Preparing to Leave for Western Australia

Our Blue Sky Caravan at Alice Springs

When we sold our house in March, we planned to remain at Alice Springs until July so we could help daughter Meredith finish some beautification projects around her house. 

The additional three months also ensures that the Top End of Australia will have a much more pleasant climate than it would have at other times of the year.

All the good advice we have is that you do Western Australia in an anti-clockwise direction. This ensures that when you travel the long, gruelling distance across the Nullabor Plain, the wind is a tail wind and not a head wind. Head winds cause a greater fuel burn than a tail wind (of course), so it’s a better way to do it. More cost effective.

If we spend six months in Western Australia, it will also mean that as we travel south, summer will be approaching and summer in the south is more gentle than summer in the north. Make sense?

By the time we travel north to Alice Springs from South Australia, we will be acclimatised to the summer heat.

Apart from getting Meredith’s retaining walls, new shed and other tasks done, we are equipping our Toyota Prado with a UHF radio (to be fitted next week) and some larger capacity spot/flood lights. The car will be serviced before we go and probably get fitted with two new batteries – nothing worse than having a battery die 20 km outside some remote township and both batteries are nearing their failure dates.

Then there’s the caravan. We need to give it an off-the-power-grid test to ensure our gas appliances (fridge, water heater and cooker) work and that the solar-powered water pump and lighting work also. We don’t expect any problems here, but prior preparation prevents poor performance.

Finally, we need to trim the loading of the caravan as much as possible to keep weight within legal parameters. 

 

In the near future we’ll develop a loosely designed travel itinerary and post it online.

Robin

PS: We are beginning to get excited about our trip as the time draws closer

Circumnavigating Australia and New Zealand

Christina and I are at Rosebud, Victoria at the bottom of Australia. We're spending a week at the Nepean Country Club but on Friday will be returning to the Bellerine Country Club to spend a few days with friends Michael and Gayle before heading off to Sydney and a cruise around Australia and New Zealand.

The Bellerine Country Club is an up-market over 55s/retirement village adjoined a golf course. There are numerous occupied houses and additional houses are being added weekly.

How did we happen to be here? Well, originally we were travelling to Nuriootpa in South Australia to check out The Vines Retirement Village but daughter Meredith had to attend a medical appointment at Adelaide and grandson Tory was on school holidays and it all just happened.

Meredith and Tory accompanied us to Adelaide and Meredith wanted to visit friends in Melbourne, so we finished up extending our trip. Meredith and Tory flew back to Alice Springs leaving Christina and I to carry on with the rest of our holiday.

A day before driving out from The Alice, we received a very good offer to join the cruise going round Australia and New Zealand and as our friends Michael and Gayle were on the cruise, decided to sign up.

We are looking forward to the cruise, which will be our third with Princess Cruises.

I'll keep you posted about the cruise as internet availability and motivation allow.

Robin

The Problem with Evolution

The main problem with evolution is that people don't understand it. At most, many people know what evolution means ie, the dictionary definition, but they don't study it sufficiently to grasp how it works.

This leads to people making silly claims like, "if we evolved from apes, how come apes are still here?" Anyone who has studied evolutionary biology knows that at one point in evolutionary history, humankind branched from apes becoming a separate species.

My grandson, who is 13, and I have been having some interesting discussions about ethics, religion, evolution and other topics. He's doing ethics and religion at school, but not evolution because it goes against the school's religious teachings. I'm filling in the gaps.

In so doing, I'm taking as much care as I can to not impose my views upon him, but to give him sufficient knowledge to critically analyse what he hears at school, elsewhere and from me and to decide what he believes.

During our discussions about evolution I showed him Richard Dawkins excellent title, "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution." It's a bit advanced for him to read yet, but it has some excellent diagrams about design failures in animals and humans.

For example, both the vas deferens of human males and the vaso vagal nerve of giraffes has been stretched awkwardly in a manner that would not have been done by an intelligent designer. The former was stretched when testes, which were once internal organs, descended from the body. The giraffe's nerve stretched as the length of giraffe's necks increased.

