UPDATED 05/31/19

We landed in Cairns and checked into our apartment. It is not the nicest apartment we have been in but it is clean and the bed very comfy, so it is ok.
We came here mostly to let Mike get some of his consultant work done, so most days Mike would work in the day and we would visit the grocery store, mall, and walk downtown on the boardwalk later on.

We ended up at the local clinic quite a few time. First we needed to get some travel vaccinations for our upcoming trip to Africa. On the day we went to get the shots I ended up with the flu. I threw up in the doctors sink – yuck, and had to go back the following week. A few days ago Mike got bit by something on the back of his leg that started out as a little blister and ended up as what I can only call a festering pustule. It is gross. Back to the clinic we went. When the doctor looks at it and says “ewww” you know it is not very good. As it turns out Mike was bitten by what they think is the Australian White Tail spider. And yes it is on the dangerous spider list. The venom eats away the skin from the inside out and, if not treated, can lead to skin graphs and/or amputation. It is called Necrotising arachnidism and is a type of skin inflammation and ulceration. Occasionally, the reaction is so severe that the person loses large amounts of skin and needs extensive skin grafts. The internet says there is no evidence to support that this spider’s venom does this, but all the nurses and doctors at the clinic disagree. Anyway they gave him some serious antibiotics and it seems to be drying up. At least it is not getting bigger. Mike calls it a venom induced necrotic wound. I wouldn’t post the picture of it, but if you saw it you would agree it is a festering pustule also known as Mike’s Australian natural tattoo.  YUCK!

So what did we do for fun besides visit the wonderful staff at the clinic and the pharmacy next door?

Well we took a train up to the rain forest.  This part of the trip was just ok, but did bring us by some amazing waterfalls and views of Cairns.

   

 

         

 

check out the pools at the bottom of the fall

 

Once up in the small tourist town at the top of the rain forest we visited a small animal preserve.  It was here that I met Hazel.  Isn’t she sooooo cute.

 

The preserve was small but had some other cute Australian residents.

This koala  had some interesting sleeping positions…

A cute wallaby..

A rat-kangaroo

Quokkas (related to kangaroo and wallabies)

Met these guys in the nocturnal exhibit.

Here is the Greater Bilby.  It has silky blue-grey fur, ears like a rabbit, a long tufted tail and legs similar to a kangaroo’s.  He is referred to as the Australian Easter Bunny.

A tree frog and a super cute little gecco.

There also were some turtles, crocodiles, and a green python

We had lunch and took a 40 minute cable car ride back.  I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. We were way above the canopy and it was really beautiful.

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The next thing we did ticked off another item on our bucket list.  Can you say GREAT BARRIER REEF!!!!!!

That’s right, we did 3 different dives on the Great Barrier Reef. It was a cloudy day so the colors I expected to see were not as easy to see, BUT OMG the fish.

I know everyone thinks I would have a lot of photos, but to tell the truth I wanted to just enjoy the dive and not take a chance at bumping into any of the coral, so I didn’t purchase an underwater camera. In hindsight, part of me wishes I had, but the other part of me is glad to have just lived in the moment. It was a wonderful day. We dove on the outer rim of the Great Barrier Reef, which is where the reef is less visited. Marcos, our dive master, was great.

We went to Flynn Reef – see the butterfly marker in lower right corner of first map.

Dive one was at Tracy’s, dive two was at Gorden’s, and dive three was at the Coral Gardens which was my favorite. Coral Gardens was a wall dive, so the reef is tall and wide.


We saw many Nemos, moray eels, a white tip shark, Kuhlii string rays, giant clams (so colorful), blue lion fish surgeon fish, bi-colored parrot fish, pink anenome fish, gold banded furilier fish, schools of red bass, trigger fish, regal angel fish, angel fish, and so many other fish that I don’t know the name of. We saw tons of coral. All I can say to WOW.

Like I said I didn’t have an underwater camera, but the boat’s photographer did take pictures.   We only purchased the one of Nemo from him.

