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| Mossman Gorge |
We finally made another trip here in Australia. Over the 2 week break from school we traveled up to Northern Queensland to Port Douglas to visit what every local here says is a "must do", so we did! Port Douglas is located a little north of Cairns (pronounced Cannes) and it is famed for "where the rainforest meets the sea". It was beautiful! We did a tour of the Daintree Rainforest learning about different plants and animals, the Skyrail and the Kuranda Scenic Railway over and through the rainforest, we took a river tour to see if we could spot some saltwater crocodiles, saw some beautiful countryside filled with sugarcane, visited Mossman Gorge to hear the tales of the Aboriginal people and see how they live/lived. (I say lived as well, because as most things, they are becoming a thing of the past, being forced from their heritage by none other than the government) We all had a fantastic time seeing another part of Australia. I think the most interesting part for me was listening to the tour given by a young man of Aboriginal decent. Their people have made it a point to pass on as much of their heritage and culture as they can. We witnessed children as young as 5-6 doing the dreamtime dances in the streets. The dreamtime dances are stories that have been passed down from generation to generation telling of the great water snake (river) that moves throughout the land, stories of the emus being chased by the river snake, and so many more. We even got to hear the famous didgeridoo (proper name is the Yikki Yikki), have traditional tea and damper (biscuits), and so much more!! There is even a plant that grows in their forest that they gave to the enemies during the war to wipe with after using the toilet....I think it's comparable to our bull nettle in Texas! And I know I wouldn't dare wipe with that! HA! The paints the aboriginal people use are natural bug repellents and made from clay that they just mix with water. I could go on and on! We even got to see the endangered Cassowary in the wild-I didn't get a picture because it was too fast! We had plans to go out to the reef again, but decided a day by the pool would suffice since we did part of the reef last year! Enjoy the pics and God bless!
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| Standing under the canopy of the rainforest next to the Giants of the Rainforest. (huge trees) |
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| Family Photo (including Heart the Cat) |
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| The 3 Things every Aboriginal takes with him. A stone, boomerang, and shield. We were told you are a skilled hunter if your boomerang doesn't come back! (I'll let you think about that one) |
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Our 4-Wheel Drive tour guide preparing the traditional billy tea. He took the billy (bucket), put it over the fire to make the tea, then he swung it around in front of him like a windmill 4-5 times to move the tea leaves to the bottom of the billy.
Amazing....none of it spilled out!
This plant is called the Wait-A-While. (no joke) If you look close enough it is covered with spines that grow facing upward. So if you happen to be able to go up this plant, you will have to "wait-a-while" to get down because you will get caught on them. The Aboriginal use these plants for hunting and fishing.
A sending out a distress call against a Red Cedar. The tree is hollow so if you get into trouble you take your stone and hit it as hard as you can against the base so the sound resonates through the forest. It's their nature made SOS! |
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| Traditional Smoking Ceremony Fire-We all had to walk around this twice through the smoke to cleanse ourselves before we entered the rainforest which is sacred to the Aboriginal people. Our guide had to introduce us to his ancestors before we could begin the walk. (he had to let them know he was bringing in guests to tell us all about their heritage and hunting grounds) |
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| Had to take a pic of this sign! |
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| The Kuranda Scenic Rail-train ride from the top of the rainforest town of Kuranda back down through the rainforest to Cairns. |
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| The only croc we saw on the river tour. He was about 1.5 meters, according to the guide, which is big enough! (he's a bit hard to spot...he's on the log hanging out) |