One was done to ensure fertility and the other to ensure food in tall trees could be accessed. Both survival strategies.

Next, we spoke about the large number of human births that don't go as well as they should. With a grandmother who is a midwife, information about the imperfection of the birthing process is easy to get. Maybe if the birthing process had been designed by someone smart enough, it would work much better than it does. He understood my logic.

Finally, I tried to explain to him the concept of irreducible complexity but, I'm not sure he grasped it fully.

We touched on the fact that birds evolved from lizards and that the evolutionary progress can be seen both in the fossil record and in some reptiles that are still present. We've left that for another day.

I love my grandson very much and enjoy our in-depth discussions about such often discussed matters. If I can get him to think rationally about life, the universe and everything associated with it, I will be forever happy. There are too many people who believe things that are irrational and that can't withstand intelligent scrutiny.

If you are still confused by evolutionary biology, I highly recommend Dawkins' text because it is easy to understand and gives a sound coverage of very complex topics.

Robin

Specially for Tina Miranda on MY Birthday

My birthday card

When you are as old as me you try to forget your birthdays.  After all, how many does one really need?

On 12 April I arose at 6:30 am and headed off for my Sunday morning golf game with buddy Darrell.

By the time I arrived home, I found that my wife had arranged a family barbecue for that evening and I had to contribute to the preparations.

Still suffering from that deep depression that golfers often get when they finally realise they are no Tiger Woods or Adam Scott, I had to energise myself and sweep our outdoors, covered area and otherwise prepare for our feast. On my birthday no less.

So much for letting your birthday slip by without anyone noticing. I don't need a celebration, I've had 68 anniversaries of my birthday already and every day I wake up happy that I'm still here and that everything still works. Well most of it anyway! That's celebration enough.

Then I received a message from Tina Miranda, the heart, soul and hub of the Miranda family. Tina wanted to know when she could expect to see my birthday post on this blog. Can you believe that?

Well, although nobody bothered to take any photos of our barbecue, or in fact any photos period, I thought I had better keep my good friend Tina happy. So here is a shot of one of two lovely, high tech shirts Christina bought me. (Note the Alice Springs Golf Club logo. Before you play golf, you've got to look like a golfer, right?)

Daughter Meredith and grandson Tory bought me a pair of Mr Marvel under pants (no, I'm not showing them here) and a box of Callaway golf balls (as if I lose that many).

Son Dale bought me a massive Toblerone chocolate and others bought bottles of wine,

My daughter in law, Yen bought a lovely chocolate cake from Wendys which was a good end to a lovely dinner with a variety of meats and salads and a few boiled potatoes.

I'd already shouted myself a carton of Asahi Japanese beer and managed to drink one bottle of that and perhaps two glasses of sangria for the evening. Hardly a wild night, but at my age, six bottles of beer and half a bottle of red wine is a big evening.

So, Tina, if you are reading this, because of you I had to write this almost meaningless post when I really had no intention of doing so.

Robin

PS: Thanks for thinking of me Tina ... love you and yours

From Brisbane to Sydney By Rail

When I studied Modern History at evening school many decades ago, my text book was intelligently titled, "From Frankfurt to Fra Mauro", the period of history which was then considered "modern".

On commencing classes, I had no idea what had happened in Frankfurt and to be honest, I've since forgotten, but I knew from watching Armstrong take humankind's first step on the lunar surface what had happened in the Fra Mauro Highlands of the moon. (Congratulations once again Neil.)

By comparison, the trip from Brisbane to Port Macquarie was completely mundane and it's probably a ridiculous comparison to make. However, in the mundane lives we ordinary people lead, it is often possible to make insignificant events significant by comparing them with other events. So, if you are still with me, here goes.

Experienced people like my wife and me get a serious discount on railways ... purely because we are experienced. Some refer to it as being "seniors", but I prefer the experience angle. We purchased our tickets for about half price and chose the First Class option rather than cattle class as we didn't want to bump shoulders with lesser beings and more importantly, there is more room to stretch one's weary legs.

