Far North Queensland

Far north Queensland has many amazing wonders, including unusual birds such as cassowaries, which can grow to two meters tall.  They swallow very large forest fruits, digesting only the flesh and passing the seeds, which from their self manured planting, grow into very large trees.  Another unusual bird is the curlew, a slender long legged bird with very loud high-pitched, eerie drawn-out shrieks, which pierce the night, all night long!  Praise the Lord I sleep with earplugs!

Out shopping one day I saw a very large campervan and across the back were the words ‘Granddad’s cubby house’, the registration plates were also a bit of a laugh – ‘RUFN IT’. To me it didn’t look like granddad was ruffin it too badly.

Tuesday 22 June, Jen send me a message to say she and Dave were heading into the wild country, towards the Aboriginal shire of Doomadgee far north west QLD, just in from the coast and not far from the Northern Territory border.  She says they are settling into a routine, since she has taught Dave some basics. I had to laugh, she had been concerned how they might need to work a few things out as he is not as practical as the Hall family girls who are often in sync with what’s needed to be done next.

Because of my hip still playing up, I decided to try Kat’s remedial massage therapist. After trying to call, I left her a message on her phone and received a text back to make a booking.  A bit strange as I thought a more personal way was to call back. Anyway I called her again and was surprised how abrupt she sounded. I must admit it put me in a defensive manner, especially as she was asking where I came from and how long I’d been in Cairns. Obviously she was concerned about the Covid outbreaks in Sydney and Melbourne, but it was rather awkward. Then on Tuesday morning just before I went for my appointment, she sent me a ream of information about leaving my shoes outside and signing some papers when I arrived.  It was all a bit weird. When I arrived she was rather blunt, so I kept my mouth shut (which you know is not the easiest for me), filled out all the papers and got on the massage table.  It turned out she was quite nice once we got talking. She said I had sounded stern which I’m not surprised as I thought she had been prying and interrogating me. She did a great work-out all over my body, concentrating on my left hip.  I felt so much better afterwards.

Kat had messaged me of her early return home on Sunday 27^th June, so I started work on a big spring clean on the Wednesday. I wanted the house to look nice for her return.  I still hadn’t emptied the fridge to defrost it as instructed.  The fridge often has a problem of leakage which I suspect is due to the warm moist air freezing up in the pipes behind the fridge then leaking into the interior of the fridge, causing a pooling of water at the base. I’m told to help correct this, the fridge needs to be turned off for 48 hours, which means it needs to be emptied of all the perishables. Praise God they have a large freezer downstairs which I filled with all the frozen foods and a fridge box which I also filled after trying to finish all my perishables. I chose Wednesday evening to turn the fridge off as I had received notification of the power going off on Thursday from the power company What I didn’t realise was that I couldn’t move the fridge on my own to reach to turn it off. Never mind, all the food was now stored away in the other fridge and freezer.

I didn’t sleep well Wednesday night so it took me awhile to get out of bed on Thursday for my trip to the Daintree. A snack and drinks packed, I set off around 9am for the 95km, 3½ hour drive to Cape Tribulation.  I wanted to drive straight there, then take my time coming back, calling in on places of interest. Emma, from church, who was unable to join me when I had planned to go the previous week, had suggested a list of places to check out. The trip included a ferry across the Daintree River just north of Mossman. Although it rained off and on, the roads were good, despite frequently slowing to 40km per hour along the windy stretches.  The name of one property tucked away amongst the trees caught my eye and made me laugh ‘Gonnadoit’. I noted several places to call in on my return journey, only stopping at Floravilla Ice Cream Factory, where I bought a jackfruit flavoured ice cream, which stayed frozen till I arrived at Cape Tribulation Beach.  Here I walked along the trail to the lookout and then back along the beach, boarded by mangrove. 

