Perfect day at the beach

what a perfect day it was today at the beach - the tide was way out and so calm.

A fisherman was wandering around with a long pole and his dog... we never did see him catch anything..

the reflections of the clouds and vegetation in the shallows was spectacular

And the ripples in the sand lead your eye out, drawing you into a  longer and longer walk

We just love the beach when it looks like this ................. words are superflous!
We are so blessed to have this right in our backyard, and we will never take this for granted.
Thank you God for this beautiful world we live in.

wonga beach

We have recently started walking in the afternoons on Wonga Beach. Beaches evolve and change, and some of the other beaches became very sloped, making it hard on your calves. Enter Wonga beach, you can park right alongside a tap so that you are not dragging sand into the car, which is very helpful, in actual fact most beaches here have taps.

Most afternoons there are just one or two other people walking, and our favourite times are when the tide is way out.
It is amazing to see some of the erosion, and how plants survive with half of their roots sticking out into the air.

Coconut trees especially will grow at the wierdest angles.

I didnt like these causarinas at first, but look how windswept they look after a storm

Isnt it marvelous when yours are the only footsteps on the beach?

This island is called snapper island

sometimes at a very low tide you are lucky to see these tiny blue crabs.

Stinger season

In this area, the wet summer is also the cycklone season, the humid season and the stinger season.  Any snorkelling or diving must be done while wearing a lycra suirt or wetsuit.  There are different kinds of jelly fish (or stingers) but the most lethal is the irukanji.  Port Douglas beach along with most of the the other beaches around here erect stinger nets during the stinger season. 

The lakes at Cairns botanical gardens

We stopped off at the Cairns Botanical gardens on Saturday after a shopping day in the "big" city.  coming at it from a different angle we decided to walk through what is called the lake area. It was lovely, but lots of mozzies.  In fact the botanical gardens itself was very muggy and humid so we are glad we did the other walk as well.  Walked through the bamboo walkway and then back along the paperbark boardwalk.

This was in the botanical gardens itself.  Funny I thought there would be more flowers, but I was a bit dissapointed in that.  Once we got in amongst the plants it was very muggy and hot.

So we walked back on this boardwalk - always looks a little spooky to me!  Notice how the old leaves lie on the ground and decompose to form mulch.

On the right of this photo is a paperbark tree - they grow huge, but this one is a small one.  Paperbark has been used for lots of things including making boats.

Tropical fruit orchard

Over the weekend we attended a birthday party held at one of the tropcial fruit orchards in the Daintree Rainforest.  This one is just called the orchard, and doesnt have fruit tasting, we have taken visitors to the cape trib exotic fruit farm for fruit tasting and they have enjoyed the experience.   I went to a talk that the owner Digby gave about how they are growing organically and he is very imformative.
http://www.capetrib.com.au/

Anyway, I digress, this was just a party, but I managed to get some good fruit photos so thought I would share.  I think this is mandarin.

then abui

Interspersed amongst the fruit trees is - a mashie gold course!

This is the building, but I think they mainly just use it for functions where you would have to book, or maybe tours.  Open sides, and with the generator going to power the fans it was quite pleasant.

My all time favourite looking tree is the breadfuit tree - they have a very dinstintive shaed leaf - glossy dark green.

This is the detail showing a breadfuit - they are delicious baked in a  fire.