03.02.10
Posted in travel, vacation at 12:21 pm by heidihoho7
A fun yet wet day at Tamborine National Park
So it seems that all this rain has started to add up, in many areas around Brisbane they are hitting century highs. Some areas are flooding and as we were on our way to Mt. Tamborine (a slight change of plan from Springbrook NP, our original destination, – no glow worms boo hoo) we got to see this first hand. On our way up the mountain we came up to a flooded road that looked way too strong and high for us to pass (pic above). We do a 10 point turn about (we were in a bus) take an alternate route and hear even more reports of more roads flooding (from the way we came up) so another alternate route on the way home as well.
Our guide Nev, from Bushwhacker EcoTours, jokingly tells us about leeches, snakes, and deadly spiders (among other things). We know those things are out and about but weren’t really thinking we’d be dealing with any of them. We made a total of 4 stops throughout the day and on our first one Nev mentions as we get going that we should be watching the person in front of us for leeches. We realize now that maybe he isn’t joking about that part. He wasn’t. Yes that is a leech above, a little one thankfully.
We had our first leech sighting not long after while hiking through the rain forest. Not long after that I had my first one, then Jess. We all became a bit paranoid, so while watching our step, trying to look up past our umbrellas to see the awesome view of trees, ferns and streams, we all would also be checking our legs, ankles, toes for anything moving. I had a bit of a laugh as there was a family along for the tour and there were 2 teenage girls (one in white flats, the other in ankle boots – not the hiking type) and dressed for a day at the mall not exactly a day in the rain forest. The girls, tho not overly excited about being out with the family on vacation, dealt with the leeches better than i had expected with no major freakouts (that i saw). Also on the trip was a young bloke (we were guessing maybe 20ish from england) that did not deal with the leeches well at all, he seemed all cool and hip until the first mention of a leech. He then almost jumped on top of the bus seat, but later got back his man card for a moment when he smooshed one with his flip flop. (Oh, did i mention he squealed like a girl at any mention while on the hikes and immediately did a self check) – ok we all did self checks but seriously it was awesome comparing the two groups.
We hiked to some beautiful waterfalls (Curtis Falls shown first below, then Cameron Falls, then a huge worm) and just enjoyed the misty view of the rain forest. I’m not sure if we were offiically in the cloud forest or not but it surely seemed like it when at a few times we could barely see 25′ in front you, which made driving even more fun.
Our last stop of the day was to the “SkyWalk” – a canopy walk with a cantilever lookout. Again fun views of the forest from a slightly higher perspective. (but we weren’t entirely sure it was worth the pricetag – course it was included in the tour so we didn’t think twice about it)
Overall a good day in the beautiful rain forest. We were a little bummed about not being able to go to Springbrook, but we’ll be off to Moreton Island tomorrow and we’re crossing our fingers that the record setting rain starts to abate!
To finish the night off right we decided to go for a walk and find some yummy dinner. A couple of our guidebooks had suggested a steakhouse not too far away so we decided to give it a try and see if we’d be let in (flip flops are our fanciest shoes these days). Lucky for us Cha Cha Char in an informal steak house and we were let in. Located right on the brisbane river, it has a wonderful view of the Story Bridge, and has even better food and drink. I have a new favorite cider – 3 oaks. Of course made in South Australia and probably not available at home, but boy was it yummy! We started our dinners with cornmeal rolls with a nut sauce and a gravy that was in a little cow jug. (we realized later we paid for each roll) Jess’s T-Bone and my Eye Fillet were superb (yes i ate beef!!) and the double cream mash dish came looking like 2 skinned potates. Although pricey, this was one of our best meals down under and we both decided… every now and then it’s worth it for some good cow. We finished the night with a quick stroll through part of the botanic gardens to get a glimpse of the cliffs across the river. Not wanting to push our luck any further, we made our way home thru the busy city streets.
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03.01.10
Posted in travel, vacation at 12:02 pm by heidihoho7
Leaving the north…
Our morning started out by watching the covereage of the gathering about 5,000 naked people at the Sydney Opera House. We were only 4 days late for quite a sight!! After our fill of morning tv, major humidity (as soon as we opened our porch door we’d steam up immediately), and as Cairns was about to get even hotter, we catch our flight out to Brisbane. (this time under weight and no issues!) The weather forecast didn’t look good, and it didn’t get much better once we landed. We lucked out a bit yet again for our hotel room, top floor (15th) and a view of the river!