Returning the way I had come, I drove through places where the rainforest trees overhung the roads like an avenue of great pillars.  There were tree ferns, alexander, fan and black palms, giant fig trees, Mossman and spur mahogany, briar oak as well as creepers, vines, staghorn and basket ferns, just to mention a few.  It was so majestic. One place I would have like to have stopped was the tropical and exotic fruit tasting farm. Unfortunately it was closed both Wednesdays and Thursdays. Oh well, something to know for next time.

Another place I wanted to check out was the swimming hole on Thompson’s creek, which had access through the Masons Café, where a sign stated ‘no crocodiles in the pond because they are in our burgers’. There were quite a few people enjoying the water, even though it wasn’t the warmest of days. It certainly was a refreshing dip followed up with a hot coffee at the café. From here I continued south, pulling off the road to take a photo at Alexandra Bay lookout, before continuing to Jindalba and the Daintree Discovery centre, which has a guide book and audio recording of their walkways through the forest.  Then back to the ferry crossing and the Scomazzons Farm Store, where I was able to buy some exotic Far North Queensland fruits like sapote, red dragon fruit, saw leaf pineapple, paw paw, pomelos and other fruits. Here I sat for a while to eat my boiled eggs on fresh bread which I had bought the previous day from the special bakery, Le Crouton, which Kat had recommended.  The bread I had bought at the market was so terrible I gave it to the chickens, so it was back to Le Crouton.  From here it was a straight drive home, arriving around 5:30pm.  It had been a lovely day with the rain stopping enough for me to do all the outdoor things without getting wet.  The Lord is so gracious and I’m so thankful.

I had met an elderly lady, Hanna, at church and had tried contacting her earlier in the week without success, so on Saturday I called before visiting her and her garden.  She had emigrated from Germany many years ago and lived in Sydney before visiting Cairns for a holiday, and never left. After a stroll around her potted garden, collecting a few seedlings and cuttings, I took her to the markets, which she said she had never been to.  It amazes me how many people have never seen the attractions around them.

The Sunday before my planned departure, Kat, my sister, flew home. She was supposed to arrive at 10pm but rang me from Brisbane to say she had just missed the flight as her flight from Broome had been running late, so she would be on the one after midnight. It was lovely having unexpected extra time with Kat, as she had left not long after Jen and I had arrived in Cairns and was not expected back till after my departure. Due to the disruption of lockdowns in Sydney and Brisbane, my train journeys south were cancelled, which meant more time in Cairns, enabling Kat and I to spend more time together. The disadvantage being, Kat likes her own space and sometimes I feel I’m over-staying my welcome.  Still, most of the time we have enjoyed each other’s company.

Before heading to Sydney, I decided to get my very first ever manicure.  I haven’t seen the need previously, as I don’t wear nail polish and my nails are always getting chipped and dirty in the garden. I arrived on time but then had to wait half an hour! I wasn’t impressed.  A gentlemen later arrived dressed as a chef who offered us water with a slither of lemon. He turned out to be the husband of the Vietnamese lady, Phuy, who did my nails. As we chatted over my nails I inquired when she had arrived in Australia and told her I love banana leaf salad, which is very hard to find anywhere in Australia.  The only place I had eaten it was in Sydney with my friend Vi-Lay. Phuy offered to make it for me so I offered to buy it if I found a banana flower at the market.  I was thrilled.  That Saturday I looked for banana flower everywhere at the market. I’d seen it the previous weekend but nothing that day.  I had also planned to make some Malaysian Rojak so inquired about green guava and mango and was told they were out of season.  Praise the Lord all my inquiring and scouring the stalls paid off with the Rojak ingredients although not the banana flower.  Then a few days later when Kat and I were taking Poppy to the park for a run, I noticed there was a banana palm with a bunch of bananas hanging over the neighbour’s fence.  Hallelujah it still had a flower on the end of a very long stork! After looking up on the internet whether it would affect the maturing of the bananas if the flower was removed, I learnt that once all the female flowers had been fertilised, there are only male flowers left and this is why there is a long stork at the end of every bunch of bananas. Removing them did not affect the growing bananas.  With this information, Kat’s neighbour granted me permission to remove the flower which I took a photo of to send to Phuy making sure it was big enough for the salad.