Mike and I didn’t get the photos of us. We didn’t feel we looked that good in tight wet suits. Really you couldn’t tell it was even us – what with the hoods and all.

I did go on the internet and copy some pictures that others have taken of Flynns Reef.   I only posted the ones I felt reminded me of what we saw.  Most of the time it was cloudy, but the sun did shine through for a short time.

This is my disclosure – “these are not my pictures, they were obtained off the internet and are only intended to give my family and friends a glimpse of what we saw”.

        

I can’t wait to dive on the reef again. Maybe we will get another chance in August.

So what is next for us?

We are flying out to the northern most part of Australian (Roko Island) tomorrow morning.  We will be working at a pearl farm for the month of June.  We have no idea what we will be doing, but what the heck, an adventure is an adventure.

In July we fly back to Cairns and take a bus about 150 miles north to help out a vet for the month of July.  They have a 4 seater plane, so Mike is psyched.  I hope we are helping with the animals.

We are taking the month of August off.  I know, I know what you are thinking – taking it off? You’re doing things like diving on the Great Barrier Reef.  Well yes we do have alot of fun, but we really do work pretty hard at these workaways.

So we are going to vacation the first part of August in Bali (only 3 hour flight from here).  We are staying in a nice beach resort for 5 nights and then spending another 3 nights in a jungle resort near the Monkey Temple.  Neither of us ever expected to go to Bali, but since we are so close we thought why not.  We have never visited an Indonesian country.

We will come back to Cairns for a few days and then head to South Africa for our safari ticking off another bucket list item.

We will be back in the United States on September 1st, after a 20+ hour multi- leg flight.  Don’t expect to hear from us for a few days afterwards because we will be recovering from jet lag.

Well, till next time…

Like I did on the reef – Take a moment, not a selfie!!!

UPDATED 07.21.19

We left Cairnes on July 1st.  Our 20 workaway was at a Pearl farm in the Torres Straights in North Australia on a small island called Roko Island. We flew from Cairns to a very small airport in Bamaga.  There are only 2 flights in/out each day.  When we arrived we were greeted by Jason, the owner of the pearl farm.  We took a short drive to the grocery store and then to the dock where we boarded Jason boat and headed to Roko Island, some 20 minutes north.

There are many islands in the part of Australia and Roko Island is small and flat. Jason and his mother Henrietta live on the island, along with Nigels the care taker, Allen the retired care taker, Andreas the fishing guide, John the workwayer we were replacing, and Heidi the boat driver.  Now Heidi and Andreas are employees and do not live on the island all the time, but Allen, Nigels, Henrietta and Jason do.

A little about the people….

Henrietta is a Chinese women raised in Tahiti and is a very good cook.  She and her husband (whom we didn’t get a chance to meet) have owned many business.  They have a home and restaurant in Tahiti and run another pearl farm in the Cook Islands.  Henrietta is staying on Roko Island to help her son Jason get the business up and going.  She takes care of the guests, cooks, prepares the accommodations, and reservations, and makes and sells beautiful jewelry out of the pearl from both farms.

Jason explained to us that the pearling industry is not so lucrative any more, so he has expanded his business to include fishing tours and they have 4 “tents” they use as guests accommodations on the island.  They still have some oysters lines in the water, but do not grow and seed the oysters anymore.  Jason is always busy on the Island, be it fishing tours, putting up solar lights, building showers, and making sure everything is up and working.  It is definitely a full time job.

To help him (beside Henrietta) there is Nigels.  What to say about Nigels.  He is a very nice and caring man who brews his own beer on the island.  Everyone who has tried it says it is the best beer they have had.  I once told Nigels I don’t like beer, and he said he does like water.  It is only good for making beer.  Now you may think he was joking, but he was not. Whenever he goes off the island he brings a portable keg he created (REALLY).  You see Nigels is a functioning alcoholic by his own admission.  He is a VERY hard working man, but always says that whatever you tell him after 2:00 p.m he will not remember (and this is true).  However, Nigels is fun loving, cooks really well and works very hard.  Check out his homemade smoker.

