The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

We started with a train ride up to Kuranda to see koalas, wombats, birds and butterflies. The birds were very impressive, but a highlight there was when I squatted down next to a window to see a wombat and it waddled over to check me out. Keep in mind that they usually just lay around. But this one came over to me and we bonded through the window. Later, I learned that they would happily chew my shoes off, regardless if my feet were in them or not.

The views from the train were amazing as were the views on the way down via a gondola. I’m used to riding chairlifts and gondolas, but wow, these are really high off the ground, which helped provide those great views.

Later in the week, one early morning, we boarded a catamaran and headed to the Great Barrier Reef. It was a windy and bouncy ride out there, which turned into pretty rough waves for snorkeling. But, despite a bit murky water due to the weather, the fish and coral still impressed.

A highlight was snorkeling above a couple hundred fish, a dozen different types, all swimming above a mix of coral. I especially like the coral with blue tips and the tiny intense blue fish. Then I spotted a 4-5 foot long white tipped reef shark, which I followed around for a bit. It was a great experience even though waves were cresting over me and filling the snorkel with water.

The return trip was quite the ride as the bow of the boat would break the waves, causing the wave to wash over the boat. The boat had 2 levels of covered seating, but very few seats were dry with all of the spray and wind.

We also visited Hartley’s Crocs where we got into a pen with a wombat and were thankful not to have our shoes chewed off. There, we were able to feed alligators (not crocodiles), kangaroos, emu, and a cassowary. The kangaroos were curious and happy to eat from my hand and be scratched behind the ears. The emus are aggressive eaters and really liked the cabbage we fed them, without losing a finger. The cassowary is like feeding some prehistoric creature, who gently ate grapes from our fingers and even gently pinched our fingers in the process. In the wild though, they would use a claw to slice us open without any effort. We saw crocodiles get fed, but I fed a chicken head to an alligator by using a very long stick.

Since it is winter here, the venomous jellyfish weren’t plentiful enough to be a problem, we avoided areas with wild crocodiles whose population has boomed in the last 20-30 years, and nobody was bitten by a spider. We even avoided dirt, due to a new problem in the area: Melioidosis, which is a serious bacterial infection caused a microorganism commonly found in the soil. Yep, even the dirt can kill you in Cairns! It’s still worth visiting though.