Artistic Dutch Opals Salt Rainforest Lizards and Birds
Our time in Sydney passed quickly. We had a little time before our flight North, so we walked to the Chinese Garden to relax and rejuvenate before hoping on a (sadly) economy class flight to Cairns — which is in the tropics.
Australia is a very large country, roughly the size of the continental United States. The population, however is about 7% as much as that of the USA. Almost all of the people live by the coast. Accordingly, we flew over significant amounts of uninhabited dirt as we winged our way toward the equator.
Cairns is a small town with a population less than 200,000, even if the all the tourists are counted. The city, pronounced..
“… Caans,” Nazy, who insists on reading guide books, explained.
“In that case, they’ve spelled it wrong,” I replied. “Bad spelling is a British Empire thing — like Leicester Square in London,” I thought.
Cains is a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and a World Heritage Tropical Rainforest. We had big plans for Cairns, but…
“… but why do all of those plans start before the Sun comes up?” Nazy asked
“If it’s a sunrise tour, Nazy, you kind of have to start before sunrise.” I replied. “I shouldn’t mention our 6AM flight to Ayers Rock at the end of our stay here,” I thought.
We began by booking an early trip to Kuranda via the SkyRail, a cable car (up) and the Kuranda Scenic Rail (down). Kuranda, in the midst of the world’s oldest continuously surviving rainforest, is also near the Barron Falls National Park in Queensland, Australia.
We met our guide early (very early) and took the Skyrail at dawn. It took almost an hour to get to the city of Kuranda: we had a couple of stops on the way and switched into different cable cars three times. It was a beautiful ride over rainforest (we liked the acadia trees), past waterfalls and over gorges.
The city was clearly focused on tourism. We took a self-guided walk through the rain forest and toured the nearby butterfly and bird sanctuaries. It turned out that the birds were far better trained than the butterflies. The birds, with the exception of the Rainbow Lorikeet (which bit me) were happy to alight on an outstretched arm holding food. (Apparently, I was holding, eh, fowl-tasting food from the view of the lorikeet.)
After (finally) enticing Nazy away from the opals, we had time for a quick snack, which we had to keep away from the nearby scrounging lizards. They were neither small nor shy. On the way to the train, we ran across a guy selling …
“… soundless wind chimes?” I asked as I watched these things..
“… not things, sir,” the artist interjected. “laser cut pieces of art.”
We ended up getting a ‘soundless laser cut artistic wind chime’. The artist was an immigrant from The Netherlands. We ran across lots of immigrants from lots of countries including Italy, Spain, Japan, Scotland, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Austria and New Zealand. But; we didn’t see anyone from Mexico or Central America. So..
“… I conclude, Nazy,” I commented, “that an ocean works better than a wall.”
“It’s harder to build.”
“But nobody has to say for it. I bet that the current ‘president’ thinks that there is no crime in Australia.”
We took the scenic rail back to Cairns, passing Barron Falls, the Mareeba River and Yonkers Knob, on the way. We headed to a recommended restaurant named ‘Salt’ on the lagoon. We had a coupon promising a large discount…
“… but that coupon only works at our Pizza affiliated facility next door,” the hostess explained. “We offer upscale cuisine here.”
“And upscale prices,” I thought.
But we were hungry so we went ahead.
“How big is this green salad?” Nazy asked the waitress.
“I’m not sure,” she replied. “I’ll have to ask.”
And, when she returned she told us that it was ‘normally sized’. Nazy asked about Shiraz wine choices.
“Shiraz?” The waitress replied. “That one’s red, right?”
We ended up ordering barramundi (a local fish). The ‘green salad’ was warm broccoli, Brussel sprouts and green beans soaked in butter. Nazy asked for salt. The waitress (eventually) supplied an empty salt shaker.
“Isn’t the name of this restaurant ‘Salt’?” I asked. The question flew in one ear and out the other, totally unimpeded by intervening neurons. We couldn’t get her to deliver the bill and when we tried to pay she didn’t know how to use the card paying machine. Nazy was happy to escape but…
“… someone told me they had great desserts, Nazy.” I claimed.
