Cuddly Cairns

So we find ourselves back near the equator, in tropical jungle, with all the humidity and heat, the rain and the baking sunshine. Its three hours of flying from Sydney to Cairns, though they’re both on the east coast, which goes some way to show just how big the country, nay the continent, of Australia is.

Sydney was excellent all round. After our rapturous first day, we threw ourselves into this bustling city – a REAL city we felt. It’s got all the hustle, smells, the bad and the good of any of the great cities of the world, and we felt it was right up there with San Francisco, New York and London. We were lucky enough to be there during Chinese New Year – may I take the opportunity to wish you a prosperous, happy and healthy Year of the Pig. The city was even more lively than usual, I imagine, with Chinatown buzzing, dragon boat racing and dragons adorning Darling Harbour. The streets were full, the place had such a nice vibe, and its perfect for kids. We had to go out to Bondi Beach of course, it being one of the world’s most famous. Now, don’t get me wrong, it does have beautiful coral white sand and huge breakers, but it aint our idea of idyllic, with too many bodies and too many restrictions on what you can and can’t do (its California all over again!) Still, the weather was kind all the way through our 5 whirlwind days there, only raining at night, with beautiful hot and sunny days. It was also an excellent centre for getting all those boring admin things done, like Mongolia visa arrangements and Hepatitis B boosters.

Cairns is an incredible contrast to the great metropolis. Surrounded by jungly hills, it is the epitome of a tropical destination, but without the malaria. We decided, on seeing the unpredictable weather, to forswear a week of pool lounging and instead plumped for an action-packed 7 days seeing all the amazing things this north Queensland destination has to offer.

We thought we’d better ease the kids in gently, and as Jenna hasn’t shut up about koalas since we arrived, we started off at the Cairns Tropical Zoo with the promise of getting a bit cuddly with those koalas. I have to say, we’ve been to an awful lot of zoos (and after Galapagos wondered whether we had spoilt our enjoyment of them forever!) but none has beaten Cairns Tropical Zoo. Just as the Botanic Gardens in Sydney encourage you to get really up close with the flora and fauna, well, so does Cairns. We cuddled koalas. They really are the sweet, soft things you imagine them to be! They are also very fragile, with cocktail stick ribs, so holding and stroking them was pretty special. But don’t think they are rare. Despite some mass culls for fur, there are now over 600,000 of these very cute creatures living wild in Oz. OK so that is dwarfed by the kangaroo population … and not only did we get to roam around amongst a whole group of the jumpers and feed them too: we even saw them wild in the fields on the way home! I achieved my lifetime ambition of getting up close to a wombat. Molly was a very sulky lady, but gorgeous with it. The Ozzies certainly have some bizarre creatures, from cassowaries to quolls (great word for Scrabble!) to potoroos: all these animals are unique to the continent due to good old plate tectonics.

But Cairns isn’t ALL cuddly. It actually seems a pretty hostile place to man, with cyclones, floods, the world’s ten most venomous snakes, the most enormous crocs you’ve ever seen and box jellyfish, to name but a few. The crocs are in the rivers and estuaries all around here, and there are some mighty specimens up to 8 metres long. That’s some serious poundage. The midgets we saw at the zoo were a mere 4 metres, and they were quite scarey enough, thanks very much. The keepers told us where NOT to swim, and the warning signs to look out for, so I think we’ll skip any river swimming this week, eh?

We also got pretty close to an inland Taipan, whose single bite could kill 120 kids. But we did get some handy first aid pointers from his handlers, so now have a clue what to do if we become one of the 2,000 people to get bitten by snakes each year. Quick hint: you don’t suck the venom out. So, there are some pretty serious natural hazards around here. And mighty big spiders, too.

We were reminded how very, very lucky we are as Rhys went up to hold the koala. He glibly told the keeper that he had held a sloth. Her jaw literally fell to the floor. She told us she would give anything to hold one, and simply couldn’t believe the trip we are doing, and how much the kids have seen. Its very good sometimes to get a kick up the pants reminder that this IS incredible: after all, when you’ve organised it, travelled to it, done it and travelled on, it becomes pretty normal. But its certainly not a collection of experiences most people get to do, and we must pinch ourselves every now and then to remind us that this is FAR from typical.

So that was just day 1 in Cairns, and there is a whole lot more to be crammed in this week, oh … did we forget to mention the GREAT BARRIER REEF??