial at the top of the hill: a double circular colonnade…

with names of fallen Australian and New Guinea officers engraved on the inside columns. We found Judi’s dad’s name there: R.J. Nancarrow.

Back at the hotel we showered and killed some time, and then went up to the 7th floor for an excellent buffet dinner.

We both were tired and Dana didn’t last too long after dinner. I pushed on to finish the previous day’s blog.

We awoke to a beautiful sunny day. Accuweather predicted that the day would be rainy in Cairns, but sunny in Karunda, our destination for the day. Might seem odd, since Karunda is in the mountains, but I think that the wet weather in Cairns is due to the steep increase in elevation into the mountains which drops the moisture as it rises.

We were among the first to the buffet breakfast, which was OK, and then we headed out to the Esplanade for the start of our walk to the train station. I grabbed a pic of Crystalbrook Riley, our hotel, on the way.

A lot of folks were already out, doing their Esplanade things…

as were the pelicans…

With the help of Google Maps we found the station, a little early, leaving Dana time to get in some planking.

The train made quite an entrance, but it is now electric, so not the deafening roar and hiss of the original steam engines.

We boarded and were soon underway.

The interior of the car is beautifully polished wood, giving it an antique feel and evoking a little of its history. The railway was built to service gold mining between 1886 and 1891: 33k of tracks, three million cubic meters of earth, 15 tunnels, 37 bridges, 150 cuttings…and 32 laborers killed.

We made a huge horseshoe turn…

and started the climb into the mountains.

The couple facing us were very friendly people from Adelaide. I was a little envious of the folks sitting in the single facing seats on the opposite side of the car until it became clear that all of the views were on our side.

We came to the first bridge – over a waterfall…

the ride quickly earning the label of “scenic” – often used more for hype than to inform.

There were views of the coastal plain as we climbed…

. 

a glimpse of the Barron River…

and then a stop at Barron Falls…

where, with all of the other tourists, I took a pic of our train from an overpass.

Note the “cutting” the train is sitting in, one of the 150 on the route, which, along with the 15 tunnels (not shown – unphotogenic and thankfully uneventful), create a mind-boggling spectacle of countless dynamite explosions (no estimate available).

Seeing in person the steep slopes, and having experienced the heavy rains and flooding that likely plagued the project, one cannot grasp how it was successfully completed. And that’s without factoring in the brutal heat, humidity, and malaria. A tragic irony: the gold petered out, and malaria devastated the town that grew up around the terminus.The good news: Karunda became, and has for many years been, a top tourist attraction mainly due to the preservation of the train.

The ride ended in the historic Kuranda station.

With the other passengers we trooped up into the town, and then directly into the Visitor Center, where we got maps and directions for the sites of most interest to us: butterfly aviary, birdland,and koala camp.

The whole town is an unapologetic tourist trap, with wall-to-wall shops of every kind, restaurants, coffee bars, bars, liquor stores, sweet shops – every imaginable way to make an Australian buck, and we had to weave our way through them at quite some length to get to what we wanted to see. The three we chose were not on any purist naturalist list, but maybe came the closest to it. They did provide some nice photo ops… and we were (in a way) honoring those who sacrificed to make the Railway work.

Starting at the butterfly aviary, we were disappointed that they did not have the star species: the Ulysses, but we did get to walk through and experience the others – not that many species compared to other such places we’ve seen, but still pleasant.

But there was a star of the show, so clearly a diva that the locals have claimed it as their own…

Like a true diva, it knew how to capture and hold an audience.

even adding a pas de deux with a partner.

From the butterflies we moved directly to the birds, for some really close encounters. First, the less colorful…

and then…

Then another Diva…

that was downright coquettish…

and flew right in my face.

And the big kid on the block was right out of Jurassic Park…

We took a break for a mango coconut smoothie – well I did, Dana insisted on skipping lunch – it’s all she’d let me have without complaining, and then we went off for a hike on the village circuit trail – a paved/boardwalk/bridged path that went through the rainforest…

across a creek…

and down to the Barron River…

where we stopped for a little rest in a paper-bark tree grove (amazing stuff – I peeled five or six paper-thin layers off of one very thin piece of it)…

before turning up a stairway to the Kuranda Sky Rail, for the ride back down to Cairns.

