Far North Queensland Honeymoonniversary Adventure, Part III: The Cute Animals

One of our main goals on the trip was to see animals. And we did. Despite being winter, the animals were generally out and about. No crocodiles or jellyfish, but we were okay with that.

We had a lot of animal photos. We were going to rank them by cuteness, but we didn't want to be judgmental - who are we to say that a brush turkey is less cute than a sugar glider?

So, in order of size, here are our favorites (excluding spiders and bugs, who may get a separate post). You can judge their respective cuteness yourself.

Sugar Gliders!!!

Most Australian mammals are nocturnal. Our host in the Tablelands had a story for that. Most people, he said, assume that kangaroos are stupid, because they see them in zoos during the day time, when the roos are lounging around, blinking uncomprehendingly. But, our host asked, how smart would we look if some tourist roos woke us up for viewing in the middle of the night?

We had to wait until dark, then, to see some of the marsupials in action. The smallest, but fastest, was the sugar glider. They seem part squirrel, part bat, and part ninja. Crazy fast - they have flaps of skin that allow them to glide between trees. We saw them gliding a couple times, but, like true ninjas, it was too fast to capture. But here they are eating honey off a tree:

Platypus!!

Just outside of Yungaburra was a small creek with a platypus viewing station. We stopped, not expecting to see anything other than a sign like this:

But then, just a few meters downstream, we saw:

Very, very cool. The platypus is now Colin's favorite Australian animal.

Brush Turkey!

As far as we could tell, the least endangered medium-sized animal in the region is the brush turkey. They were everywhere. Naomi caught a nice profile shot:

Sleeping possum in a ball!!

On a short walk outside of Malanda (near Yungaburra, if you're keeping track), we saw a fellow human stopped and looking up. This was the sight: 

We're not sure what type of possum this is. But being nocturnal, we assumed it was sleeping... in the form of a cute, furry ball (but with its eyes open).

Pademelons!!

Along with sugar glider viewing, our place in the Tablelands offered pademelon viewing. Pademelons are a type of rainforest kangaroo. These were 'red-legged' pademelons:

Tree Kangaroo!!??

Remember that weird animal sign from two posts ago? This is what it was telling us to watch out for:

A tree kangaroo. Crazy. These are now Naomi's favorite Australian animal. And no, it is not a monkeybearsheep in a tree. There are several types of tree kangaroos.We believe this is a Lumholtz' tree kangaroo.

About the only thing cuter (not that we're judging) than a tree kangaroo is...

Drooling Tree Kangaroo!!!

 What do you expect, for the middle of the night?


Cassowary + Baby Cassowary!!


Last and largest... the most dangerous (but very endangered) bird on the continent: 

 That fuzzy brown thing is a cassowary chick. We stopped the car to get some pictures. Only later that day did we see signs warning people never to stop their car by a cassowary to get pictures. This one didn't seem too bothered by us, though. We saw so many signs throughout the trip warning us about them, that we felt very lucky to have seen them!

Far North Queensland Honeymoonniversary Adventure, Part II: The Scenes

The scenery in FNQ was beautiful. These should set the scene for the posts to come.

We stayed in three spots on our trip: 

1. Cape Tribulation: "Where the rainforest meets the reef", 
2. The Atherton Tablelands: "Where the dairylands meet the rainforest"
3. Mission Beach: "Where the rainforest meets the beach, but where people pay more attention to the beach"

(Only the first of those taglines is currently endorsed by FNQ tourism authorities.)

Cape Tribulation

Two World Heritage sites meet at Cape Tribulation: the Great Barrier Reef, and the Daintree Rainforest. The Daintree Rainforest is, they say, the oldest rainforest in the world.

Our first evening there, we were treated to a sunset on the beach:

The reef is a few kilometers off to the left.

The rainforest looked like this.

...lots of ferns and vines and tall trees. Such creeks were places we were told to avoid, for crocodile-related reasons.

In Cape Trib, we stayed at a 'farm-stay' on a tropical fruit farm. This was the view from our cabin:

The trees in the foreground are banana trees. That mountain was part of a range we tackled our second day there (pictures to come). The particular mountain we climbed (just to the right of the one you see here, and quite a bit steeper) is called 'Mt. Sorrow.'

The Tablelands

When Colin heard the name 'Tablelands,' he was expecting a series of mesas like the ones in his homeland. In fact, the Tablelands are not flat. They're just high in elevation. And there's lots of food on them (more about that later).

Between agricultural sections are bits of high rainforest and hills (apparently more of it used to be rainforest, but a lot was cleared for agriculture by the early European settlers). Here's a view:

While there, we stayed in a cabin buried in one of the bits of rainforest. Here's the 'driveway' in:

Slightly creepy, but good for the critters. In fact, the place specialized in 'nighttime wildlife viewing.' More about that soon.

