Sunrise at Barrine

March 13th dawned with pouring rain.... but that did not stop the three intrepid hikers from hiking the daunting 972-m Walsh Pyramid- the tallest natural pyramid in the world.  Meters upon meters of straight-up hiking met our weary legs, but we were rewarded with a truly spectacular view of the Tablelands at the very top.  Apparently in August there is a footrace to the top... but only for those so insane as to enjoy something like that.

The three intrepid hikers

The view!!

 And another view!!

 Following this feat, accomplished in four hours, the footsore travelers drove up to Port Douglas and paid for their campsite at Pandanus Caravan Park near the beach.  There they proceeded to try out a series of pole sets for their tent, none of which matched, and consequently their accommodation was supported by a framework of variable-sized poles and a particular arrangement of the fly.  After a bit of relaxation on the beach (which was closed to swimming because of the stingers), the trio fit themselves nicely into the tent to go to sleep.

It promptly proceeded to rain.

And rain.

The wind picked up.  Quite strongly.  Billowing gusts of wind whacked the tent, belted it, and hammered it with driving gales of rain.

Monika got quite fed up, and fled with her stuff to the car.

Since my stuff was only marginally wet, I curled up closer to the center of the tent, having originally been sleeping on one side of it.  I noticed that Audrey was migrating toward the center as well.  

Eventually, I realized that my sleeping bag seemed to be getting wetter, and the tent to be getting smaller.  

Audrey said, "Jen, I think we better leave.  The tent's collapsing on me!"

I looked about at the nice triangle of space still left on my side and thought about it.  However, I still did have space.  So I said, "Nah, let's wait and see what happens."

A gale of wind suddenly blasted our tent, which slowly began to deflate.  Our survival instincts on alert, Audrey and I immediately sought refuge in the car.  Monika had already claimed the back seat, and Audrey had contorted herself so she could sleep over the emergency brake across the two front seats, so I had to make do with a double seat, a gap, and one seat across the gap.  Although it took a bit of neck cramping and knee bending so that I was not sagging into the aisle, I managed to sleep from 3am to about 7am in this drier habitat.

The tent.

And the next day we spent exploring Port Douglas!!  It was a gorgeous day, much appreciated.

In addition to our exploration of Port Douglas, several field trips have taken us on visits to Kuranda; to a tree kangaroo caretaker, and to the Tolga bat hospital for animals like spectacled flying foxes and microbats.  Some of our own wildlife on site must have gotten used to us by now and we've glimpsed stony creek frogs, another chameleon gecko, a blindsnake, and on one rather wet night, the 10+ foot Mama amethystine python!

Streets of Kuranda

 Warning for cyclone Ului (which didn't end up hitting us anyway- it turned into Category 2 and hit MacIay)

 Tolga bat hospital

Spectacled flying foxes at the bat hospital!

 A tree kangaroo!!...on someone's shoulders?

Big Mama Amethystine by cabin 4

Our trip to the Daintree from March 23-25 kicked off with a croc cruise on the Daintree River.  Although the river was not visibly abounding with and big Daddy saltwater crocodiles, we did see several babies and an almost completely submerged Mom close by.  As we putted along the river, we also caught sight of some green tree snakes, crabs, mudskippers, and an archerfish.  After crossing the river by ferry, we noticed that the forest was visibly different from our regrowth rainforest back at the Center.  It seemed more complex- more vines, epiphytes, and generally larger trees.  It was gorgeous.  We were even more astounded by our visit to the palm forest, where huge trees with wide, fan-like leaves grew like giant lilypads high over our heads.  But the most fantastic event of the trip was our sighting of a wild cassowary on our stroll around the Mardja boardwalk.  When I arrived on the scene, the cassowary couldn't have been more than 10m from the boardwalk- it was a stunning view of this prehistoric-looking bird...I truly felt like I was standing in Jurassic park!  

Close on the heels of this inspiring experience was our stop at Cape Tribulation late in the afternoon, when a sudden downpour soaked us all as we dashed across the beach and splashed in the water.  Although we returned back to our accommodations thoroughly soaked, we happily dipped into our stash of mangosteens (conveniently located in our pockets) from our tour of the exotic fruit farm, where jakfruit and mangosteen trees were practically raining their delicious bounty.      

The rain didn't even let us visit Mossman Gorge and Port Douglas the next day in dry clothes.  But the animal sights we witnessed more than made up for the incovenience of wet and musty cars.  After almost hitting a Hercules moth with one of the windshields, we pulled over on a golf course near Mareeba to have a laugh at the herd of gray kangaroos that covered the lawn.  One of the little joeys was lazily napping in his mother's pouch with only his legs hanging out.

 Mom Croc

No one can see me...

Green tree snake

Fan palm forest

Siggy's house in the Daintree rainforest

The cassowary!!

Rambutans at the exotic fruit farm

One of the rarer species at Cape Tribulation