The views, and the experience, were extraordinary.

The length was a complete surprise. I hadn’t checked the geography but had assumed it was a short cut. At 4.5 miles, it’s the longest gondola cableway in the world. Wondering about the ecological footprint, I thought the towers instead looked like they were magically dropped into place in the rainforest. They were – sort of.

From the web: “There’s quite a story behind its construction. Due to it operating above a World Heritage-protected national park, there was no access to the forest by road to build the towers supporting the cableway. Construction workers and engineers had to hike in and out each day wearing protective gear over their shoes so they did not damage such a divine environment.The material for the towers had to be dropped in piece by piece by helicopters! So you can rest assured that no part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Rainforest was hurt in the process.”

As may be evident from the videos, there was not a flat stretch in the whole 4.5 miles (except for the bottom station), so everything had to be constructed on steeply sloping ground.

We got very lucky with a cab at the entrance, and were immediately whisked back to the hotel. We had an early dinner at the hotel and fought off sleep for a while, but since we had a 4am pickup for our flight to Port Moresby we crashed a little after 8.

A leisurely morning with no pickup until 10:30. Dana went off to yoga while I dug into packing and arranging Wednesday with Southern World (local Aussie tour company). Dropped the reef snorkel, and continued working on a train outing to Kuranda volcano with a cable car return. Christian showed up for our transfer to our Cairns hotel, Crystalbrook Riley Resort. Same good conversation all the way there.

The hotel was impressive: newish, ultra-modern, very open ground floor, a lot of glass and metal. Same in the room, with a fine view of Trinity Bay. Had a little time-share vibe though.

I relaxed a bit and worked on tomorrow, spotted some birds in the Bay at very low tide and went down and out to the Esplanade to video them. They were pelicans, doing some very serious self-grooming.

The 2.5 K Cairns Esplanade is one of its proudest features. It has trees, a boardwalk, exercise sites, excellent imaginative playgrounds for kids, fountains, gas grills for barbies, basketball courts, and a huge gondola ferris wheel.

I connected with Dana and we agreed to meet back at the hotel to get a couple of their bikes to ride to the Cairns Botanical Garden.

We started the ride on the Esplanade where we saw a cool Masked Lapwing…

and a lively cockatoo.

The ride to the garden was a little tricky, through city streets, with me trying to follow verbal google maps instructions through my iPhone in my pocket, but we made it. We locked the bikes at a bike rack and made a circuit of the garden. There was an abundance of plants that caught my eye. So many that I will exclude the garden’s orchid collection.

We made our way back to the hotel, showered and headed east on the Esplanade for an East Indian restaurant Dana had seen. A lively scene, with excellent sunset views.

The food at the restaurant was ok, the service was not, but the walk back was excellent.

Big day in Kuranda National Park tomorrow.

We were picked up by Sam in a Calypso Reef Cruises van and driven to the Port Douglas Marina.

Note the blue/green patterns off shore – the Great Barrier Reef – and the ocean bottom drop farther out.

Port Douglas looked a lot like Marco Island in Florida: flat land with golf courses, many, huge gated communities, exclusive resorts and swimming pools. Only difference – salties cause the disturbances rather than alligators. Signs are everywhere.

The marina was impressive, hundreds of expensive looking craft, several imposing fishing boats with long rods and improbably tall search towers.

This Little Green Heron wasn’t as impressed as I was. Maybe a little confused, though.

Dwarfing the other boats was our Calypso catamaran, actually two of them – clearly the big dog in the bay. There was a huge, attentive, and highly skilled young crew that did a numbers check at the start, and every time we were going to move.

Big part of the initial briefing dealt with barf bags. We were heading into 15 knot winds with 28 knot gusts, that started about a quarter mile off shore and didn’t end until we came back in the afternoon.

[Those with weak stomachs may wish to avoid this next section]

[I had taken a pill the night before and again in the morning, and helped myself to the always available water and ginger pills. And I went to the rear of the boat where there was less motion, and fixed my gaze on the horizon, as I have learned to do.

We were not too far into the breech when a migration from the front to the rear happened. Roxanne, the crew chief, had told us to move to the rear if we got sick so it would not start a chain reaction. Problem was that all the sick folks congregated in the back, perpetuating the reactions. The crew was amazingly attentive with barf bags. Undoubtedly the worst aspect of their jobs.

