Dahlia & Lance's Travels: July 2006

Fiji Islands – 14 - 22 July 2005

It is hard to believe that we are on the last leg of our trip, going from Australia to home through Fiji, where we are spending eight days. Although parts of Fiji look like the post cards, the economy of the islands is in very poor condition. Nadi City looked particularly grim. We spent most of our time in the tourist enclave of Denarau Island, about 15 minutes from the town of Nadi on the main island of Fiji. There are some 300 islands in Fiji and only a third of them inhabited.. Denarau Island is really more like a gated community of fancy resort hotels with a short bridge to the main island.

We spent seven days at a wonderful WorldMark timeshare on Denarau Island with a beautiful pool, beach and an open air restaurant done in a semi-Fijian style. The sunsets were beautiful accompanied by a group of singers serenading around the pool with traditional, very melodious Fijian songs. At sunset one of them, dressed in a grass skirt, lit the torches on the perimeter of the pool. It was very peaceful and beautiful. It was hard to believe that on the other side of the world in the Middle East war was raging on and people dying. We were able to follow the news on the Fox network.

The Denarau Island had a convenient boat terminal for access to the neighboring Islands, mainly the Mamanuca and Yasawa groups. We used the timeshare as a base and took a couple of shopping trips into Nadi were we bought food, some carved wooden masks and a cannibal fork (used by the chief to feast on his adversaries). We also took a tour of an orchid garden called the Garden of the Sleeping Giant. Generally the areas outside the tourist compound were rather depressing, however.

We enjoyed a day trip by fast catamaran to the Mana Island in the Mamanuca group. It has several resort hotels and some villages surrounded by beautiful clear blue water over a wonderful shallow coral reef. As a preview we took a glass bottomed mini-sub trip and had a great view of the reef and huge variety of fish and even a giant turtle. There were huge schools of fish coming beside the boat particularly when they were fed. In the afternoon we took a small motor boat to another part of the reef and spent 2-3 hours snorkeling at a less damaged part of the reef that extended all the way to the beach.. There were hundreds of colorful fish of all sizes and colorful corral. A real wonderland down there!!!

We spent our last night in Fiji at the “Treasure Island “(http://www.fiji-treasure.com/), where we stayed in a cute cabin, called “bure”, a modern adaptation of a Fiji native hut. It was steps from the beach, with hammocks outside and good facilities. We enjoyed two more great days of snorkeling on the reef right off the beach in front of our cabin.

At the end of a day of snorkeling and sunning, we got on a boat back to the main island and took a cab to the airport for our overnight trip back to Los Angeles.

Map of Fiji

Fiji Sunset

Beach on Treasure Island

Our Bure (Fiji Cottage) on Treasure Island

Beach on Treasure Island, Fiji

Torch Lighting Ceremony on Denarau Island

Enjoying the Tropics

View of Reef and Fish from Mini-sub Window

Minisub on Mana Island

Hut and Drums on Mana Island

Boat to Mamanuca Islands

Evening Serenade on Denarau Island

High Pressure Salesman in Nadi Tourist Shop

Another Scene at Nadi Market, Fiji

Scene in Nadi Market

Trendwest Timeshare Pool on Denarau Island, Fiji

Cairns, Australia – 7 - 13 July 2006

This week we took a three day trip about 100 km north of Cairns to the Daintree Rainforest and, after waiting for semi decent weather, a snorkeling trip to the outer Great Barrier Reef.