Our friends Jeffrey and Sue dropped us off at the Brisbane Central Railway Station at some ungodly hour ... It was still dark for goodness sake. But we managed to wend our way through the cafeteria to the little shed on the platform where a lovely lady weighed our baggage and told us they were overweight because railways staff cannot handle anything heavier than 20 kg (poor bastards).

As a midwife, Christina handles birthing mothers that are akin to small whales, well over 20 kg. No wonder she has "nurses back". Does she whimp out? Never.

Anyway, we two "experienced" people whose arteries are probably partially clogged, whose joints ache with arthritis and who lie awake at night listening to the disorder of our veins, lugged our baggage onto the train with relative ease. We then sat in our comfortable seats and waited to depart.

Although nothing can compare with the efficiency and effectiveness of the German Railway system, the New South Wales Railways Xpress did depart right on time. The carriages were clean and comfortably furnished.

We glided our way south through the suburbs of Brisbane towards the Gold Coast and shortly after through the northern region of New South Wales. Daylight arose soon after our departure from Brisbane and we noticed that all the countryside was beautifully green and spread with grass and trees. Recent rains had obviously had an impact.

As the train headed towards our destination, we were able to visit the buffet car to buy a cup of coffee and some croissants for breakfast.

There were surprisingly few people in our carriage and I expect the rest of the train, which meant we could stretch out into other seats and noise was minimal.

When we arrived at Wauchope near Port Macquarie friend Caroline met us and drove us to our timeshare property, the Vacation Village.

As we unpacked our gear and prepared for the week ahead at Port Macquarie, we discussed how pleasant the train journey had been and contemplated the next leg to follow from Port Macquarie to Sydney at the end of the week.

Robin

PS: "Seniors" can buy $2.50 combined rail, train and ferry tickets for use anywhere within the greater Sydney Metropolitan area and close surrounds. We spent a couple of days travelling on the train visiting Kiama to the south of Sydney and Katoomba to the west. Not a bad deal.

The Making of Australians

On Australia Day I was delighted to attend my second Citizenship Ceremony where immigrants to Australia become Australian citizens.

The first was at Tennant Creek in the early 60s when two of my work mates became Australian citizens. Both were from Europe; Austria, I think and it was simply a matter of attending the Tennant Creek Court House where the Clerk of the Court handed each a Certificate of Naturalisation, welcomed them to our mob and shook their hands.

It was a low key affair that took 10 minutes; no speeches, no celebratory drinks or any fanfare, although I do recall the two who were naturalised and a large number of their friends did migrate to the Tennant Creek Memorial Club where they drank and made merry until the early hours of the morning.

Australia Day 2015 was a much nicer affair. Fifty-three people accepted the gift of Australian Citizenship and all that entails. Among them were friends of our family, Vivek and Tina and their two children Shaun and Reanne whom you can see in the photo above. 

The family is of Indian origin from Mumbai, however, they lived for many years in Kuwait before immigrating to Australia.

At the ceremony, which was planned, organised and executed by the Kenmore Rotary Club, a welcoming speech was given by a local government member, new citizens read one of two pledges, the first for those who believe in God and the second a secular pledge with almost identical wording. 

Our newest citizens were then called to the stage where they were handed their Certificates of Citizenship, congratulated and photographed with the Australian, Queensland and City of Brisbane flags in the background.

Our friend Tina presented an excellent speech of thanks on behalf of the new Australians that elicited a warm and loud round of applause from the crowd of a hundred or more people.

A female singer sang the Australian Song, the chorus of which is “I am, you are, we are Australian” and of course at one stage we sang our beautiful National Anthem, Advance Australia Fair.

Both new and old Australians were invited to recite a general pledge of elegiance to Australia which we did enthusiastically.

Light refreshments followed as people milled about having additional photographs taken, congratulating our newest citizens and enjoying the special moment in the lives of those for whom the ceremony was held.

While I don’t know any of the other 49 people whose citizenship was confirmed, I believe my friends are an example of the kind of immigrants Australia needs and can benefit from. They work, pay taxes, comply with Australian laws and support our values which are very similar to those of India. It’s certainly a matter of India’s loss and our gain, however, India with its larger population probably hardly notices they aren’t there.

