Australia: Port Douglas

From Adelaide we took a flight to Cairns then shuttled directly to Port Douglas. Here was the biggest disappointment of our trip - we didn't get to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef. We had left GBR to the last of our Australia itinerary as stingers (poisonous jellyfish) should be on the way out as water temperature cools. What I didn't expect was wind. After much deliberation, we canceled our GBR snorkeling tour at the last minute.

We did have a rewarding tour to Daintree National Park, a UNESCO site, the world's oldest rainforest. The highlight was the impossible looking Cassowaries. First, from the van, we saw a male with a chick (see the embedded video 1st below or click here), and few hours later, a single bird (see embedded video 3rd below or click here).









We passed over some other worldly landscapes on the flight to Cairns. Is that Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, Australia's largest salt lake, that I captured?




After checking into our motel, we immediately headed to the sweeping, possibly risky, Four Mile Beach and its very windy lookouts.










The next day we took the full day tour, heading north, passing fields of sugar cane, and then crossing Daintree River on the famous cable ferry.




View from Alexandra Lookout


Thornton Beach. We stopped here for morning tea.


Near Kulki Lookout, we finally spotted a brush-turkey nest mound. Wow! And had a "careful" short walk on a very wide beach.






Madja Botanical Walk at Cape Tribulation




After Cape Tribulation, the most northern stop on the tour, we headed south for a 1-hour cruise on Cooper Creek. Crocodiles live here but we did not see any.




After a satisfying lunch at Heritage Lodge, we continued south, passing more sugarcane fields, for a walk at the "treacherous" Mossman Gorge. Not to mention the Golden Orb-weaving Spider.










Reward.

Adelaide: Around Town

Adelaide, population 1.5 million is the capital of South Australia. It's more like a small town at heart, reminds me more of Raleigh than the other cities. More importantly it demonstrates to me how a sprawling city can have thriving downtown, pedestrian streets, suburban trains, trams, bus, gardens, museums.... It was quite eye opening. I also realized it's the public infrastructures that really impress me about a city, not the malls, tall office buildings, ritzy cars... rather off putting.

Each day while in Adelaide we walked on the Rundel Mall at least once.




We happened to arrive on the last day of glass artist Dale Chihuly's exhibition at the Botanical Garden, who we only know from the Victoria and Albert, making a very awesome garden even more exciting. 






















In addition to the Chihuly exhibit, the Botanic Garden has an awesome Museum of Economic Botany. We were fascinated by the specimen cases.










Somerville Reading Room of the State Library of South Australia


Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA)










We shopped for groceries at Coles - loved the vegan section.






One day we rode the free City Connector bus (1st below) to North Adelaide to check out some Art Deco and Modernist Architecture.