Since a storm took out the main jetti on the island, Nigel was busy building it back up. Nigels has lots of sayings…

  • When you tell him how good his cooking is he will say “I don’t know about that, but it will make you poo in the morning”
  • When you say you wish for something, he will say “Well you can wish for something in one hand and piss in the other, and I know which will fill first”
  • And he can always be quoted as saying “As long as your laughing” for any trying situation that might arise.

Allen has retired from the caretakers position, but has been on the island so long that Jason and Henrietta lets him live in his small house on the island undisturbed.  They do take him into town and to the doctors when needed and he comes down for a chat, some coffee, and many times has dinner with us.  A very pleasant man.

Andreas is on the island for 6 months running fishing charter for Jason.  He a nice young man who loves to be in or on the water.  He went spear fishing one day and caught this painted crayfish that ended up in one of Henrietta famous fisherman pies.

He is always ready to lend a hand.  It ends up we are going to be doing our next work away in his home tome.  He has arranged for us to meet his mom and dad and head out on a river tour with his friend.  Like I said, nice young man.

John was very friendly and showed us what he did during his 3 months on Roko Island.  He left only a few days after we arrived.

Heidi was only on the island with us for only one week so I didn’t get to know her very much, but she seemed pleasant.

There were 4 resident dogs on the island.  Partly because they like dogs, but also because the dog would bark and warn us if there were crocodiles or snakes in the area.

That’s right, remember in Australia just about everything wants to hurt or kill you. One night all the dogs were barking outside our tent.  Come to find out there was a Python coming down the tree and the dogs found it and killed it.  I made sure to thank each of the 4 dogs the next morning.

Pic of Python in garbage bin

The dogs are …

Ginger and Cashi (sisters)

Poku (Nigel’s wonderful old dog – if she could only talk)

and the very pregnant Kara, Henrietta’s dog.  She ended up having 12 puppies 2 weeks after we arrived.  The puppies were born under the staff building and were soooo cute.

    

2 weeks old…

So much for the people and dogs.

Living conditions were good.  Mike and I live in a tent outside the kitchen and staff rooms.  It was roomy enough and had two brand new mattresses, so it was comfortable.  Our main issue was when we had to get up and go to the bathroom, which was not so close.  Remember we are getting older, so many a night you could see one or the other of us doing what we called the “pee pee dance” on our hurried way to the bathroom.  LOL

 

Speaking of the bathroom, check out the shower that Jason and Nigels made.  We got to use it everyday.  It is beautiful and easy to clean.  The island is self sufficient, so that means you take quick showers (but there was hot water – BONUS), and don’t run the lights to long.

Jason lived in a small house, Henrietta lived in a small one room place near the laundry, and Nigels, Andreas, John, and Heidi lived in small rooms within the kitchen and staff building.

They guests accommodations were glamping tents (2 large roomy tents sleeping 4 to 5 people) and 2 teepee style tents (each with a queen bed).

We had 3 types of guests.

  1. Those that were on a fishing charter vacation, which means they stayed for 3 to 5nights, fished all day and had diner and sat around the fire at night.  If they caught some fish, Henrietta would cook up some fishermans pie or tempora.  We heard of a few people who were trying to figure out a way to kidnap here off the island so she could continue to cook for them in their home. LOL

 

  1. Those who just came for a few nights and enjoyed the solitude of the island and the cooking.
  2. And those who just stopped by for a quick snack and a pearl farming tour.

So what was our jobs on the island…

Mike refinished 6 chairs, a table, and 2 benches.

He mowed the field, fixed a few things for Henrietta (like clothes rack), made his famous carrot cake a lot.  You see Henrietta doesn’t like sweets that much, but she kept going back for seconds (and at one time thirds) when Mike cooked the carrot cake his cake.

We both fixed the coconut pole and knocked down coconuts before they knocked out our guests or us.

  

We did use the coconuts in cooking, including Mikes cake.  Once we got the coconut open (we were taught how in both Samoa and Roko Island), we grated out the meat using a little seat with tiny teeth on it.  This is Henrietta grating the coconut and husking the almond nuts out of their shells.  There were lots of trees on the island and we would gather almonds to let the guests try them.