The school holidays had started as did the rain again.  This limited Kat’s and my outings, but one day we decided to walk the hour-plus undulated steep climb to the Behana Creek falls.  It was a 40 minute drive south of Cairns so we took a picnic snack and our bathers; we certainly needed both by the time we had reached the swimming hole. It was a lovely walk but very strenuous as there were so many very steep hills along the paved track, which we later found was accessed by tour vans for rock climbing and absailing. We passed quite a few people coming back, so we were pleased when we arrived to see only one group, a family from Cairns with friends from Ballarat Victoria, who were very chatty. The swim was so refreshing as we had worked up a sweat from our climb.  The rock pool at the bottom of one of the many falls along the river was very dark and deep and in places quite rapid flowing. It was fun trying to swim upstream against the current. It had been a lovely afternoon.

The next day it rained, but the following day, Friday, it was overcast in the morning, clearing in the afternoon so we decided to take the opportunity to go to another stream, Stone Creek Falls, where once again we could swim.  It was a lovely sunny day although a little cool.  We walked along a bit of a trail into the rainforest before returning to the stream to find a lovely spot to swim. The water again was so cold but refreshing, we were both glad we didn’t have to walk so far for this swim, Kat said she would come again as it was only ten minutes from home. Once again we had packed a snack, this time Kat’s homemade blueberry muffins.  Just as we were returning home, I had a call from Phuy wondering where I was.  She had made the banana flower salad and had texted me in the morning to say it was ready to pick up. That morning I had my second remedial massage which was a treat before leaving Cairns.  While I was there I had my phone on silent, so I didn’t hear a message come through. We were going to do some shopping en route home but instead drove to the nail salon to pick up our salad, which we ate later that day.  It was delicious!

Then later that day I was booked in for my second Astra Zenica vaccination.  I wasn’t so impressed when I had to wait 45mins for it, while others who had come after me had gone before me. Another lesson in patience!  Then a message from MyGov to say my Covid Certificate was ready to download.

Saturday afternoon Duncan returned home. I then took the car to do the last shop at Rusty’s market, giving them some time alone together.  I found jackfruit was now in season, but unfortunately it wouldn’t have ripened before I left, so I was very disappointed.

Sunday I surprised my new church family by turning up again. This time I remembered to take a photo of some who were present. That afternoon I applied for the new Good 2 Go (g2g) app to request entry into WA. More about this in my next blog update ‘Covid Disruptions’.

Monday, the day before flying out, Kat and I planned to visit the butterfly sanctuary in Kuranda. So back up the winding Macalister Range escarpment. It was an overcast day which brightened up by midday. We spent about an hour wandering around looking at the kaleidoscope of butterflies. We learned that this was one of the names of a large group of butterflies.  Having had our fill of moth and butterfly information, we headed to a small park to eat Kat’s muffins and a fresh cup of coffee from the local market before heading home. I then spent the rest of the day sorting through my things and packing ready for the flight in the morning.

That night we finished off the banana flower salad with freshly make jiaozi and stir fry Asian greens with snake beans.  Unfortunately eating after 5pm often upsets my sleep and it took me ages to get to sleep, even with a sleep aid!  Not such a good thing when I needed to be up at 4:15am for the flight home via Brisbane!

Photos:  1. One of the many varieties of ornamental ginger plants    2. River crossing    3. Tropical fruits   4. Forest along the road    5. Jindalba Daintree Discovery Centre    6. Alexander Lookout    7. Kat at the Behana Falls    8. Butterfly Sanctuary

Praise & Prayer Points:

Praise the Lord for my extended time in Cairns catching up with Kat and enjoying the warm weather.

Praise Him for providing for me all this time and for avoiding the lockdowns in Perth, Sydney and Brisbane.  I’m also very grateful for continued good health on my travels.

I am back in Perth now in home quarantine, please pray that my second Covid test will also come back negative.

Please continue pray for my sisters, Tricia, Jen and Kat to come to know Christ’s love for them.