Numbers of Australians, even some who were immigrants from Italy and Greece or the rest of Europe post-WWII are against immigration and would like to see it stopped. Most of us realise the benefits that come from increasing our population with intelligent, educated, hard-working people who share our values and principles.

It’s probably true to say that Australia needs immigrants more than the immigrants need Australia.

We were only 26 days into our new year and already this was a great start to what we hope will be a wonderful year ... The Making of Australians.

Robin

Delights of New Year's Roast

Over the Christmas/New Year period Christina and I decided to keep our food and cooking to the bare minimum so we wouldn't do what we usually do and find ourselves with a lot of left-overs after the festivities.

In past years we've had left-overs lost in the dark depths of our refrigerator and too many eventually end up in the bin. We hate wasting food, water or anything else for that matter.

Did that work? Almost.

We did manage to keep our left-overs to a minimum, but then on New Year's Day, I cooked a rather large part leg of salted pork.

It was much larger than we wanted, but it was all we could get at Woolworths, so Chris bought it and I put it on the BBQ for a couple of hours and the above is the result. It was absolutely delicious.

Only yesterday we sliced off the little bit of pork left on the bone and have frozen it to eat at a later date. Christina put the bone into a pressure cooker and knocked up a brew of soup with chick peas, onions, carrots and a few other vegetables.

Why have I posted this? Not to make you hungry, but to tell you that contrary to what Christina says, I DO COOK sometimes.

Hope your New Year is progressing well as is ours.

Robin

Happy New Year 2015

Wishing you a year that brings you prosperity, peace, love, health, and happiness.

Robin and Christina
and family

Our Christmas Day 2014

We almost always have our Christmas Day activities at home. On one occasion years ago we went to the Crown Plaza Hotel for Christmas lunch, but it's usually at our house.

Unfortunately, having Christmas at home means that Christina does most of the food preparation. I clean the covered area outside the family room and kitchen and do most of the dish washing. But, it's still a lot of work getting ready and Christina has vowed that next year for Christmas we will be on a cruise somewhere. I agreed ... I think that's a great idea.

We'll sit back like Sir and Lady Muck and have someone else do all the work. After eating, drinking and conversing with our fellow travellers, we'll be able to totter off to bed and leave someone else to do the cleaning up. Wonderful idea ... gets my vote!

Now, I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to Christmas 2014.

Christina had to work from 2 pm Christmas Day, so we modified our Christmas arrangements to suit. We arranged a "brunch", you know, the lunch you have between the normal times for breakfast and lunch, about 9:30-10:00 am. Christina and daughter Meredith knocked up a couple of plates of waffles and pancakes which everyone tucked into with syrup, jam and other condiments of which there was quite a variety.

Our whole family consisting of Christina, me, son Dale and his wife Yen (pronounced Ian), daughter Meredith and grandson Tory was present. Our friend Pam who was on her own for this Christmas also joined us.

This time of year in Central Australia is usually hot and dry. Thanks to Mother Nature, we had had a couple of days of rain beforehand and it was lovely and cool, maxing out at about 24 degrees Celsius. How good's that?

We sat, ate and chatted until about 11 am and then called it a day.

Before Pam arrived we had opened our presents which you can see in the photo above. Everyone got something they wanted and perhaps a few other things they could have done without. I'd hinted earlier that I wanted to try bourbon and lo and behold, I received a bottle of Wild Turkey American Honey bourbon from my daughter.

Earlier in the year I had visited a Dan Murphys Liquor Barn and picked up a free booklet about whiskies and how to drink them. Although I have always been a beer and red wine man, I decided it would be nice at my late stage of life to give whisky a go. Bourbon, the book said was the nicest to drink.

Although I don't usually drink alcohol during the day, (well, never before lunch) I just had to try a drop, so I got a small port glass out of the glass cabinet and did a taste test. Absolutely lovely stuff. The taste just rolls off one's tongue.