I helped with the guest turnovers, cleaned the tents, shower, toilets, did the laundry, help out in the kitchen.  Some of you may even get a chance to task the famous fishermans pie and/or tempora that Henrietta showed me how to cook – or Nigle’s spinach or sausage rolls.   I collected shells from one side of the island and spread them out around the camp.  They were a nice ground covering but also a nice home for sand flies, which proceeded to feast on me for a week after that.  Hey, at least they don’t kill you.

I also helped with the small pearl gift shop and ran a few of the pearl tours.  I had read a little about oyster and pearl farming and I watched Heidi and Jason do the tour many times.  So when Heidi had to leave and Jason was out on a fishing charter I did the tour.  It only takes 15 minutes. I had to explain how the oysters are kept and cleaned in the water and how they are seeded (a delicate process done by a licensed technician to implant a small white ball, called the nuclei, into oyster to get it to produce a pearl).  I really enjoyed doing the tour.  When I opened up one oyster there was a nice pearl inside. I asked Henrietta if I could purchase it.  She said yes and I now have a nice necklace and memento. (Well ok, I bought a few mementos).

Some nasty stowaways on the oyster shells

On our time off we would..

Lay in the hammock or in our tent and read books

Collect shells

Go for a walk on the stone jetti.  The stone jetti was built a long time ago among mangroves.  They have now grown up around the jetti and it is so beautiful to take a walk along it down to the water.  There are many little living things to see here, including small crabs, shell like snails, mud puppies, and yes crocodiles( not so liitle).  We saw one croc that is 15 feet long, basking in the sun.  We all him George.

     

From the stone jetti you can see how much more of the bamboo jetti still needs to be completed.

 

Jason took us for a boat ride to a place they call the “Pointy bit”.  It is the northern most point of Australian.

 

We went to a neighboring island called Thursday Island.  Some of the doctors that work at the hospital come to relax on Roko Island and one of them (Allison) invited us to stay at her apartment. So Jason dropped us off at the dock and we caught a ferry to the Island.  It is a very small tired town with a small hospital, some government buildings, and a few hotels and restaurants.  The only employed people are the hospital staff and a few government employees.  Everyone else is unemployed (80%) and live off government subsidies.   We went to dinner with Allison one night and she told us about some of her adventures being a “rural doctor”.  These doctors go to remote indigenous island (via helicopter) a few times a month to see the sick.  It was interesting to listen to her describe how some Aborigines have never seen a white person before and don’t know what to think or if they can trust them.  Many should have seen a doctor weeks before coming so she saw some awful stuff.  But she loves her work and it showed.  We didn’t see her much but really enjoyed a room with walls to sleep in and LONG showers.  She did inspire us to return to Roko Island via helicopter so we could see the surrounding island and reef from above.  It was really beautiful.

Take a look…

      

 

Our helicoptor was not as fancy (but was less expensive) than the one the doctors use.

Andreas took me out to see the place where Captain Cook landed on the island next to Roko Island (Possession Island).  Here is a picture of the stone depicting the location…

I took pictures of the beautiful spiders around the island and an old sailing boat the had run aground many many years ago.  It looks like something from the Pirates of the Caribbean.

 

Well our time was up at Roko Island.  It was sad to leave Henrietta.  I had a lot of nice conversations with her in the kitchen where we cooked the guests meals, but we where schedule to start a new workaway in Cooktown Australia.

Till next time…

“Sometimes the road least traveled is the most rewarding”.  – just food for thought.

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UPDATED 07/30/19

We left Roko Island on June 30th and flew into Cairns.  We stayed at the Pacific hotel for the night and caught an early morning 5 hour bus ride to our next workaway in Cooktown.  It was ok, but not very scenic.  We were picked up at the hospital (because that’s where the van drops you off) by Dunkin.