As rain started coming down harder we broke out the umbrellas and explored a bit of the city. We found the Queen St. Mall (strips of shops along a few blocks kind of like a closed off Michigan Ave) and chose a restaurant with a 2nd floor view right in the middle of the mall, which made for awesome people watching – particularly with the umbrellas and interesting outfits. It was raining pretty hard, so we opted to come back, drink some wine, do some laundry, and watch some aussie tv (we might be addicted to Home and Away a cheesy nightly soap opera type show… hmmm hulu or netflix???).
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02.27.10
Posted in travel, vacation at 10:44 pm by heidihoho7
Mareeba Hot Air Ballooning
So once again we have an early morning wake up… by 4:45 we were on our way up to Mareeba – the Hot Air Ballooning capital of the world. We had 2 groups going up in 1 balloon. We happened to be in the 2nd group so we would watch the 1st launch, then do a balloon chase, then go up ourselves.
We arrive just before dawn and watch the first group prep to take off. The bugs were horrific and to top it off my favorite lens (my 18-200) decided that then was the perfect time to literally fall apart. In the field. So I make a vain attempt to search around for unknown parts in the dark and eventually give up. Lens unfixable, I decide today is going to be a great exercise in using my new ultra wide lens (the only olther lens i had brought that day).
So we’re off on the chase – which ends up is more like just sit in a parking lot and wait for the balloon captain to give a heads up. Wait didn’t seem long for the quick 30 minute flight and next thing we know we’re off to another field where they made a soft landing.
We hop on in and are on our way. The sun is now up over the mountains and it’s a beautiful view of the Atherton Tablelands. We floated above mostly farmlands – mango trees, corn, coffee, lychee, sugar cane…. lots of cool crops. I had fun capturing the patterns – even with the ultra wide. We even saw a bunch of “skippies” – kangaroos as we floated along. We lucked out and as we tried to land the wind changed, so up we go to look for another landing site. Up and down, up and down – we all were happily content as the wind kept changing and we got a much longer ride over beautiful countryside.
After a slightly bumpy landing we all got to help pack up the balloon. Everyone grabbed an edge or leaned in to get as much air out as possible. It was like rolling up a huge sleeping pad. Then when all of the air was out we then had to put it in a huge stuff sack. So we all got in a line, grabbed a hold and started snaking our way to the sack. It didn’t take long with a group working on it and next thing we knew we were off to breakfast with champagne.
Kuranda Cables, Rails and Cultural Fun
Our day continued with a ride up the SkyRail (one of the longest gondolas), passing by Barron Falls and eventually taking us to Kuranda Village. We enjoyed the lookouts and stuck our heads out the gondola cars to get great views.
Once in Kuranda we headed straight to RainForeStation as we wanted to do some fun aboriginal activities. It started out with some dances, which I actually went up and joined them for one! Then we joined up with Dave (his abo name means dingo and i dont know how to spell it) who taught us to (attempt) to play the Didgeridoo, throw boomerangs, and then demonstrated how to throw spears for distance and then for accuracy (for hunting). he would have gone hungry that day haha!
We stopped at the wildlife area to see our first koalas. I opted not to hug one as it felt a little wrong after seeing the poor animals stuck there – sometimes i like zoos as it allows people to see animals you don’t normally get to (like the koalas for us) but the kangs and wallabies didn’t seem so happy there 
We decided to feel better by eating some more ice cream (Dragonfruit with lime was spectacular!)
Back in Kuranda we went to check out the legendary markets. There were a decent amount but it seems most of the shops around Cairns also carried a lot of the same items, though prices did seem a little better. After a quick snack we made our way to the Scenic Railway – an open air train that winds its way back to Cairns through a bunch of tunnels and passes some beautiful waterfalls, making a stop at Barron Falls and literally passing alongside another.
We again lucked out and our original tickets had us jam packed into 1 carriage and after Barron the workers suggest we move to another carriage where it was almost empty – we said OK! And enjoyed the view with windows seats for the both of us.
We get back and decide to do another dinner out that evening. We wander until we see Ouback Jack’s (or something like that) and decide to go for it – free appetisers, why not? Well we find out why not when we realize the service is totally chaotic. We decided that once again the Aussie’s are totally helpful, but not always useful . We had at least 4 people stop by to try to take our order and help us but we had to ask for our drinks twice and it took about 15 minutes for us to get those (whereas we’d received our apps but with no plates in about 5 minutes). Apps were great, entrees were ok… again huge portions but the service made us want to just come home and pass out (we were tired from our long day). Stuffed, we passed out and made a plan to just have a veggie day…
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