Epping National Forest
Road to Epping National Forest
Sunset in Queensland
Forest after the rainy season
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| Kookaburra |
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| Grey Kangaroo |
Wallaby with a calf
The peculiarity of this park surrounded by a fence is that it contains the only 150 Northern Hairy Nose Wombat remaining in the world, in danger of extinction due to the loss of habitat.
They are nocturnal and timid animals that dig holes in the ground and look like a hippopotamus the size of a dog.
At 9 o’clock in the morning it is already quite hot and the kangaroos look for a shade to spend the day until the temperatures ease, around 16 o’clock. The rangers and volunteers take the opportunity to take a break or a “Smoko”, how people of the area says.
Then they see what animal tracks have been etched on the dirt road and sweep it to record tracks the next day, retrieve data from the cameras and spray the “buffalo grass”, very good for having fat cows, but it seems that it overgrows wombats’ heads.
At night, after a hot and dusty day, we drink some cool beers surrounded by “mossies” that want to bite you all the time. People have very long conversations, here people are not in a hurry, and one of the rangers takes the opportunity grill kangaroo (which he bought at the supermarket).
Some Australians say that they do not want to eat kangaroo as they say that it is their national animal and that eating kangaroo is for tourists. Others say that kangaroo meat is the healthiest, since it is low in fat and also cheap.
Rangers and volunteers eating in the evening
Safari a la australiana
Bettong
A visit to Townsville and Innisfail
Joan checking the depth of a puddle
Sting Enclosure in Townsville
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| Banana workers in a working holidays visa, from Taiwan and Japan |
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| Josephine Falls, close to Innisfail |
cockatoos
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| Coast from Broken Nose |
Travel to Cape Tribulation and the Barrier Reef in Cairns
I hitchhike up to Cape Tribulation, north of Cairns. The first to take me, Brandon and Shane, are very proud to be Australians, they say that life here is “cruisy” and not busy like life in Europe.
Then I’m lucky and I get a raid with Jane, from Daintree, and she tells me that she has space for me in her house, where an Australian couple also works who are cycling around the country and working doing helpx a few months on the farm.
The pact is that I wash the dishes, in exchange for bed, dinner and a tour of the farm of “taro”, the “potato” of Samoa and lakes with “Barramundi”, an Australian river fish. Pretty good deal! Crossing the river to get to the farm is quite an adventure, trying to see some freshwater or saltwater crocodiles!
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| Brandon and Shane, proud of their country |
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| Crossing Daintree river with Jane |
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| Good dinner and company in exchange for doing the dishes |
In Australia one must watch where to bathe!
The next day, with a full belly, and after a day hitchhiking in the rain, Yep Yep Yep finally reaches Cape Tribulation.
The Cape is named after Captain Cook, who sailed along this coast in 1770, we can see his unmistakable style of naming places (Doubtful Sound in New Zealand, for example).
The jungle is fantastic, it gives off a sweet smell and has plants with giant leaves, coconuts, ferns … The pity is that this year the rainy and cyclone season (January-March) has lengthened a bit and the visit is quite wet, but it is a place with many possibilities: an excursion to Mount Sorrow or a swim in the Emmagen Swimming Hole.
Forest at Cape Tribulation
The final stop in Queensland is Cairns, a small and very touristy town. On one hand, it is fantastic to see people bathing in the lagoon and children playing with the water fountains and people in the street, making barbecues on the seafront.
On the other hand, it is full of young people who just want to party and aborigines who walk around the street under the influence of different drugs. It seems that in Aboriginal communities alcohol is prohibited, and they are thrown out and come to the city to drink.
Cairns
Bath en Cairns
Great Barrier Reef
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