Dunkin is the local vet, along with his organizer, helper, and all around take care of everything and anything wife, Kate.  Now when I say LOCAL vet, I mean he is the vet for a 250,000 square kilometer area.  That’s right, we are far away from everything.  Cooktown is a small fishing town with a few restaurants, a hospital, a vet, some hotels, one clothing store, a few op-shops(second hand stores), a small airport, and a museum. So it is not as remote as Roko Island.  We feel like we are in the “big” city  (ok little city).

Dunkin and Kate live in a pole house on the hillside.  The sunsets from their porch are stunning.

They have 3 children (Xanthe 17 yrs, Harriet 14 yrs, Montey 12 yrs) , 2 dogs (Ruffie 3 yrs and Pi 9 yrs), and 6 guinea pigs.

Ruffie loves to cuddle and sleep on you (usually in the belly rub position).  Pi was caged for most of his life till he was rescued, so he just loves to play catch and go for walks (runs).  He is so cute and has the bluest eyes.

When the family is heading out they usually bring the dogs. BUT on one occasion they were not bringing the dogs and Ruffie knew it, so he tried to stow away in the Land Rover but was busted.

Look at that face…

We stayed on bottom floor in a nice room and shared the bathroom with Xanthe.  But to be honest Xanthe was away most of the time.  She is a tutor for a young girl at a VERY remote kite resort called the Kite Safari (more on the later).

We were told when we got to the house that we should not go in the wooded area near the driveway because tarantulas live there (many of them) and to be careful of the leafy areas on the ground because Death Adders (in the top 10 of Australia’s venomous snakes) and huge nasty biting centipedes, plus other not very nice creature can be found there.  We listened to this warning and glad to say never saw any of them.  Well I did see the centipede but it was dead.

We did see this St. Andrew’s spider on one of our jobs.  It is not venous but does have a nasty bite.

You can image a few minutes later when I saw this, that I figured I was looking at another spider…

But nope, this is what it really was (I guess I was a little jumpy after almost grabbing the first one by mistake – lol)

You have to watch out for “things” everywhere you are.

I digress..

Dunkin and Kate have a very busy life as you can image, covering such a large area.  They would go to work each day and sometimes would call us up to give them a helping hand.

For example…

There was a dog that ate rat poisoning and needed a blood transfusion.  We needed to go and pick up the dog who was going to be the blood donor.

Another time we were called to go down to the clinic to help with a cesarean.  No we didn’t have anything to do with the surgery (Mike was already looking a little white).  We were there to rub down the puppies and blow in their nose till they started breathing as soon as they were removed from mom.  As it turned out there was only one puppy.  He was so tiny and cute.  Take a look…

It is a difficult job being a vet up here versus those in most other areas.  They see lots of cane toad poisoning ( dogs eat them and become sick or die), snake bites (some very venomous), and lots and lots of dog attacked by other dogs.  You see there are way too many feral dogs here.  The aborigines people don’t really know how to care for their dogs and don’t have them fixed.  Many are sick and starving, and they spend a good deal of time putting dogs down.  It is just a fact of life here.

They do run clinics trying to educate the people, like the bit prevention day outing we helped at.

They had a speaking come in to teach kids how to treat dogs so they would not get bitten.  We had roasted pig, paint the land rover (washable paint of course), and face painting.

Check this out.  Mike is face painting black dots (that what Andrew wanted) on Andrews face.

Honestly no one really was there to learn anything.  They just wanted the free food.  Kate did send Mike and I down the road to see the Wajal Wajal waterfall.  You have to get permission to see it because it is on aborigines land, but Kate had gotten the ok.  It was really beautiful…

Kate is a pilot which is very handy given the fact that they fly out to remoter areas every other week for a few days to treat the animals.  Most need to be fixed, treated for heart worm and fleas, or sadly put down.  They try to teach the people to care for the animals and there is a local animal control person (paid for by government) who tries to offer free services for smaller wounds ect.