I managed to avoid the reaction (but for a gag or two) by focusing totally on the horizon, going up front to get water and ginger, and mustering obstinate will power. Dana is somewhat immune, but she did take a tablet, drink some water and take a ginger pill – the latter at my urging.]

Our destination was Opal Reef, and when we stopped there the sea was a little calmer, but still quite rough, and the visibility was not the greatest. We spent an hour there, then moved a little while the crew put out snacks (yes, everyone had them – even the barfers). The second site was about the same, another hour, after which we moved to the third spot where we had a huge buffet lunch. I have no idea why we were so hungry in those circumstances.

A very good thing was that as we got away from shore we had increasing sunshine, especially at the last place. The water was warmish, but we still got cold when we got out, and so we clustered in little sunny spots all over the boat.

The coral was spectacular – easing our fears generated by the dire news of the bleaching of the GBR – but because of the turbulence and lack of clarity the pics from my Coolpix were disappointing, and the vids more-so, because it was difficult to hold the camera steady. There was an excessive bluish/green tint to all of them. I’ll include a few – not sure which of the three spots each came from.

Dana chose to skip the 3rd spot, as did others – too nice lying in the sun and too much hassle to get the sting suit back on.

The sun was with us almost all the way back…

and then the clouds were waiting for us as we neared shore, a reminder of why the rainforest here has persisted for 180,000,000 years.

Sam got us back to the lodge and we took hot showers and regained our land legs, although I still noticed a slight unmoored feeling for a moment at dinner. Since we had the complementary self-serve laundry, I opted to do a load, but mis-timed the wash and still had the spin cycle when we went to dinner. So I skipped that and dumped the really soaked clothes in the dryer. Learned a lesson – took three dryer cycles.

A little surprise at dinner: there were repeat items on the menu, plus there were new faces in the dining room, lending credence to Dana’s theory that Silky Oaks is a three night place. We broke the rhythm by staying four.

Deciding we wanted to drop our second snorkel trip I sent an email to our Aussie tour company to do the cancel and book us for a little trip to Kuranda instead – our attention shifting now to the next little leg before PNG.

On awakening, I realized I had left a screen door open last night. The good news: only one insect flew in, as far as I could tell. We rousted, cleaned up and went to breakfast. The river was not only down, it was remarkably clear – total difference from yesterday. On the way back to our cottage I noticed a new plant…

I’m beginning to wonder if this trip is going to inspire me to pay more attention to identifying the species in our yard.

Dana did a shortened version of the yoga class (which she really likes) and we went out to meet David, our FNQ Nature Tours driver/guide for our 7hr Daintree Rainforest experience. A reminder that this is the world’s oldest rainforest. It was still raining off and on, but we decided to chance it,

First leg was a little cruise on the Daintree River, which runs through the Rainforest. We boarded a little craft with another David who owns a Daintree River cruise company that TripAdvisor rates as the best. The boat was remarkable for being battery driven, and thus wonderfully quiet, moving through the water. It was also covered, fortunately, because the rain kept coming.

Both Davids kept up a constant chatter about the rainforest and river history. David had a spotting laser, and although the rain kept the animal movement down, we did see a lot of kingfishers, my favorite being the Sacred Kingfisher…

and we also saw an Olive-backed sunbird…

a White-lipped Tree Frog…

and a 6’ Common Tree Snake.

But the big story on the Daintree River is Saltwater Crocodiles, and we learned a lot from the two Davids, one of the most interesting facts being the discovery of evolutionary kinship between crocs and birds e.g. shown in egg nesting and care.

We did see some babies who had recently left the nest…

a young female (named Sandy because she likes to hang out on sandy banks)…

a large male named Nick…

whose wide body, David (the croc guy) said, was all muscle.

And we saw an adult female, Scuter (so named for the missing scutes on her bag, done as a poor means of identifying her).

Nick and Scuter have recently been conjugating on this little side stream entrance to the river, despite this being the domain of Scarface, a huge alpha male, who apparently is allowing it to happen. No shortage of soap operas among the local croc community apparently, according to the Davids.

Our last sighting was of a youngish croc, as of yet of indeterminate gender – not an easy task, Scuter was misidentified for years before she laid some eggs.