It's pretty potent stuff, so I still have to experiment with how to drink it. That is, will I sip it straight like a port or sherry, or place 30 ml in a glass and add a bit of water. Watering it down seems like such a waste. More research is needed.

Christina toddled off to work at the Midwifery Unit of the Alice Springs Hospital, Meredith, Tory and Pam went home and Dale and Yen went to visit Yen's auntie and grandmother and family. I spent the rest of the afternoon alone.

I did a little surfing on the laptop, watched the local news on the television and had a half hour snooze. Sometimes it's nice to be alone to do your own thing ... or not do it as the case might be. In the evening I watched a couple of editions of Covert Affairs with the lovely Piper Perado.

Today is Boxing Day. Christina is not working today, so we are having our roast pork and vegetables for lunch and have invited a few friends over. It promises to be another lovely day too, with unusually low temperatures and a coolish breeze coming through the house.

If this is climate change, give me more.

Robin

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate Christmas. I hope you have a pleasant, safe and relaxing Christmas with your loved ones and friends.

Robin

Paronella Park - One Man's Dream Come True

Entry to Paronella Park

South of Innisfail along the Canecutter Way and a few hundred metres north of Mena Creek is the delightful Paronella Park. 

Not just any park, Paronella is named after it's creator, Jose Paronella, a Spaniard who immigrated to Innisfail in 1913. In the years after his arrival, he became wealthy enough to build his own dream park. Complete with tennis courts, a dance hall, his castle, bridges, tunnels, a variety of trees and plants, capped off with a hydro-electric generating plant that beavered away under his Mena Creek Falls. And it still provides electricity for the park today.

Christina and the Kauri

Paronella was not only a visionary, but he worked tirelessly for years building his dream, mostly with his bare hands.  Today, unfortunately, most of the buildings have deteriorated, but the many trees, including a lovely walkway of kauri, stand strong and provide a testament to his vision.

We had been to Petronella Park years ago, but decided to visit again while in the area. To our surprise, the owners, Mark and Judy Evans provide free overnight caravan and camping accommodation for those who pay an entrance fee, which we did.

Lake from bridge

Everyone who pays the entrance fee also gets a free entry card valid for two years, handy for people living locally who wish to revisit for an invigorating weekend walk, or to show their visitors the sights.

Suspension bridge

If you love nature, you'll love Paronella Park. We did a night tour with a lovely lady who showed us some of the best views during a 45 minute tour. In the morning we moved our caravan to a parking spot at nearby Mena Creek and walked back over a suspension bridge that joins a very pleasant public park on the south side of Mena Creek with Paronella.  We walked for several hours the following day taking in the waterfalls, buildings, Kauri Avenue (see photo), Teresa Falls and Mena Creek Falls, Jose's tunnel, the forest trail and bamboo walks, and finished it off with a nice cup of coffee at the deck inside the entrance.

In the creek we saw numerous turtles and dozens of fish and eels, many of which came to the waters edge at feeding time to fight for their share of the spoils. The eels are large and there were at least three varieties of fish, although I can't recall what types.

We even saw a few common scrub turkeys.

Paronella Park was a stopover worth making and a great opportunity to get some of our daily steps in while communing with nature and Jose's dream. If you are in the area and have a day to spare, you really must visit Paronella Park.

Robin

Relaxing at Hydeaway Bay

Our car, caravan and McAllisters house overlooking Hydeaway Bay

Ever thought you needed to hide away? I know just the place and it's aptly named ... Hydeaway Bay.

Hydeaway Bay is 60 km north west of Airlie Beach which is a more well-known tourism hub. Proserpine and Bowen are also nearby if you need to get a mental picture of the location (and you know something of Queensland, Australia).

If you know nothing of Queensland or Australia, all you really need to know is that it is a location of incredible beauty with seaside views, beautiful blue water as far as the eye can see to the east, and hardly any people. Quiet, quiet, quiet.

We are fortunate enough to know Sue and Warwick McAllister who have lived here for years and who invited us to stop over for a few days. Well, we've been here a week and unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for Sue and Warwick), we leave tomorrow and head for Mackay a but further south.

