7-30-19 Port Douglas Summary
/Day 44.
Day 1
Australia starts off with a bang as I have reserved a rental car not realizing the Aussie’s drive on the wrong side of the road (for us American’s that would be the left side). I know I’m in trouble when I go to the car, open the door and am staring at the empty passenger seat on the left hand side of the rental. To compound matters, I barely slept on the overnight flight, I had to rent the largest vehicle at the airport which was a ginormous mini-van and the Aussie’s apparently like to save pavement and build their roads so narrow there is maybe 6 inches on either side of the mini-van. Besides praying to my God, I also pray to the Shinto god of clueless American drivers who have to drive a large vehicle on the wrong side of the road in the land down under. With 8 million Shinto gods, there could possibly be one and if there isn’t already one, I vow to build him or her a shrine if I make to Port Douglas alive. My prayers are answered and we make it in-tact.
After arriving in Port Douglas, we think we’ve finally found a town that has no Starbucks, no McDonalds, no American chains at all until we run into a Target and Dominos. Oh well, my quest to find the only non-Americanized town in the world continues. The Air BnB is perfect for our relaxation week.
The group unanimously votes that I will BBQ for dinner. The Air BnB has probably the best BBQ grill I’ve ever cooked on. It is built into the side of the house with a refrigerator under a massive counter to layout and prepare the food. There are 8 burners, a huge exhaust system build over the grill and spot lights. To say I had grill envy would be an understatement. Alas, the grill leaves me in a state of quandary as I don’t know how I’m going to go home to my little Costco grill after this.
Day 2
Scuba diving and snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef is one of the much-anticipated events of the trip (at least for the avid Scuba divers among the group). On the boat ride out, we learn that about 20% of the reef has recently died due to three straight summers of water temperatures above 31 degrees Celsius which is the temperature that starts to kill the reef. The fact that the last two summers have remained under 31 degrees has caused some debate and consternation between the environmentalists and the trump anti-environmentalists as to whether the three hot summers were due to to global warming or merely a mathematically driven statistical anomaly.
Either way, we totally enjoyed the trip to the Great Barrier Reef. The highlight for me was the second of three dives where we see a ~6 foot white tip reef shark on the ocean bottom. As Corey, Justin, Ashlynn, the dive instructor and me get to the bottom, the shark swims 5 meters ahead and stops on the bottom. Hmmm. I swim 5 meters after him and he moves 5 meters. I’m thinking that If I swim really fast, I can get right up next to him. I’m just hoping that the shark hasn’t seen Jaws and suddenly realizes that he’s the one who’s supposed to be chasing me and not the other way around. I get within 2 meters of him but the shark outswims me into the deep blue vastness of the ocean.
Day 3
My day is spent on the China visa application process. We need to apply for our China visa for late September from the road. I have set up an appointment at the China visa processing center in Sydney for next week figuring it will be easier to apply in an English speaking country. China is known as being a difficult visa to obtain which is compounded when Visa Central, a service you can outsource it to who are experts, tells me they can’t help me because I need to have a long-term Australian visa to get a China visa in Australia as a US passport holder. No Bueno. So I am left to navigate the process on my own which requires printing a mountain of paperwork so I turn to my old friend, Target and buy a wireless printer.
In an attempt to salvage the day from visa hell, we head out for a sunset cruise on a catamaran. The weather in Port Douglas has been superb. Sunny, mostly clear skies, temperatures in the high 70’s. We watch a brilliant sunset melting over the ocean. We are hoping to see sharks but alas we have to settle for a nice sailing ride and sunset.
Day 4
Since not everyone scuba dives, we opt for a snorkel trip to the Low Isles. The tour company guarantees that we will see turtles. So we return to the reef on a 15 person ultra-speedboat that goes over 70 km per hour. The boat is skipping and flying over the waves and I’m convinced we are one good gust of wind from the tiny boat flipping over and scattering us all over the reef. But we arrive safely and are off snorkeling in the water.
We are an hour into the 1.5 hour snorkel and I’m becoming more skeptical of this “turtle guarantee.” So I go back to the boat to ask the captain exactly where to find the turtles. “They’re out there on the reef, mate” he says in response. “But exactly where can I find them on the reef?” I ask him, “I figure if you’re guaranteeing we see turtles, there would be a specific location you could direct us to.” He looks at me like I’ve either lost my mind or am from another planet talking about a turtle guarantee. I’m now convinced he’s going to fulfill the turtle guarantee that apparently doesn’t exist by blowing up an inflatable turtle and tossing it in the water at me. I decide it will be entirely too complicated to actually pursue remuneration under the turtle guarantee.