The Daintree Rainforest is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is a very isolated area with the oldest rain forest on the planet, having survived all the ice ages. It has incredible trees, among them all kinds of palms, ferns, and a mind boggling jumble of vines and hanging air roots that twist themselves around other trees forming fantastic thick knots and rope like features. There are also huge mangrove swamps with many varieties that go right down to white coral beaches. Little of the area has electric power or telephones. The drive to Mossman was through flowering fields of sugar cane ready for harvest. In Mossman, which lies at the edge of the Daintree National Park we took a hike through the Mossman Gorge which has some wonderful old forests with huge (!!!!) fig trees, palms and vines everywhere. The hike took us along some very pretty streams and rapids. The fig trees have huge above ground, buttress root systems that support the trees during strong winds. The ground was completely covered with roots in all directions. After our hike we drove to Daintree Village (population 90) and took a river cruise on the Daintree River where we saw a number of birds, crocodiles, and snakes in the trees, including a huge python. There were cow pastures along parts of the river and our guide pointed out the skeletons of cows that the crocs had eaten. Apparently no people have been attacked for 30 years, the last one being a woman on the dock where we got the cruise (needless to say we stayed way back from the edge of the water!). We stayed for the next two nights a small wonderful accommodation inside the rain forest about 5 km down a dirt road. One early morning Dahlia took a walk and saw a wallaby (small kangaroo) staring at her in a field nearby. Sadly he ran when he saw the camera go up. The next day we took a guided tour thorough another section of the rain forest on property owned by the guide’s family. It was a wonderful hike with only four other people and Di, our guide, was able to give a good insight into some of the trees and plants and the history of the area. She pointed out one of the first EVER flowering plant species and one of the first fern species to inhabit the world.

The next day we left Daintree Village, took a small ferry across the Daintree River and drove north to Cape Tribulation, a place where Captain Cook ran aground on the reef and had to spend several months repairing his ship the Endeavor. It is also the end of paved roads north and 4WD vehicles are required for the next 250 km to Cape York, the most northerly tip of Australia. The drive took us through the Daintree National Park, which has a number or pristine rain forest areas. We were told of the fearsome Cassowary, the world’s third largest bird (after the Ostrich and Emu). The birds are huge and very aggressive with giant claws that they use for kick boxing and can rip a person open. There are warning signs all around to tell you how to react if you see one (don’t run and hide behind a tree). They are an endangered species and there are only 1,500 Southern Cassowary left. Although we did not see one in the wild (and we looked very carefully!) we talked to many tourists who did see them. We later saw a couple at a wildlife sanctuary. We stopped along the way and took hikes on several boardwalks through, otherwise, impenetrable mangrove swamps and the interface with the rain forest and beach. It was a wonderful experience.

That afternoon we drove to Port Douglas, and spent the night on the way back to Cairns. Port Douglas is a quaint upscale resort town with great restaurants and shopping. The next morning we went to the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary in Port Douglas and had “Breakfast with the Birds”. This was essentially like a giant aviary where all the birds that posed no danger to people as well as kangaroos and wallabies are allowed to fly and roam around at will with a relatively low canopy of trees and a translucent roof. There was a huge assortment of tropical birds. While having a lovely buffet breakfast we were entertained by a variety of beautiful native birds flying over, walking around and landing on the tables (bird flu?). We finally got to see a real Cassowary (on the other side of a fence), and more koalas, crocs and kangaroos. It was a great place to visit!

After returning to Cairns with only two days left we decided to head for the reef despite far less then ideal conditions. We couldn’t bring ourselves to leave the area without seeing the outer part of this world’s greatest coral reef. There was a little bit of drizzle and pretty strong winds, but we armed our selves with sea sickness pills (Kwells), and off we went on the Silverswift a large catamaran dive boat with about 50 other people. We arrived at the outer reef, about 35 miles from Cairns, in about 90 minutes on the rough sea. Once at the reef the water was calmer and the boat stopped at three different reef locations, each for about an hour or so. About half the people were snorkelers and the rest scuba divers, we were among the snorkelers. The reef was spectacular, despite the overcast skys, with sandy patches and large coral heads with unbelievable variety of coral and gazillions of brilliantly colored fish in all sizes. There were giant clams, hard brain coral, soft coral, and coral that looked like fans. We saw a couple of small sharks, large sea slugs and some people (not us) saw a giant sea turtles. It was a fantastic experience and we captured some of it on a digital underwater camera that we rented. There was a great buffet lunch on the boat and at the end of the day we were able to wash off with fresh water from a hose and use changing rooms downstairs to change into warm clothes. When we got home we were exhausted.

