planetary alignment

We wearily rose at 5am to go down to Newell Beach and see this planetary aligment everyone was talking about.  Supposedly nothing like it will be seen again until 2025.   This was the pathway down to the beach.....

 then we saw in the sky two very bright planets and two much dimmer ones.  It was worth it.  So since we were already on the beach we went for a walk...

 and watched a beautiful sunrise - see the coconut just at the waters edge.....

In November 2012 we will have a total eclipse of the sun just before dawn - I wonder if that will be the next time I am on the beach this early?

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.

The Daintree Rainforest

We are so lucky to have the Daintree Rainforest right on our doorstep, and boxing day (the day after christmas) we decided to take a drive up north.

Just about 20 minutes north of Mossman is a turnoff to the Daintree ferry.  This is a cable ferry and runs every 10 minutes or so - the cost is 18.00, at the moment.  Locals can get a season ticket - hope that never changes.....   I find that as soon as we are off the ferry and start driving through the avenue of trees I feel utterly relaxed.

Alexandra range lookout

 is always a good place to stop and on a clear day you can see all the way back to Port Douglas.

Further up the range there are some lovely walks - I can never decide which is my favourite.  There is also the Daintree canopy for which there is a charge.  It is an elevated walkway and a high tower which you climb up and then can overlook the rainforest from on top.  They have  little recorders that you can carry around with you and get information on everything around you.  We stopped at Myall boardwalk, and today it was my favourite!

All the walks are so well maintained, and this one is a wetland area so is very shaded which is an especially lovely thing on a hot day.  These common ferns are all over in the trees and are called birdsnest ferns for obvious reasons.  they sometimes get huge!

this is a detail of the underside of the older leaves which die back and create the "nest" effect

As you can see there are often more than one birdsnest fern per tree!

I love these gnarly roots!

This is a curtain fig which grew around another tree and strangled it.

I love the way the light filters through the fan palms. 

There is also a  fan palm walk (maybe that is my true favourite) but that is being renovated.

the last stop was cape trib where we walked along another boardward to  a great lookout.  Scared a huge iguana along the way, but I was not quick enough with the camera for that!

A long lazy drive home brought to an end another perfect day spent in paradise!