The hills of the Tablelands make for a good number of waterfalls. Here's what's supposed to be the most famous waterfall in Australia, called 'Millaa Millaa Falls':

Very symmetrical. Apparently, a number of commercials have been filmed here, including shampoo commercials.

Mission Beach


Our last stop was the most low-key, an area called 'Mission Beach.' With an effort, we managed to not do very much there.

Here's a view of the beach from the beach:

The area had been battered by a cyclone only a few years ago, and was still recovering. But the tourists were fairly thin, and we were just able to enjoy the sounds of the waves. Looking out from the beach were a number of nearby islands.

And here's a view of the beach from one of the mountains:

This particular mountain happened to be rich in Colin-loving mosquitoes. But the view was lovely.

On the way to Cairns


Our flight home was in the evening, and we took our time getting to Cairns airport. One of our detours took us a bit up into the mountains, where we came across this scene of nicely contrasting shades of green:

Coming up:
Animals!

Far North Queensland Honeymoonniversary Adventure, Part I: The Signs

A little more than a year ago, we got married. It was fun. We moved to Australia right after, and didn't get a chance for a proper honeymoon. So, for our first anniversary, we took a trip to Far North Queensland (FNQ) - the tropical northeast corner of the continent. Being winter here (where being in the south means it's colder and the north warmer), we were told it's the perfect place to go in June.

We took oodles of pictures, which means we'll have to do a few posts. As a teaser, we begin with our favorite signs (which give hints of some things you'll see in future posts). For our families: despite what you'll see below, we made it back fine. Thanks.

Here are ten signs, moving from the most dangerous to the least:

#10

The box jellyfish that breed off the coast of FNQ are, we hear, the most poisonous creature in the sea. Plus, the waters they like are also frequented by the most dangerous lizard in the sea (or on the continent, for that matter): the saltwater crocodile. Wikipedia says that in Australia, attacks by crocodiles are "somewhat rare." There were signs like this on most beaches we saw. Fortunately, it wasn't stinger or croc season.

#9

This is sort of the same as the previous one, without the crocs. But the most poisonous creature should get two signs. Vinegar supposedly helps with stings, so there were bottles of vinegar stashed here and there. Some clearly hadn't been replaced in a while.

#8

This was a placed called 'The Boulders.' There was also a plaque on the ground by the entrance commemorating someone who 'came for a swim, and stayed forever.' We did not venture onto the rocks. But a nice old man we saw did, and seemed to make it back alive. 

#7

Yes, there are neurotoxin-laden trees in FNQ. Naomi wouldn't let Colin touch them, despite his curiosity.

#6

Cassowaries are a large, endangered bird. But they're also a threat to humans (though not on the same scale). They have very sharp claws, and apparently know how to aim them. Yikes. Stay tuned for a peek of one...

#5

Terrifying. We went no further: this was the end of the paved part of the continent's eastern coastal road.


#4

As far as we know, banana diseases aren't directly dangerous to humans. But we're not sure.

#3

What kind of creature is that? One that's primarily dangerous because it is so cute that crowds of people will stop in the middle of the road to take it's picture. Did we get a picture? You'll just have to keep reading our blog...

#2

???

#1

There were several of these around Cape Tribulation, the first place we stayed on our trip. Despite the ominous name, as this sign suggests, the people of Cape Trib were very nice. We had a lovely time.

More to come...

Long-overdue update: We've just been eating

It's been forever since our last post. The past couple months just flew by. 

What have we been up to? Judging by what's on our camera, it looks like we've just been cooking and eating. 

In real life, we've also been working, but Naomi can't take pictures of her clients, and Colin can't take pictures of his students. We're taking a trip to Queensland this month, so there will be more exciting pictures soon. But in the meantime...

Baking

Bagels:

This was Colin's second attempt. Not bad, but nobody would confuse them with Terrace Bagels.

Encouraged by the modest bagel success, Colin has turned to challah. Attempt #1 was alright, but a bit, how do you say...

...overcooked.

Attempt #2 went better, which was good, since Colin doubled-down:

Food from outside

Here's the neighbour's cat eating some grass:

Two supermarkets, Cole's and Woolworth's are in constant competition. For the most part, we don't care. Except when it comes to value packs of high-fibre breakfast cereal:

A general principle of our eating is that anything healthy must be compensated for. Courtesy of Jenn and Justin:

Special occasions


After eating the above cookies as part of a refined-sugar rampage, we had a few nights of salads. Naomi put this one together. Roast beetroot (what Americans just call beets) with a parsley-garlic dressing over roast cauliflower, broccoli and carrots on a bed of spinach:

The healthy theme continued (in weakened form) into Naomi's birthday. Colin baked some flatbread, which we layered with vegetarian meats, cheeses, and various veggies.

 

Sticking to our principles, though, we made sure to balance out the sandwiches with a cake that contained our yearly allowance of cholesterol and carbs. It's a chocolate stout cake with coffee cream-cheese frosting, and extra chocolate drizzled over Hungarian cherries on top.