Our last day here is windy and rainy so we are using to pack, update the blog and prepare for the next leg of trip to Fiji tomorrow. It is hard to believe we will be back home in little more than a week.

Map of Travels from Cairns This Week

Intrepid Explorers of the Deep

Dive Boat Silverswift

Fish Near the Dive Boat

Parrot Fish on Reef

Giant Clam on Great Barrier Reef

Nesting Storks

Cassowary (about 5' tall)

Tropical Plants in the Rain Forest

Daintree Rain Forest

Beach Near Cape Tribulation

Our Cabin in the Rainforest near Daintree Village

Flock of Ibis from River

Python on Tree on Daintree River

Croc on Bank of Daintree River

Daintree River Curise Boat at Daintree Village

Dahlia with Giant Elephant Ears

Large Fig Tree Near Mossman Gorge

Cairns, Australia 1 – 7 July, 2006

We arrived in balmy, tropical Cairns on Friday (1 July) and were met by our exchange hosts Yvonne and Bob at the airport and settled into Bob’s nice house after a little orientation. It was nice to have some summer weather in the middle of the Australian winter. Cairns is the main departure point for the Great Barrier Reef and is packed with lots of backpackers and tourists, many Japanese. Most of the action here is out of town, either on the reef, the beaches north of town or in the rain forests that surround the town up and down the coast. Cairns is built on a narrow coastal plain between the Coral Sea and a range of mountains. On Sunday our hosts took us for a tour of the Atherton Tableland, a plateau of green beautiful rolling hills, crater lakes, waterfalls and farm land beyond the mountain range. We stopped at a birthday party for a friend of our host, who was hosting a party at their newly renovated farm bed and breakfast accommodation. It was fun and interesting chatting with the locals. On Monday we took a trip to a crocodile farm and a cruise through the mangrove swamps on a nearby river where we actually saw a small crocodile in the wild. Although we did see some large crocs on the farm, it was a bit lame since it was a working farm where they breed and raise crocs mainly to make shoes and handbags. They are however not permitted to kill crocodiles that were to them from the wild, only the ones born on the farm.

On Tuesday we took our first trip to the Reef, to Green Island. The boat trip took over an hour and had over 300 people on board. When we arrived there were three other boats of around the same size there. The little island and the clear, clear blue and green water were beautiful but the place was a little crowded and much of the coral was in poor condition. By snorkeling a little further away from the beach we did see some beautifully colored fish and a fish feeding at the boat brought up some very large fish of a several varieties including a shark, parrot fish and remora. The weather was too windy to really enjoy snorkeling for very long, but the Lycia suits we rented helped take the chill out of the cool water. Next week we plan to make another reef trip to the outer reef if the wind dies down a bit.

On the 5th of July, while you all were celebrating July 4th, we took a leisurely 65 km drive north to Port Douglas which is a beautiful upscale resort town. Along the way we stopped at several beautiful beaches and overlooks. The town of Palm Cove was particularly lovely with gorgeous palm fringed beaches and nice restaurants and shops along the beach.

Yesterday (6 July), we took a narrow gauge railroad from the Cairns railroad station to the town of Kuranda. Building the railroad in the late 1800s was a huge undertaking due to the very rough steep terrain and had 1500 people working on it at times. The train had very quaint with old wooden cars and turquoise blue diesel engines with colorful Aboriginal paintings on them. The train wound its way along the very steep gorge, through 15 tunnels and by waterfalls to the lovely tropical village of Kuranda, which was an old mining town but now basically caters to tourists. We saw an interesting butterfly sanctuary and an outdoor concert in the park given by a band of mostly Aboriginal people, including a Didgeridoo player. The trip home was by Skyrail, a cable car above the thick rain forest canopy. We felt a bit like birds. There were stops available along the way so we got out and took a short stroll on a boardwalk that allows you to see some of the amazing plant life in the jungle.

We have only eight days left in Australia and we plan to stay a couple of days in the Daintree National Park to see the tropical rain forest up close and personal. If weather permits and the winds die down we hope to do more snorkeling on the reef before packing and heading to Fiji.