Billy Tea tour and Cairns

Today was our Billy Tea Tour. Sweet curmudgeaon of a guy picks us up at the Port Douglas hotel and drives us (about 10) north to the Daintree National Park area. We are dropped off at a riverside place that then takes us for a river tour to see... crocs, snakes and assorted other birds and beasts along the way. We wre then dropped off at a river crossing area and driven on into the park itself. Our guide was fantastic in showing us all kinds of things we would need to know for survival. He was a real fountain of information.






Here's a real live wild croc just sunbathing. I also saw Kites, a bird of prey that is quite common.






















Inside the rain forest. Very beautiful. Very magic. This was an area where they had cassowaries, an enormous, rather ugly bird.
also very bad tempered. They eat the fruit of a particular tree that is large like an egg and deep purple. They are the only bird that can and they spread this trees seeds around.















These are flowers of some fruit tree (didn't take notes) and a lot of the flowers in NZ and OZ are like this. Long sticks with the pollen on the end. Since this time of year was right after the rainy season had ended, a lot of trees and shrubs were beginning to flower.













This is the flower of a particular fruiting tree. The Tea tour took us up to a kangaroo farm, where we had barbeque steak (not kangaroo) and the food was fabulous! Our driver was the chef and did a great job of grilling the steaks. The tour also took us to a farm where they grew exotic fruit and made ice cream of all these fruit. YYYYUUUUUUUMMMMM!




















A beautiful view of the sea at the end of a very long day. We were then driven back to Cairns for a free day of enjoying a rather charming town.





















This is the famous lagoon they have in Cairns. This all just sidesteps the problems of trying to swim in a sea that is full of creatures that want to eat , sting or generally kill you.









The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn to have our yogurt and granola banana breakfast while watching the sun come up. We had decided to walk out to the botanical gardens on the edge of town.















The Gardens were preceded by a surprise place hidden in the forest called "The Tanks" a fantastic arts center using old WWII oil tanks, refurbished into art space with exhibition and studio space available to all payers (juried, of course)













The sculpture and design around the whole place was fantastic! I would have loved to paint the plants in a place like that. A bit prohibitive without a grant mind you.
















Great portals to the tanks with safety and ventilation in mind. The Botanical gardens themselves were exquisite.

We also visited the oldest Queenslander house that was left in Cairns.