Sunday, July 22, 2012

Yeehaw Cowboy!!!


We left Port Douglas and headed over the mountain, and onto the Atherton Tablelands, to Mareeba. As we approached the town we were welcomed to Mareeba by a sign that boasted 'the town that has over 300 days of Sunshine!" We are now known as the Rainmakers, so I was wondering if we could change their average rain fall!

We arrived at the Mareeba showgrounds on the final day of the Annual Winter Rodeo. Each year, spectators are entertained by full-on Rodeo action. All the usual rodeo events including bull ride, saddle bronc, steer wrestling, ladies and & junior events, team relay, and the Interstate Rodeo Challenge Qld-v-NSW.

We parked up in one of the paddocks and had a fantastic day watching the young riders risk their lives for our entertainment. One of the common phrases heard that day was "you couldn't pay me enough money to get me on the back of one of those bulls!"







We spent the next few days hanging out with mum and dad, and waiting for our friends Mark and Amanda to arrive. They arrived the day before their daughter's 8th birthday. We celebrated her birthday at a beautiful little picnic ground at Granite Gorge.  After paying our $5 fee to stay at the park for the day, we received a bag of food for the little rock wallabies scattered all over the gorge.

 


 
 

A couple of days later more friends, Matt and Nikki and their 3 kids arrived. We met Matt and Nikki earlier this year in Bendigo, Victoria and we all hit it off immediately. They were planning on going to Cape York and were hoping to be able to travel with us.

I have no interest in going to Cape York but it has been a dream of Dan’s for some time now. With my fear of crocodiles, my tendency to panic about the kids getting injured or lost and my aversion to corrugated roads, I had decided to stay in the caravan with Zac and let Dan and the two big boys go on a camping trip by themselves.
This wasn’t part of Dan’s plan and he stressed how important it was to him that we all reach the Northern most point of Australia together as a family. He practically begged me to go with him, and so after lots of disagreements, I gave in. I have had a pretty tough couple of months and all I want to do is have a rest, but instead I am about to plan, pack, clean, sort and buy supplies for a trip 2000km round trip to one of Australia’s most remote, dry and dusty places….. wish me luck!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Never smile at a crocodile


My Uncle Tony and his partner Bernadette are travelling around in a big fifth wheeler with their Harley Davidson motorbike on the back on their truck. Last year we caught up with them a lot on the road and we were all really excited to see them again this year. They were heading back to Port Douglas to spend a few months there, so we planned to be there at the same time.

 

We arrived a week earlier so that we could spend the whole school holidays in the little tourist town in Far North Queensland.

 

We followed mum and dad along the beautiful beachside road and arrived at Pandanus Caravan Park on a beautiful sunny day.

 

As soon as the caravan was unhitched we threw on our bathers and headed down to the beach.

 

 

The beach at Port Douglas is perfect for children. It is incredibly shallow and when the tide is out the sand is solid enough to ride a bike along! The water is a beautiful temperature and feels almost like a warm bath. Until now Zaccy hasn’t really enjoyed playing in the ocean. We have spent a lot of time at surf beaches and he has always been afraid of the waves.  Because the beach is so shallow at Port Douglas, the waves are tiny. Perfect for 3 year olds to feel like giants, jumping right over the top of them!

 

 
Our first week at Port Douglas was filled with sunshine and we spent most of our time exploring the area, trying our luck (which Dad had plenty of, but I had none) at fishing and working out what we should do the following week.

 

The next weekend Tony and Bernie arrived followed soon after by my little brother, Chris and his pregnant wife Leah. It was very exciting seeing everyone as we hadn't seen them since we left home in February.

 

Throughout the week we acted like tourists on holiday. We ate out most nights, went on sightseeing tours and soaked up the sun on the beach.

 

We all spent a full day out on the Great Barrier Reef. Getting up early we met at the Marina and boarded the Quicksilver catamaran.

 

After about an hour heading out over the reef we stopped alongside the Quicksilver Pontoon on the Agincourt Reef. We boarded the pontoon and fitted ourselves out with snorkelling gear.

 

I had been concerned that Zac would have a difficult time snorkelling and that he wouldn’t get to appreciate everything that the reef has to offer.