After the river we went for lunch at the Daintree Teahouse, obscurely embedded in the rainforest, up an almost unnoticeable road.

A sizable tour group soon joined us and Richard, one of the owners, gave a lengthy, informative, and humorous talk on the wonderful variety of fruits and veggies included in the truly unique dishes they served, showing samples and giving extensive backgrounds on each, including where they originated and how they spread. Looking out of the open side I saw this plant…

which my Picture This app identified as a Blushing Philodendron.

We moved on into the National Park to the Mossman River Gorge, for a hike up into it that started on metal walkways…

and moved on into a rather rough 2k trail.

Because of the rain, we weren’t about to see a lot of wildlife, so David adapted, with an excellent running narrative on the ancient history, the flora and fauna in the park and their origins, and the Aboriginal side of everything. He was an excellent guide and knew his stuff for the area – like a team of high school teachers – he looked one, don’t think he was.

I took a lot of vertical pics, due to the imposing height of so many trees, although some of the shorter ones were far older, just slower growing.

We used the umbrellas off and on, as the rain was intermittent. They were a nuisance: getting caught on branches, ruining each other’s view when we stopped, awkward shape and weight, but they did work well as hiking polls when clamped closed, so that’s what we did the most. Actually they were superfluous for me because I was as wet from sweat as I would get by walking in the rain.

When we got back to the lodge, after showering I put all of our day’s clothes in a dryer during dinner – such an excellent amenity.

We spent a fair amount of time prepping for our snorkel trip before turning in.

Before turning in last night I lifted the huge blinds the turn-down folks had lowered, opened our sliding door/windows, and slid our door/screens into place, leaving us with only the soft sounds of the river and the night rains to give us a very restful night. Meditation MP3 tracks that I have used as background music for rainforest pics in our travel videos could not do it better.

We walked the short distance to the lodge for breakfast through a gentle rain, but very little of it reached us – it could not make its way down through all of the foliage.

Hard to imagine a better breakfast setting.

The end of the video shows our choices from the buffet “sideboard” portion of the breakfast menu.

Dana stopped with that, I could not resist going on to the “choice of main” selecting the omelette, which was excellent and of a modest size, characteristic of all the menu choices we’ve had, thereby enabling us to have a wide range of flavors without filling up.

Our waiter was Rodrigo, another gregarious young Argentine kid. Like Camila, Dan and so many of the other staff, he is in the educated/backpacker/seizing life genre of young travelers that we’ve been, and have seen everywhere. In Australia they can get visas for longer stays by qualifying for jobs in areas where the government has determined that employees are in short supply.

Dana stopped off at the open air yoga platform for a lengthy guided yoga session while I did a little blogging etc. on our deck…

and then got in some hammock time ( good for snoozing, not for iPad use)…

after which we went to the lodge for our 10:00 am garden tour. We were joined by an Aussie whom our guide Roger said was an Aussie politician.

It was raining so hard when we started the tour that it poured through the foliage, forcing Dana and me to use our cottage umbrellas. Roger was an excellent guide, but also an experienced landscaper and the gardener for the lodge, in particular for the kitchen garden where veggies and spices are picked for the restaurant. He was genuinely enthused about what he had to say and he wanted to say a lot.

Not possible to note or recall that much of what he said, but I did do some videos…

and at Roger’s suggestion I used my Picture This app (which he also uses) for several still shots.

Roger talked a lot about the history of the Lodge and plants: key point that it was started from a cattle station 40 years ago, right next to the rainforest, and he showed us a place where that boundary had been – the two nearly indistinguishable from each other without closer examination.

Roger said that over the years there had been deliberate planting, some for aesthetics, thus likely leading to the movie set appearance I mentioned yesterday. There was also a huge renovation of the building complex during COVID, which likely explains why the woodwork in the buildings (especially the floors) is so rich in color and pristine.

After the tour we returned to the cabin for a while, D went to dry her undies in the complementary dryers and take a little walk around the grounds, while I did some iPad stuff and then went for a late lunch of tempura fish – freshest and flakiest I can remember.