Many nights Dunkin and Kate have to return to the clinic after hours  for pet emergencies.  They sometimes bring there work home with them (literally).  People bring in birds with no moms, wallabies and kangaroos who’s mom were hit by cars, dogs who had to stay in Dunkins care but were to lonely at the clinic, etc.  One night they brought home a cute small dog named Bear.  Bear had been attached by some wild dogs and had been treated by the animal control person.  I sat holding Bear till he woke up from the anesthesia (not administered properly – that learning issue again), but sadly he never did.  He died later that night.

So this vet and pilot are some pretty amazing Kiwi’s (that’s right – they are not Aussie’s, they are relocated Kiwis)

So what else did we do for work…

  1. We removed (more like sledge hammered) a small downstairs kitchen that they are planning on replacing.  That was fun.
  2. We broke up (more like sledge hammered) an upright piano that was left by the previous house owner and Katie has wanted it gone for 3 years.  It weighted a ton and was not worth much, so Mike and I sent it to piano heaven.

(Kate burned most of it)  

  1.  We removed (more like sledge hammered) a partial enclosed enclosure in back of house.

Is there a theme forming here? LOL  Well before you think all we did was destroy things, we also…

  1.  Let me first say, Kate saved the keys and we mounted them on the wall for her.

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  1. Finished a kitchen table that had been started by Kate and Harriet but never finished.  they had taken some old wood that was to be thrown out and glued it to the top of a round glass top outdoors table.  there were large gaps between the wood that needed to be filled in.  We filled in the gaps with epoxy, sanded it all down, and polyurethaned it.  Then I painted the green iron base black to match the black Mike had put in the epoxy.  It came out beautiful..

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  1.  I “modified” the lazy susan that was always on the table.  It was just made from plywood, so you really couldn’t just stain it, so I decided to get creative.  Now I am no artist and this will definitely attest to that.  Kate mentioned it would be funny to have chores painted on it so the kids could spin it and see which chore they were going to do that night.  They are painted like stick people because that is how the aborigines paint them.  They use lots of bright colors and dots also.  Anyway here it is…

See if you can figure out the chores I’ve painted.  Hint .. wash clothes, load dishwasher, do dishes, relax, have coffee or tea, feed dogs, cook, set table). I painted a croc, spider, frog, jellyfish, ant, snake, and shrub in the middle.  All of these (and many more) will make you sick or kill you.  LOL

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  1. We also hung up light that someone made over the table.

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  1. Organized and cleaned a pantry and book shelves
  2. Took bottles donated by community to recycling center.  They count them by hand.  We had 1730 cans and bottles.  We were there awhile.

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  1.  Organized as best we could tool and sports storage areas.  this is where we found the Grassy Hill lizard.  It is a rare lizard found only on this hill.  They were about  6 to 9 inches long and really cute.

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  1.  Power washed some of deck
  2.  Helped a few times at the clinic (as I mentioned above)

 

So what did we do for fun and adventure (besides look out for things that wanted to hurt you)

  1.  Went to grassy hill observation point.  Just above the house with nice sunsets.
  2. Dunkin, Kate, and Xanthe all kite surf, so they took us along one day.  Not to kite surf – You remember Mike right, no kite surfing for him.  This is the place that Xanthe works at tutoring.  It is a really cool and unique resort.  It started out when one of the owner (before the resort was built) was kite surfing and saw a girl drowning.  He saved her and the family offered to do something for him as a way of saying thank you.  He said he always wanted to start a kite “camp” where people could stay and kite surf.  So they gave him a piece of land and he put up a few tents.  Over the years his tents were replaced with water storage tanks converted into small bedrooms.  They are really nice and so unique.  Quests come from all over to kite surf.  You can bring your own food and cook for yourself OR be pampered with truly amazing meals each day.

The best part about the resort is it a long way from everywhere.  Dunkin drove us there in the Land Rover.  You go through streams, huge potholes, and then a 1/2 mile drive along the beach, watching out for croc and washed up sharks.  You can only go when the tide is low, so you better plan you arrival and departure time correctly.  Here are a few pics…

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Mike and Lucky hit it off.