Hydeaway Bay was apparently named after someone called Hyde, thus the spelling, however, I understand that both Hideaway and Hydeaway are used. Confused? Well, it's probably a war of words between government and the people who live here. 

Who cares how it's spelled? It's still a beautiful spot isolated from the frenetic hum of city life. And the small township has around 300 people, many of whom only appear during holiday season and summer. There are no shops here and you need to drive to Canonvale, Airlie Beach or elsewhere for supplies or services.

Many of the houses are built on sloping sites and set so as to view the bay and surrounding countryside. A large number of houses is for sale which is a mystery, but it could indicate that the owners are aging and need to live closer to services. 

Whatever, Hydeaway Bay is a delightful place and a much appreciated stop over on our trek through Queensland.

While here, we've managed some kayaking, revisited Airlie Beach and hung about doing nothing. How good is that?

Robin

Town Councils that go the Extra Mile

The author's car and caravan at front

Like any organisation, town and city councils are only as good as the people who work there and members of the public who contribute. Burdekin Shire Council obviously has staff who dreamed up a unique idea that appealed to us and dozens of other grey nomad travellers and was probably done with a view to helping local shopkeepers, publicans etc increase their sales.

Caravans as far as the eye can see

You see, caravanners like to free camp occasionally. That is, instead of paying $30-$45 or more per night to stay in a caravan park, we like to pull up somewhere near a toilet block where we can stay for one or two nights at no cost. Across the country there are probably thousands of such places, but I haven't seen one as well planned as that at Home Hill, Queensland.

Home Hill's main street is on the Bruce Highway, the main highway servicing Queensland between Brisbane and Cairns and perhaps farther north. Running parallel with the Bruce Highway, two streets west is a long, wide, nicely bitumenised road along which the council encourages travellers to park and stay for up to two nights. The encouragement comes in the shape of a well designed, attractive, comfort stop building with toilets, showers, a free electric barbecue and tables and bench seats. It's all very well done and immaculately clean and maintained.

Caravans and RVs line half the street

The only undesirable feature is that a railway line also runs parallel with the free camping street and while we were there, a few trains rumbled by late at night, making a great noise ... one with sparks flying out from the wheels, which was entertaining. However, when you sleep at free camp spots they are often near main roads and other places where there is traffic, so you become accustomed to not taking much notice. You can't really complain when it's free eh?

We contributed to the town shopkeepers' wealth by having a couple of beers at an hotel and buying some groceries from the local supermarket. No doubt the dozens of other free campers would also have contributed to some extent buying fuel or other goods.

The Burdekin Shire Council is to be congratulated for having the initiative to dream up such a scheme that helps thousands of travellers per year and also brings sales for local shopkeepers. I've emailed them to congratulate them on such an innovative and excellent effort.

Many other town councils should follow this example, perhaps even the Alice Springs Town Council, where I live.

Robin

Barron Falls, Kuranda and the Scenic Railway

Far North Queensland, as the locals call it, is a tourist magnet with dozens of beautiful, sunny places to visit. One of the most popular is Kuranda in the Barron Falls National Park which I believe is on the tail end of the Great Dividing Range. (I stand corrected).

Kuranda is accessible by road, but many tourists prefer to use the Scenic Railway and Skyway, the latter of which provides a gondola trip through the top of the rain forest. Tickets provide for a return trip using both media either up or down ie, take the Skyway up to Kuranda and return via Kuranda Scenic Railway or vice versa.

Barron Falls

Preying Mantis Statue

Enroute to Kuranda is the Barron Falls which at the time of year we visited (late Winter) was down to a trickle, but still looked outstanding. Barron Falls has a railway station to which one can walk via a well designed and constructed walkway with several lookouts into the falls and local rain forest. Along parts of the walkway are bronze statues of some of the wildlife found in the national park.

Train Entering Station

When the scenic train winds its way to Barron Falls station, people properly situated can see both the train engine and the tail end carriages. Always a novelty.