While there, I noticed that the river had overflowed its banks. I had noticed at breakfast that it was rising and had said to Dana that I couldn’t tell if water crossing the river trail was coming from up the bank in a stream or was overflowing from the river. Turns out it was the latter – it now was flooded.

Not just of passing interest. The waiter told me that it had flooded the bridge that must be crossed to get in here. Three consequences, one immediate, two possible: 1) Our rainforest heritage tour scheduled for 3pm was cancelled because the guide could not make it in here, 2) Our tour of the Daintree Nat Park scheduled for tomorrow may be in jeopardy, 3) we may be stuck here for a day or two – not the worst thing that can happen, as long as the food holds out.

D and I played a game of Rummy 500 (she won again, but only by 20 points), and then I went for a plant pic walk while she went for a massage in the cottage right next to ours. We’re in cottage #1, by the way, easy to remember, also named Bandicoot, a small nocturnal Aussie critter with a distinctive snout.

Haven’t seen any.

I photo’d several plant scenes and some for identification. First, the entrance to our cottage with a prominent bamboo clump.

Roger said that a lot of the plants around the buildings were introduced, and I think that was the case for the bamboo – haven’t seen it anywhere else.

I stopped by the creative swimming pool…

which I’m determined to try out, if and when things warm up a little – maybe tomorrow. It is heated.

On the way back to our cottage I checked the river and saw that the level had dropped dramatically.

Good news for tomorrow. I contacted the company that is doing our private tour and James there said things were go but he would keep me informed.

D came back from her massage and we headed over for dinner. By now usual drill, this time with Malcolm a Canadian kid, maybe the most gregarious of the lot. Excellent dishes all, especially a caramel/chocolate dessert that Dana pronounced her all-time favorite. I’ve been having a few of those myself this trip. Could be a memory thing, but so what? They’re still extremely pleasurable.

We awoke early, unnecessarily. Got everything ready – a plastic bag to cover my Outback-initiated boots.

Another crisp, clear sunrise through the restaurant window..

where we were alone after the hikers leave, free to order off of the menu – me with a clever and very tasty Eggs Benedict (had to wait a little for the hollandaise sauce – worth it).

We hung out in the lounge area, interrupted only by my using our $100 deposit to buy the didgeridoo guy’s CD and a book for Alex, and Dana buying Tshirts for our dear neighbors, the Martins. The general manager drove us, with another couple, to the Ayers Rock resort/town airport. Surprisingly large jet, and equally surprisingly long flight.

This is a big country – larger than the lower 48 US.

We had a delightful greeting in Cairns, from retired Romanian engineer, Christian (now a chauffeur, after being forced to retire without a pension from Aramco in Saudi Arabia because he was not a Saudi citizen).

First time I’ve seen my name in the original German – with the umlaut. Christian’s been studying German – speaks several languages. His intelligence, knowledge, experience, and educated English made for a very interesting drive to Silky Oaks.

In addition to the immediate humid heat, the transition we just made from dry desert reds, oranges, and sand, to moist, lush tropical flora was stark. We drove on a coast road similar (except for the palm trees) to 101 on the Oregon coast, right down to the shoulder and lane closures for hillside slumping.

And then we came to Silky Oaks, where we (👍👍👍👍👍) will spend the next 4 nights. After telling our ATJ guru, Eric Kareus, that Longitude 131 was the best place I’d stayed in my 83 countries and 83 years I had to amend that and place it second to Silky Oaks, even though we’d only been here a couple of hours.

Started with the Daintree rainforest we arrived through – the oldest surviving rainforest in the world (135-180 million years old) – then through a locked gate to a little parking area where we were greeted by Dan, a young host, and escorted to the lodge…

I commented to Dana that the forest was so perfect that it almost felt like a movie set. And then, set (and indeed almost woven) within the forest, the lodge…

which will undoubtedly be the subject of far too many pics and videos – an extreme version of our philosophy of the lodging being part of the adventure.

The sincere, friendly deference of the staff compares well with other luxury (let’s face it – this place is luxurious, our kind of luxury: intelligently functional) higher end places we’ve stayed , from Dan who greeted us, to the woman who did the checkin with us seated in the lounge area with our welcome lemonade, to everyone on the huge staff we’ve encountered with. They knew we were abstainers, that Dana was allergic to oysters, and that I had left hip and left knee osteoarthritis, and they are accommodating those things to the point of not having wine glasses at our meal tables, having the wait staff know our names and our special needs, and giving us a chalet quite close to the lodge.

