Here are some of our favorite photos from the trip (each photo is a thumbnail linked to a higher quality picture. There are five pages of photos in total):
1) With the REI tour over Alan, Jonna and Larkin came up with a plan for our remaining three days. The first was spent relaxing in Cairns, changing hotels, doing laundry and otherwise getting caught up. But for the second day, we rented a car and headed west into the outback to see the Undara Lava Tubes. Upon arrival, we saw these well worn motorcycles in the parking lot. It turns out some Australia kids were riding these 100cc "Posties" (scooters used by the Aussie postal service) all the way up the eastern coast of Queensland to raise money for charity. Good on ya!
2) The Undara Lava Tubes are 390 million year old caves formed when ancient lava flows cooled and drained. We had fascinating four hour tour of the tubes conducted by this extremely knowledgeable guide.
3) Above ground, all you see is the outback. Dry, hot and desert.
4) ...but underneath there are massive tubes, once filled with molten flowing lava. Where the roof has collapsed the moisture of the caves allows for patches of mini-rainforest to grow, all in stark contrast to the environment just a few feet above.
5) Another photo showing the harsh climate of the outback. We saw dozens of kangaroos and wallabies but it is amazing any mammal can live in such a hot, dry place.
6) We stopped for a quick afternoon tea break...it was apparently too quick because Alan and Larkin were almost left behind as seen here with them both running for the bus.
7) Another section of the lava tubes, this one bigger and longer than the first.
8) One of the fascinating things about the lava tubes was the way these ancient lava formations told the story of what was happening in this tube millions and millions of years ago. Here, a stalagmite type structure was built up as still molten lava dripped from up above. This must have cooled quickly to have such a distinctive shape, so this is literally an instant in time, preserved for near eternity.
9) Sunset in the outback is impressive. Unfortunately, night time driving in the outback can be quite dangerous due to all the nocturnal animals so we watched this sunset with both awe and apprehension. (Fortunately, our three hour drive back to Cairns that night was event free!)
10) For our final day of the trip, Larkin decided to hang out in Cairns so Jonna and Alan took the rental car and headed north up the coast to Cape Tribulation. Our first stop was for a one hour wildlife viewing cruise on the Daintree River primarily with the purpose of seeing some Australia crocs. Mission accomplished! This one was one of three female salt water crocodiles we saw.
11) In addition to the crocs, we also spotted some beautiful birds on the cruise, including this Azure Kingfisher. We also saw the lighter colored but equally pretty Sacred Kingfisher and a handful of other water birds as well.
12) An artsy shot of the mangrove roots along the bank of the Daintree River.
13) The largest of the salties we saw was this female who was around 10 foot long. Unfortunately, the large males all stayed out of sight during our short trip. However, we got to see the opposite extreme when we returned to the dock as the boat's guide spotted a baby croc hiding in the mangrove roots...it was probably about 8 inches in length.
14) A smiling Jonna, enjoying the sunshine and the views of the river. The boat dropped off all the passengers at the halfway point for a guided shore trip so Alan and Jonna had the boat to themselves for the second half hour of the trip. This is a special place to get to visit as the Daintree rainforest may be the oldest rainforest in the world (it is estimated to be 110 million years old).
15) Our second stop was once we reached Cape Trib. We stopped into a bat rescue center, where we learned a little about the fruit bats (and their susceptibility to lethal paralysis ticks) and got to see this Spectacled Flying Fox bat. It breaks all the common beliefs about bats: It isn't small, it isn't nocturnal, it isn't blind and it doesn't eat insects. Instead, this foot tall megabat flies around in the daytime finding and eating fruit. Its stomach can't break down fruit fibers so it sucks the juice from a bite of fruit and then spits back out the pulp. Neato!
16) Next up on our Cape Trib tour was a walk on the beach.
17) After our short beach stroll, we headed over to the Cape Tribulation Exotic Fruit Farm for an exotic fruit tasting.
18) The fruit pictured above: West Indian lime, Breadfruit, Pommalo, Solo Papaya, Dragon fruit, Yellow Sapote, Black Sapote, Davidson plum, Longan and Atemoya. Only the Davidson plum is native to Queensland but all were interesting to learn about and to taste. We also got some immediate value back from our time investment because a few hours we ate a great dinner on our way back to Cairns and ended up getting a desert made with Black Sapote.
19) The final activity of our Cape Trib day trip was an hour of sea-kayaking along the coast. While we loved the sea kayaking on Lake Tinaroo, we were a bit disappointed that the Cyclone damage prevented us from enjoying some ocean paddling. We found a bar which rented sea kayaks by the hour and headed out to enjoy a little time paddling in salt water. We weren't really dressed for this, so we got soaked, but it was worth it...we even got to watch a Sea Eagle hunt a fish for about 15 minutes, with flying fish skittering across the surface each time the eagle dove and eventually watching the intended target (a sizeable but unrecognizable fish) jump completely out of the water and apparently to safety.
20) Our final day exploring Queensland ended with another colorful sunset, this one over the Daintree River. A scenic end to a very memorable trip!
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