After arriving back at the marina, we go out for a river boat ride at sunset to look for crocodiles. This tour falls short of an outright guarantee of seeing crocodiles but markets it as highly likely. As the boat starts off, the captain tells us that the daytime cruises are much better for spotting crocodiles because it’s low tide and the crocodiles climb up on the banks of river to absorb sunlight. Since our cruise is late in the day, it’s high tide and the crocs have no land to climb up on so we’ll have to spot them in the water which is a lot harder. The marketing brochure failed to mention this.
Towards the end of the cruise, the captain mentions that there are 25 crocodiles in the river and they can hold their breath for 4 hours at a time. You don’t have to be a math major to figure out that if 25 crocodiles are coming up once every four hours along a 3 km river, the chances of us seeing one in a 1 hour boat ride are slim to none. Turns out it was none. I consider the merits of advising the tour’s marketing person on the proper way to calculate the probability of seeing a crocodile on the evening cruise although I suppose they wouldn’t sell as many tickets if they actually said that your chances of seeing a crocodile as slim to none. Even though we don’t see a crocodile, the captain was actually very informative and funny so we are still glad we did it.
Day 5
I return to my China visa applications. Leanne has QA’d my mound of paperwork and finds that on the very first application, I have the wrong passport number for Ashley. You’ve got to be kidding me. When all is said and done, I have 3 mistakes on 3 applications. Since I’ve already submitted them, I need to redo the entire application, resubmit it online and reprint it. China had better be damn good for all this torture I’m going through to get the visa.
While I’m doing that, Leanne takes the kids to the Port Douglass wildlife habitat. They have kangaroo’s milling out and about in the habitat that you can pet and feed. The pictures remind me of Nara and shorts-eating deer but the kids assure me that there were no crazed kangaroos chasing little kids who were running for fear of their life. Leanne and the kids get to hold a real live Kuala bear and take pictures of the critter hanging on their shirt.
For dinner, I’ve selected a local Australian restaurant in order to meet the criteria of having local cuisine in each country we are in. As we are seated and the kids look at the menu, they give me a horrified look. I look at my menu and see the first thing listed is kangaroo quesadillas. “Dad, they could well be serving one of the same exact kangaroos we petted and fed today.” I refrain from responding that the kangaroo they’re serving tonight was probably from a couple days ago. But there is no turning back now. I bravely order the kangaroo quesadilla along with cheese and vegemite and Leanne orders the barramundi (the local favorite fish). By the end of dinner, the kids seem to have forgiven the fact that I ate the local equivalent of Bambi.
Day 6
Today we visit Mossman Gorge and Cape Tribulation in the Daintree Rainforest. The Daintree is the oldest rainforest system in the world. To put it in context, the Daintree rainforest is estimated to be 180 million years old while it’s better known brethren the Amazon rainforest is estimated to be 55 million years old. The rainforest has over 3,000 species of plant, insects and animals over which ~80% are poisonous or harmful to people.
We participate in a smoking ceremony (we didn’t inhale) of the Kuku Yalanji local aboriginal clan. Next Corey, Justin & I swim in the Daintree river than runs through Mossman gorge. Despite our guides assurances that it is safe, I spend the entire time looking over my shoulder for the rogue crocodile looking for a morning snack. Next, we take a boat ride on the river in search of Crocs and are not disappointed seeing multiple ones ranging from 18 inches to 5 meters in length.
After outdoor lunch at a lodge in the wild, our third spot is for a rainforest guided walk through this majestic place. We came across a tree full of the all-important flying foxes, a croc-home beach and beautiful flora and fauna including trees that heal, cradle, and even serve as resting places for the dead. Cape tribulation is where the Daintree forest meets the ocean and Great Barrier Reef. It is one of the only places in the world where there are two connecting UNESCO World Heritage sites.
I reflect on the fact that in London we were talking about hundreds of years of history, which turned into 2,000 years with the Roman Empire in Bath, England, which turned into 5,000 years with Stonehenge, which turned into 180 million years with the Daintree Rainforest. Gives one a change in perspective on the meaning of passing time.