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  1.  The kids took us to Trevathan Falls for a swim.  It is hard to get to without a 4 wheel drive (with we had), but OMG…

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  1.  One Saturday we all went to Black Rock for a swim.  They dogs were not to happy about the bath however.  Again this takes a high clearance 4 wheel drive vehicle to get here and is mostly a locals spot.

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  1.  Mike and I drove the dogs to Archer Point one day.  You drive up to a light house at the top of a hill overlooking the ocean.  It was gorgeous up there and SURPRISE you don’t need a 4 wheel drive vehicle to get there.

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It is suppose to be the windiest spot in Australia.  Take a look a this tree…

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On the way down we stopped at a small beach and watched some people kite surfing.

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  1.  We took a local scenic river cruise.  We saw 2 crocs.  One was 10 feet and the other 15 feet.

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  1.  We to several restaurants including this landmark one “The Lions Den”, one of the old pubs in the area.

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  1.  Watch grouper feeding at the local fishing wharf.  Thomas feeds them on the weekends when there is a high tide at 6:00 PM.  Tourist and locals gather to watch him feet these HUGE groupers.  Some are 6 feet long and weigh 300 lbs.  He has been feeding them for years and they know him.  they are fast though so these are the best pics I could get.

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This is Dunkin feeding them.

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  1.  Took a quick look at Dunkin and Kate’s 50 foot sailboat (the Rockhopper).  We need to get a few tools of the boat.  They sailed all over for 5 years with the kids before landing at Cooktown and settling down.  The boat is now in need of some repairs, so we could not go out for a sail.
  2.  We would walk downtown every Saturday morning to the local farmer’s market.  Good food there.
  3.  We took a ride to a small waterfall called Endeavour Falls.  This is where we saw the pink and white chicken.

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  1. Visited the Botanical Gardens.  It was a nice and quite place to walk around but didn’t have much flowers (as this is there winter).  I do love the fox tail palm tree though.

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  1.  Went for a short hike up Mount Cook.
  2.  Visited Keating’s Lagoon.  It is a bird watcher’s place to go.  I really like it because it had hundreds of lily pads.  (watch out for crocs though)

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  1.  Walked on the beach at Quarantine Bay where we saw some people just relaxing with their fishing poles.  We also found a nice swing that went out over the water (at high tide).  I could have stayed there all day on that swing.

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  1.  Kate (and Dunkin) took us up in their airplane for a short ride over the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef.  It was a hazy day but still very beautiful.  It is amazing how large the reef is.  This is not land but and underwater reef.

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  1.  Went to look for crocs at a place where some go and throw dead animals in the water for them.  The road in was rough (like a lot of roads up here).  It is a beautiful spot, but we never saw any crocs.

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  1.  One of the best things we did was go to a Wallaby Rescue place.  When we went over this bridge to get there we knew we were in for a little adventure.

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This is not open to the public but hey, Dunkin is the vet, so we where invited in.  When we go there I asked Susan if I could see the baby wallabies.  She said you can but it is feeding time, would you like to feed some.  My reply – ARE YOU KIDDING ME – YES PLEASE.

So here is Mike and I feed little baby wallabies.  Holy crap, they are sooooooooo cute.

puppy and baby wallaby stare off.

Susan also has rescued birds, like this frog mouth owl (not really an owl).  This is my favorite Australian bird

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She has pink and white chickens too.  (I found out the neighborhood kids like to put some kid of harmless dye on the chickens).

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If forgot the name of this endangered bird who is normally on the beach

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And a goose that goes nuts for sweet potatoes.

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Well our time is now up at this 21st workaway.  We had a great time and the Smiths made us feel like one of the family.  BUT now the Marions are on vacation for the entire month of August.  Whoo Hooo!!!

On July 31st we take a 45 minute flight to Cairns (nope not taking the 5 hour bus ride again).  We stay over night at the Pacific Hotel again and leave for Bali late at night on August 1st.  We will be back at the Pacific Hotel on August 10th for 4 nights and then head to Africa.

Till next time – Food for thought …

“Only dead fish go with the flow” (a quote from Squeaks – a wondering kayaker self proclaimed hobo we met at the wharf).

 

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