Kuranda is a smaller township with a moderately "Hippy" marketplace built into the side of a hill on several benches. Shops sell the usual multi-coloured clothing, cheap jewellery, ice cream, other foodstuffs and from memory, I think you can have your chakra balanced, get a Thai massage or have your palms read if you are so inclined. The people at the market, and indeed, all over Kuranda are friendly and accommodating.

In the town itself is a police station (it must be the most comfortable posting in Queensland, if not the prettiest) and numerous shops selling clothing, pharmaceutical supplies, various massage therapies, and art and trinkets to tourists. There are only so many fridge magnets, caps or pens you can have in one lifetime, so we never bought any of the branded tourist wares.

We'd been on the scenic railroad and skyway previously, so this trip decided to drive up and back and take in some of the sites not usually seen from either of the previous eg, those from the walk to Barron Falls. The walk is pleasant and not too demanding and as with many of these type public facilities, seems to have been designed to include people in wheel chairs or who can not traverse stairs.

There's nothing much at the Barron Falls railway station but a few bench seats. At the time we were there the downwards train just happened to pass, so I managed to get a few photographs of it before we headed back to Kuranda along the return walkway.

The trips and visit to Kuranda are well worth doing if at any time you are visiting nearby Cairns.

Robin

The Amazing Daintree Discovery Centre

Christina outside the Daintree Discovery Centre

 As a young boy living at Tennant Creek in Central Australia, I was an habitual and invariable fossil collector. Most of the fossils I found were those of trilobites, one of the earliest creatures that had lived in the oceans 600 million years ago. It always enthralled me to know that at age 11 I was holding the fossilised image of something that had lived so much longer ago than I could imagine. And there were thousands of them spread from one end of the outback to the other, many fragmented, others whole.

Christina on the aerial walk

When I visited the Daintree Discovery Centre, I was astonished to know that the rain forest is estimated at 110 million years old, 40 million years older than the Amazon. Trees I touched and photographed had ancestors that evolved all that long ago - before we animals arrived - and lived inordinately long lives before dying, degrading and eventually returning to Mother Earth as is the destiny of all living things.

The Daintree Discovery Centre is a privately owned business that consists of a coffee, food and souvenirs shop with a ticket-selling desk included. It's just a short distance from parking near the main road.  After you buy your entrance ticket, you walk onto an above ground footway (the Daintree  Aerial Walk) that leads to a large interpretive centre and a huge Canopy Tower with several platforms on which you can sit and soak your senses in the peace, tranquillity and greenness of the forest

Tickets, even without a senior's concession are reasonably priced and come with a nicely produced A5 booklet with extensive information about the forest, it's trees, plants and vines, animal life including birds and the elusive cassowary. It has a special section with photos and explanatory text about those fruits, roots etc that the first Australians used before Caucasian, Asian and other African settlers arrived.

The ticket cost includes use of an audio device to listen to descriptions of the different aspects of the forest as you wander around. Each point of interest is numbered and you simply press the number on the audio device and hold it near your ear for the description. The devices have six or seven different language options.

Just the forest

There were far more tourists than birds and hardly any other animal life at all excluding two small skink lizards that scurried across the pathway in front us. Many of the forest inhabitants are, of course, nocturnal and hide during the day, but the absence of birds was disappointing . The most obvious creatures we spotted were butterflies while we were at the top of the tower in the canopy where they can find sunlight. They flitted about but didn't sit long enough to identify their type or to get a decent photo of them.

The Daintree Discovery Centre is only 20-30 km from the Pinnacle Village Caravan Park, Wonga Beach where we stayed. The drive through rain forest is very pleasant and one needs to take a short ferry ride across the Daintree River that costs $13 AUD each way. We returned late afternoon. I don't know about you, but I can only take in so much awe inspiring beauty in a day, so I was pleased to return to the Pinnacles to shower, have dinner and take it easy for the rest of the evening.

The Daintree Discovery Centre, Aerial Walk and Canopy Tower should have a place on everyone's Bucket List. I've added it to mine and ticked it off.

Robin