A Flamingo at the Falls

I'm going through family withdrawals, as I do after I see them, every time.

Back before I got sidetracked by a sunset and a weekender to new places I was telling you all about my fantastic family fun. 

On Good Friday, when Sis G arrived, we headed out for a swim and to meet up with her work mates.

Crystal Cascades was the spot to be and one Sis G enthusiastically wanted to visit again.

So afternoon swim time it was, and such a nice cool off. The falls were looking low but still pretty.

We weren't the only ones around but for a brief time we got the waterfall to ourselves.

It was cool and refreshing. The freshwater swimming places are always cool here, even on the hottest days.

While we were there we even saw a giant pink flamingo going for a dip.

I think I know why Sis G loves visiting here. It is cool, relaxing, quiet and so different to what we grew up with. It is the best of the tropics all in one with rainforest and a waterfall.

The weather at the moment has cooled a little with a taste of Autumn greeting us early in the morning. I could probably still do a swim at Crystal Cascades any day though.

A Surprise Visitor

On the weekend we had a sort of surprise visitor. I say sort of because she rang in advance to see if we were busy or home or had plans. We had none of the above happening so our visitor was quite welcome. We both helped put a band aid on our low that happens after a family visit. The good thing was is that we also worked out that there is only 3 more weekends (4 weeks) until she will be able to come back AND until more family visitors come to stay. Time is going to speed by. 

Have you guessed who my visitor was?

Why, it was Sis G from down in Brownsville ... oops, I mean Townsville.

By the way, Brownsville is a local, far north, thing/ joke. It is in the dry tropics and so often a bit brown looking where Cairns is wet tropics and more than often very green.

While she was here we did a brief spin around the lushness of the area.

We hit Crystal Cascades for an afternoon swim. This was after, of cause, she had to hunt us down at Master's and then follow us to Bunnings for some weekend plant looking. I then rescued her from having to wait around for the Sparky to go fix some sparky thing on a boat and we ran off together to the Esplanade to look at the markets and eat croissants under the shade of a tree before venturing home.

Did I mention our downstairs air con was on the blink? Oh, it was by the way. Died on Thursday, or maybe before. This was why we were off for a swim. Oh, that is right, in there somewhere we also hit DFO for Sis G's enjoyment. On returning the landlord for our place had come by to tend to our air con, which turned into a 'take all afternoon and evening' kind of job. Some not invited friends had made a home in the ducting outside and had worked out how to get inside the head of the air con so they could have a chewing good time. As Sis G said to me "why do rats seem to think anything is edible?" I was like 'maybe electrical wiring is tasty, a treat even? and they are all like oooo look ELECTRICAL WIRING!! Yum! Just like kids and lollies.'

Sorry, getting a little weird there.

Back to nice things, like waterfalls.

At Crystal Cascades, I swear half of Cairns had turned out for a swim. However by the time we had wandered up to the main falls for a look and back to a swimming spot closer to the car park, a lot of people had left. We enjoyed a cooling wallow and climbing a small set of falls before heading back to town.

On the way back I made a spur of the moment decision to take in the lookout on Copperlode Dam road, a place Sis G hadn't been.

Definitely worth the winding road.

We watched the soft colours changing and mucked around taking photos, and in Sis G's case, videos. She was making one of the weekend. It has far too much of me in it and none of her.

It was so clear, with Green Island in view.

A relaxing end to what had been a pretty long day, more for Sis G than me. I slept in til 8am (super unusual) where she was up at 4am.

I then took her home to a fixed air con and a yummy home cooked corned beef meal with pancakes and lemon juice for dessert.

Sunday we decided to head to the beach after a lazy morning that involved sitting around, chatting and much teasing from Mr Sparky.

Palm Cove ended up being chosen while on the road and we didn't even check to see if the beaches were open. They have been closed a lot for stinger reasons. Oh, and that pesky crocodile I heard someone saw.

The nets were in and so were people so we ended up being right to go.

I'm not sure if you would describe it as a cooling or refreshing dip but it was nice, in a bath temperature like fashion. I also think that maybe the water here is saltier than down south. I might have to go back to the beach again to confirm that. 

We had to do the Aussie beach run/ speed walk up and down the sand, it was already burning in the mid morning sun.

Walking back in the shade to the car while wet was refreshing though. Again there was much more photo taking and movie making.

Unfortunately, a bit after lunch we had to send Sis G packing, so she could get back home before it got too late. I loved the sister time. I am hoping this can be a fairly regular thing.

Oh, and after much debating within my head, here is Sis G's production from the weekend.

Ummm Sis G? I can use this can't I? Hehe.

Stinger = jelly fish, in particular box jellyfish.

Looking Green

The 17th of March, St Patrick's Day, so having a day off today I thought I'd go hunting for a bit of green. Not too hard to find around here, obviously, it being the tropics and all.

