Hello again!! Update time!

Before leaving Atherton, we went for a drive, on a rainy day, to Hypipamee Crater. We decided it was a better option than sitting around the caravan park! On arriving at the Hypipamee National Park, we noted how beautiful the rainforest was. We love coming to these areas, and take our time to really appreciate the clean air and beautiful surroundings. Upon starting the loop walk to the Hypipamee Crater along the pathway, we took note of the sign warning of Cassowaries in the area. We discussed the probability that we wouldn't see one, as they are apparently endangered. Merrily we walked along, crossing a small wooden footbridge, and stopping about 15 metres after as we spotted something off to the left of the track. A brownish bird, looking at first like an emu chick....then realising we were looking at a Cassoray chick! Awesome! How lucky!...then we spotted another chick. Unbelievable! And then the realisation set in..........where are their parents? Their protective, large and potentially dangerous parents??? Oh Crap! We both quickly scanned the bush, and spotted two large Cassowaries in the bush behind the chicks. Man - are they big! Like Emu's...big beaks...big feet...with huge claws...gulp!! The chicks at this point had become very interested in us, and came running towards us, their heads down, looking like some crazed pre-historic predatory birds. The chicks were of no concern to us, at only around 80cm tall, they could hurt us maybe...but it was the parents we were worried about. They watched as the chicks came towards us, then moved forward,shaddowing the chicks, moving faster as the chicks did, getting closer and closer to us as we cautiously retreated backwards up the path. They kept coming for us, the chicks almost running, and all we could think was that we couldn't let the chicks run past us and put us between them and the parents. Our hearts were pounding, and we wondered if this was going to get ugly. As we backed onto the bridge, I had our umbrella (thank-you Mr Rain) opened out towards the birds, hoping they'd be wary of it, as they didn't seem frightened of us! Thankfully, they must have felt that they'd pushed us out of their territory, and didn't come onto the bridge, though the chicks looked like they might...they gradually lost interest, and I had time to run back to the car and grab the camcorder, making it back just in time before they disappeared completely. Paul managed to get a few quick snaps on the camera too. Proof! We'd seen Cassowaries in the wild. We were mad that we didn't have the camcorder with us when we first came across them, but looking back, we would have been too busy trying to get away from them to worry about getting footage then anyway. We felt so lucky to have had that encounter. They're beautiful birds, massive, and I wouldn't ever want to be on the receiving end of an attack. We were excited by it all, and can only imagine how exciting it will be when we come across some Crocs!!! HA!...Think I'll stay in the car for that encounter!!

After calming down a bit, and making sure the Cassowaries were out of sight, we headed back along the pathway to the Crater. The photo doesn't do it justice, as they never seem to do. What a spot! We took the loop track down towards the beautiful creek and waterfalls. There really are some amazing places to visit in this area. It's sad to see that so many people who visit these beautiful areas just rush along the paths, take a few seconds to look at what they've come to see, then rush back to their cars again. We spotted stag ferns, birds nests ferns, and all other sorts of growths high up in the magnificent trees. Some so large and heavy that they were about to pull the small tree they live on crashing to the ground, like a few had already. Tiny birds flitting in and out of the bushes; huge butterflies gracefully fluttering about in the streaks of sunlight between the trees, and hairy caterpillars following one another along the mottled bark of the larger than life fig trees. There's so much to see...if you just take the time.

After our walk among the Cassowaries and ancient rainforests, we drove into a little town called Herberton. Spread over the hills, this was an interesting town, with some great old buildings, the largest being an old Convent...it was huge. It dominated the small town, sprawling white double-storied walls with figurines gracing its exterior. We found a few cheap books in the Lifeline store...we've read a lot of books on this trip due to all the rain! Nice little town...our kind of town...though I have no need for a Convent...would make an awesome house though!!!

We left Atherton on the Wednesday, driving through Mareeba and down the range to Kuranda...a sign marking the entrance "Kuranda - Village in the Rainforest"......as it was bucketing down with rain so hard that we almost couldn't see the sign, we decided they needed to drop the "forest" part on the sign. Freakin rain finds us everywhere!! We drove around Kuranda, wondering if we should bother hanging around; if the rain would be kind and let us look about without an umbrella. It eventually eased enough to encourage us to go for a wander. We had lunch at the German Tucker House - Bratwurst - highly recommended! Afterwards, we went to the Butterfly Sanctuary...god they breed 'em big up here! The popular Blue Ulysses Butterflies are gorgeous, though they wouldn't sit still long enough to have Paul take a photo...but my favourite were the Cairns Birdwing Butterflies. Massive, their wings are the size of sparrows, some an awesome green colour. They have a breeding room where you can view them at all stages of growth. The whole Sanctuary is covered, so as to not get wet when it rains of course- but don't let that fool you - you'll still get wet as there are holes in the roofing! But you just move a few metres along the path and find a dry area! Unfortunately with the dull day, the butterflies were less active, most of them only coming out when the sun shone through, but we saw what we wanted anyway. They have a room displaying all the types of butterflies and moths from around the world. There are 24,000 types of butterflies! Incredible. And Tropical North Qld has the Hercules Moth with a wingspan of 27cm - the largest moth in the Australia and one of the largest in the world! So we learnt something, at least! After getting butterflied out, we wandered around through the Kuranda Market, then headed off towards Cairns...in the rain.

We were going to stay at Palm Cove, just north of Cairns, at a campsite on the beachfront, but - would you believe it - it was still raining, squally, and generally awful with nasty brown waves crashing onto the beach...not the beautiful, serene, blue-green sea with blue skies that we'd hoped for. We'd had enough of wind-blown beachfront campsites so opted to go back to Cairns to hide away in some caravan park away from the beach. We found a nice park with a creek running through it, lots of palm trees, and a lovely pool. It has been raining for the most part since we arrived last Wednesday...the creek came up a bit a few days ago as we had 111mm of rain in about 36 hours. We packed up all the bits and pieces so we only had the tent on the camper to fold up, and the table and chairs to put on top, as we didn't want a repeat of Coffs Harbour. We're prepared these days! We still can't believe how much rain we've had since leaving Victoria. At times it has got us down, as we feel we've wasted time and money in places we haven't been able to enjoy. Hervey Bay is the only time we've actually enjoyed sunshine on the coast. North Qld is the one area we really wanted to see at its best, but it's not going to happen. Still raining and dull, with reports of it continuing like this for a few more weeks...weeks we could be somewhere else, enjoying ourselves in the sunshine!

Now the car has an issue - we have to replace the tailshaft as it's noisy, and we don't want it to let us down in the middle of nowhere...so that will put a $1400 dent in our budget....but it can't be helped. It's cheaper than having to pay to be towed hundreds of kms when it snaps in the middle of the desert one day...and then paying ridiculous freight costs to get the part to some tin-pot town...don't need that hassle!

We've managed to have a look around Cairns, in between, and during the 'showers' - aka heavy rain. Our observation is this - it would be a nice place when it's sunny! It's a big place, though even in the city it feels relaxed when walking around. The streets have lovely tropical gardens, which makes a big difference. Towns/cities without gardens don't have the same feel to them. There's too much traffic for my liking, but for the city it is (population of approx. 150,000) it's not bad- similar to Darwin, just a little bigger.

We are planning on leaving here Wednesday, providing the damn tailshaft for the Pajero arrives tomorrow, and Paul is able to fit it then. We're still trying to work out which road we'll take West (where the sunshine is hiding!!).With all the rain still about, some roads are still closed, so we'll see in a few days time.

Take care - y'all! Hope the sun is shining on you...stop hogging it though - and send some up here!!

Kath and Paul