 

We climbed into the warm water in the beginner zone which is closely supervised by many lifeguards. I put the mask and snorkel on Zaccy and tried to coax him into looking under water. He didn’t like the snorkel in his mouth, kept taking it out and was getting mouthfuls of salty water. I decided to be a little harsh and I shoved his snorkel into his mouth and before he could remove it , I pushed his head under water. I wish I had taken a photo at that moment – his face lit up and his eyes grew huge as he realised there were fish that were nearly as big as him, swimming between his legs. Through the snorkel he cried out and it took me a few seconds to realise that he was squealing with delight.








Although he never quite got the hang of the snorkel (every time he needed to take a breath, he would raise his head out of the water and gulp in air) he spent the next hour watching the rainbow of coloured fish of many different shapes, sizes and colours.

 

Meanwhile Dan, Mum, Dad, Chris and Leah had taken Sam and Will to the reef further out. They had a wonderful time exploring the amazing underwater world filled with beautiful colours and fascinating creatures.

 
We paused for a buffet lunch but were all really eager to get back into the water and continue exploring and taking photos with our underwater cameras. While we let our lunch go down, we took a trip down in the semi-submersible, an underwater boat that took us on a 30 minute trip down to get a close up of the underwater world that is a dazzling kaleidoscope of colour and brilliance.
 
 

 

Now, in case you haven’t read my previous blogs, I should probably let you know something about myself. I’m not afraid of many things; heights don’t bother me, I think snakes and spiders are really cool, I used to play with creepy crawlies when I was a kid…. However, there are two things in life that scare the hell out of me….. Mice and crocodiles!!

 

We went through a mouse plague last year while travelling through central NSW and I think my fear of mice may have lessened since being exposed to so many mice (that is, I no longer throw up when I see a mouse).

 

So my theory to overcome my fear of crocs was to expose myself to as much information about them as possible.  Since arriving in Far North Queensland I have spent a lot of time looking up info using the internet, talking to locals and bombarding Visitor Information Centres with questions.

 

However, my heart still lodged itself securely in my throat whenever myself or the kids were anywhere near water. I spent one afternoon fishing near the marina with Dad, and I’m sure he was incredibly embarrassed to be seen with me. Let’s just say I was glad I was using my surf rod because I was standing a good 15 feet away from the water’s edge and I kept gasping every time anyone went anywhere near the water.

 

What I thought I needed was a trip to the local Crocodile World. My theory proved to be very wrong. It was as if I had filters over my ears and all I could hear was the ‘croc experts’ talking about how dangerous the crocs are, the statistics of everyone who has ever been killed or injured, how powerful they are and how they kill their dinner.

As we went on a boat cruise around the lake at Hartleys Crocodile World, I ignored all of the ooos and aaahs from all the other passengers as the crocs jumped out of the water, as I imagined the dead chook on the end of the pole as my head, or worse, one of the kids!










We had a great day watching all of the animal shows but it did nothing to ease my fear of Australia’s great Estuarine Crocodile. In fact, I think it may have turned my rational fear into an irrational one!








Being a sucker for punishment, I was determined to overcome my problem. So one sunny afternoon I agreed to go out in a little 6ft pontoon boat with my Dad, Chris and Leah. We were heading down the river in search of a good fishing spot (and on the lookout for crocs in the wild) I figured seeing one in the wild wasn’t going to be anywhere near as scary as at the shows.  Surely they make it look worse than it is for entertainment purposes.

 

Wrong again! The first croc we saw sunbaking on the muddy river banks sent Leah and me into petrified screams. It didn’t help the situation when Dad, who was driving, turned the boat around because he didn’t get to see it. Leah and I couldn’t understand why Dad was heading straight for the croc. Dad still couldn’t see the croc because it was so well hidden in plain sight! Lying out on top of the mud, it was beautifully camouflaged and could only be seen from a certain angle.

Very quickly Dad changed course once he realised how close we were, but it was too late. I was a nervous wreck! I spent the rest of the day convinced that we were surrounded by crocs.

Not to mention that the fishing trip didn’t go so well. Don’t get me wrong, everybody else caught lots of fish, but it wasn’t one of my better days. Apart from only catching a few little ones, I also managed to accidently throw one of Dad’s catches back into the river. Then I dropped Leah’s first catch overboard when I was cleaning it – I suddenly had an image of a croc jumping out  of the water to eat the meal I was so generously holding for it.

 Needless to say, my fear of crocs is still as strong as ever and I cannot wait to head inland and away from the coast of FNQ!