As we were waiting for our checkin hostess in the lounge area that overlooks the Mossman River…

I saw a spectacular large blue butterfly that was so iridescent it seemed electrified. Hope to get video and pics of it soon.

Our chalet also faces the river…

and has the very best of every imaginable amenity.

We did a little walk along the river, using supplied umbrellas for a little shower, while I did some laundry in the complementary washers and dryers. Unimaginable – I’ve never seen that in travel lodging anywhere.

We cleaned up in the very appropriate rainforest style showers and had our included dinner in the restaurant, attended by the absolutely delightful Camila (from Buenas Aires).

Unsurprisingly perhaps, the dinner was every bit as good and creative as at Longitude 131. I couldn’t resist snapping photos.

And note the crowning point: no bugs. The restaurant, lounge, and lobby area are totally open-air and for all the time we spent there (in fact on the walk!) I never felt or saw an insect.

and the wifi is top notch.

Another pre-hike granola and yogurt breakfast, plus a little sweet chia cup offering from one of the chefs. Dawn was breaking as we left the lodge (once again with Julia)…

maybe Venus overhead? 40+ minute ride to our destination, Kata Tjuta, with the sun slowly emerging. Odd experience in this big sky country, with the deep nature roots of its people: The presence of the sun just below the horizon is more poignant somehow – same feeling after it sets.

The rocks of Kata Tjuta that we’ve been seeing from afar grew as we approached.

We started with a hike up into its Walpa Gorge.

Note the Druid cloaks. Actually fleece parkas that Julia offered, after warning of strong, cold head winds coming out of the Gorge.

Once again Julia had a lot to say, most of it about plants that the local indigenous folks have gathered and used for millennia.

There was a waterhole that afforded a reflection shot…

and Julia demonstrated a trick pano shot of the Gorge cliffs that we all had to try, leaning over backwards as far as we could and shooting up.

Julia did a bit of a “gotcha” by asking us to guess the number of domes. Quite surprising to learn that there are 36…

the catch being that, unlike Uluru, Kata Tjuta is sort of L shaped, with a string of mounds perpendicular to those in the previous photo…

and we went to a viewpoint where those were the main feature.

Note a tiny Uluru in the upper left background of this photo.

From a modern, scientific perspective, it’s not difficult to imagine how the indigenous folks developed strong beliefs around these two imposing natural prominences, with their life-sustaining resources, both in visual proximity.

I need to add that when we finally got to the viewpoint late morning, the lighting on the mounds was not as colorful as we’d seen it in sunsets, as below…

and it was, no doubt, much less colorful than it had been at sunrise. Longitude 131 makes a choice to do the Gorge first, while all of the other tours go first to the viewpoint. When we came out of the Gorge, throngs of people were arriving. I believe the purpose is to enable the 131 guides like Julia to spend more time with their small groups on the cultural stories in a calmer, less crowded and less distracting environment. It worked for me.

We finished the morning at the Cultural Center, which had an excellent set of displays, taped interviews, written testimonials, artwork etc. that allow one to gain an understanding and appreciation of the community’s ancient existence (one of the oldest on the planet) in an accepting and respectful way. We got absorbed in it and were the last back to the van.

We went back to another gourmet lunch – did I mention the kangaroo tartar entree (pre-main course here) I had last night? For lunch we had Atlantic Salmon on a thick little jumble of several tiny vegetable samples, that, with the salmon, created a flavor I really could not get enough of. No embarrassment as I painstakingly found a way to eat every last speck.

We whiled away the afternoon, me catching up with the blog, Dana washing clothes, playing Words etc. We had thought about a bike ride but the flies are just too much of a deterrent. We also eschewed the scheduled sunset viewing and outdoor dinner at Table 131. I didn’t need more Uluru photos, and neither of us needed to shiver under failing heaters when the food in the regular dining room would be enough of an attraction by itself.

And, our thoughts are turning to our next destination where we will fly and transfer to tomorrow am – the Silky Oaks Lodge in the Daintree Rainforest, that may be on a par with Longitude 131 for excellence. The weather may be a little damp, but we’re looking forward to it.