Today I visited an old haunt but with a difference and a little extra exploring.

I went to Crystal Cascades but instead of heading straight to check out the Cascades I made a detour along a path at the end of the car park.

I had heard about this place and seen it on a photography group facebook page for this area. I've been planning to check it out for a while but just hadn't made it that far recently.

 The narrow, cleared path wound along beside a little creek. It wasn't very far and was one of those times when it seemed longer to get there than to get back.

At the end of the path I found Princess Falls (I am pretty sure that is what they were called).

It was a very pretty, secluded spot. Peaceful and relaxing it made me think I could have hung out there for ages, maybe even all day, all week, forever.

It was very low light though and that and my camera don't really match well. I need to work on those skills I think.

It was fun playing around though. Note to self: take a blooming tripod with you when you are planning on waterfalls, actually take it all the time.

I clambered around rocks testing out my balance ability. Still pretty crappy, nothing has changed there.

I climbed a bit higher and thought about trying to go further upstream but after sitting and watching for a bit I decided I could do that another time.

I headed back to the car park and then on to the more popular Crystal Cascades. I'll share that some other time though. I think this is enough green for my St Paddy's Day, well at least for now.

Mind you it wasn't all green today, there was that beautiful blue sky as well. 

The cause of our sunny weather at the moment is of cause Tropical Cyclone Nathan that is fart arsing around out there off the coast. Our latest predictions have it making landfall somewhere around the area up here, maybe on Friday. This cyclone tracking thing is very certain about things. As many people say, we will know exactly what it is doing when it has done it. We do however get lots of good predictions, updates and pretty picture to look at from various places.

the late 10am update from the BOM

This collection is from Higgins Storm Chasing on Facebook

As of our latest update a rather large area of the north-east coast is officially on cyclone watch.

5pm update from the BOM - blue is Nathan now, black is the past, grey the future.

Whatever happens it looks like we are in for a bit of excitement in these parts at the end of the week, either that or severe disappointment.  Meanwhile I'll keep watching updates and thinking about those recently hit by cyclones and on the recovery side.

Very pretty picture from earth.nullschool.net found here

Rewind to the visitors

So I mentioned, a while ago now, that I had a few visitors around. So just to put this into context it was about a month ago, that context shows my shocking ability to keep blogged events up to date.

First off I had two visitors.

They arrived by ship (lucky them).

Just here for the day.

I got bored while waiting. Well not really. I do recall a lovely lady once telling us kids that if we were bored we had no brains because people with brains have imaginations and can always think of something to do (or something like that). Thanks Mrs C for that lovely wisdom, it has stayed with me and I am not often bored.

Anyway when cruise companies say they will dock at 9am and they are doing ship to shore you never know how long you will have to wait.

While waiting I took photos, too many photos. Every time I saw a cat or tinder coming in I would head over to see if my visitors were on it. I think I had to wait an hour and a half in all.

Lucky there was a little piece of sand and water to keep me happy ...

... and to dip my toes in.

There they are, fresh off a tender. My Aunt and Uncle, all the way from Sydney! Now I don't expect you to pick them out of the crowd, but I did.

Now cruise ships do basically one of two things here. They either come and dock at Trinity Inlet near downtown Cairns or they do ship to shore at Yorkey's Knob. My Aunt and Uncle came in at Yorkey's Knob boat club. They had nothing planned and had decided that I could be their tour guide for a few hours so we could hang out. They weren't fussed on what we did but wanted to see the rainforest and the city.

First stop was Yorkey's Knob beach, just around the Knob. It certainly wasn't at its prettiest with the water whipped up and a lovely brown from the tides changing.

We drove past cane fields that were of interest.

We found Lake Placid and dreamed of paddling.

We stopped by the Barron Gorge Hydro where Autumn was on show even though it was Spring and where the weaving water was appreciated.

We then dropped into the Crystal Cascades to tick the rainforest box.

We walked along the waters edge and watched for fish which my Uncle exclaimed over due to their size.

We made it to the main waterfall, another region icon.

On the walk back we saw more wildlife. There was fish as well as blue butterflies and some turtles which certainly tickled my Aunt's fancy.

Then it was time to hit the city. I made sure to drive in along the main highway so they could see the size. My Uncle though Cairns was just a fair sized tourist town, maybe a bit like Airlie Beach, and was amazed by the size and amount of businesses in the city size city. 

We walked part of the Esplanade and my Uncle commented that 'they never tell you about this'. This being the mudflat when the tide is out.

We stopped by the lagoon then relaxed with some lunch.

It was far too soon when it was time to return them to Yorkies. A quick drink at the boat club and it was time to say farewell.

There they go. Goodbye until next time which is hopefully closer than a few years.