28 Jul, 2010
Honeymoon, Part 2: Kewarra Beach
Posted by: Abby In: Food and Drink|Outdoors|Traveling|Wildlife
After some time in the city, we headed north to Cairns. We noticed right off the bat that people were much friendlier, which is probably true in any part of the world, when you compare country people and city people. To me, lots of things about this part of Australia were different, yet the same. For example, on the way to the resort, our driver pointed out a field of wallabies, coming out to graze just like a herd of deer would at home. The lush, tropical rainforests felt just like the beautiful forests I grew up around, if slightly more exotic.
Even though some things felt familiar, we had many adventures in Cairns.
These 5 were my favorite parts:
Kewarra Beach Resort. This resort is in a rainforest, on the beach. Enough said.
Mossman Gorge. One day, we rented a car (and Josh quickly adjusted to driving our cute little rental car on the left side of the road, a task I could never be trusted with!) and drove up the coast to Port Douglas, then west to Mossman Gorge.
Here is little excerpt from my journal describing the gorge.
“Everywhere, all the time, the sound of water and birds. Massive trees fan out like folders at their base, and thick roots lay huge and heavy as far into the landscape as you can see. It’s hard to make out what is vine, tree, plant, or animal. Everything just grows together in a wild tangle.”
Koala Gardens (by way of the Skyrail to Kuranda).
This is where things get unbearably cute. The Koalas at the Targonga zoo were sleeping in trees so far away, they were kind of hard to see. The koalas at Koala Gardens however, were so close you could touch them. And although they were very, very sleepy,
…they would occasionally wake up to check out their visitors
and then yawn, or scratch their behinds, and go back to sleep.
The ambitious Koala would even oblige to be held for a few moments by adoring fans.
Koala gardens had more than Koalas, and we also enjoyed hanging out with the roos and wallabies.
Low tide. On the way back from our road trip, we pulled off to explore a huge expanse of rippled sand.
We found soldier crabs, hermit crabs and thousands of starfish.
If you look closely, you can see the star imprints in the sand. They were all over, under our feet.
It was pretty amazing.
Sitting on the beach. After Sydney’s chilling weather, it was great to be somewhere with warmer temperatures. Although we stayed quite busy, it was great to spend some time relaxing on the beach.