“There is a Baskin Robbins nearby,” Nazy replied.
While we were walking to the hotel, the local Rainbow Lorikeets cam home to roost — all six million of them in one tree. Note for file: Roosting lorikeets are not quiet. We decided to try a different place the next night.
Morning dawned bright and early; Nazy and I were ready to see the Great Barrier Reef. More on Cairns in the next issue of The Weekly Letter.
Australia is a very large country, roughly the size of the continental United States. The population, however is about 7% as much as that of the USA. Almost all of the people live by the coast. Accordingly, we flew over significant amounts of uninhabited dirt as we winged our way toward the equator.
Cairns is a small town with a population less than 200,000, even if the all the tourists are counted. The city, pronounced..
“… Caans,” Nazy, who insists on reading guide books, explained.
“In that case, they’ve spelled it wrong,” I replied. “Bad spelling is a British Empire thing — like Leicester Square in London,” I thought.
Cains is a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and a World Heritage Tropical Rainforest. We had big plans for Cairns, but…
“… but why do all of those plans start before the Sun comes up?” Nazy asked
“If it’s a sunrise tour, Nazy, you kind of have to start before sunrise.” I replied. “I shouldn’t mention our 6AM flight to Ayers Rock at the end of our stay here,” I thought.
We began by booking an early trip to Kuranda via the SkyRail, a cable car (up) and the Kuranda Scenic Rail (down). Kuranda, in the midst of the world’s oldest continuously surviving rainforest, is also near the Barron Falls National Park in Queensland, Australia.
We met our guide early (very early) and took the Skyrail at dawn. It took almost an hour to get to the city of Kuranda: we had a couple of stops on the way and switched into different cable cars three times. It was a beautiful ride over rainforest (we liked the acadia trees), past waterfalls and over gorges.
The city was clearly focused on tourism. We took a self-guided walk through the rain forest and toured the nearby butterfly and bird sanctuaries. It turned out that the birds were far better trained than the butterflies. The birds, with the exception of the Rainbow Lorikeet (which bit me) were happy to alight on an outstretched arm holding food. (Apparently, I was holding, eh, fowl-tasting food from the view of the lorikeet.)
The butterflies, while beautiful, were more circumspect. They preferred to flutter-by instead of posing for photographs. One was so big (e.g. the Goliath Moth) that it cast a sizable shadow.
We also had time for Nazy to chat with Qing Yuan Yang at the local opal store. She learned more about opals then was…
“… necessary, Nazy?” I asked.
“The cheap ones, like doublets and triplets, are formed by gluing small opal chips to other backings, Dan.” Nazy explained.
“Interesting,” I replied. “I wonder if that’s what I bought for Nazy the last time I was in Australia.”
“I bet that’s what Dan bought for me when he was in Australia the last time,” Nazy thought. “The quality increases as you move from White to Boulder to Black Opal,” Nazy continued.
“Really?” I replied. “I bet the price increases as well,” I thought.
“And a black opal with fiery red flashes is the best quality.” Nazy concluded.
“And that’s exactly what you’re looking at — right?” I asked needlessly.
After (finally) enticing Nazy away from the opals, we had time for a quick snack, which we had to keep away from the nearby scrounging lizards. They were neither small nor shy. On the way to the train, we ran across a guy selling …
“… soundless wind chimes?” I asked as I watched these things..
“… not things, sir,” the artist interjected. “laser cut pieces of art.”
We ended up getting a ‘soundless laser cut artistic wind chime’. The artist was an immigrant from The Netherlands. We ran across lots of immigrants from lots of countries including Italy, Spain, Japan, Scotland, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Austria and New Zealand. But; we didn’t see anyone from Mexico or Central America. So..
“… I conclude, Nazy,” I commented, “that an ocean works better than a wall.”
“It’s harder to build.”
“But nobody has to say for it. I bet that the current ‘president’ thinks that there is no crime in Australia.”
We took the scenic rail back to Cairns, passing Barron Falls, the Mareeba River and Yonkers Knob, on the way. We headed to a recommended restaurant named ‘Salt’ on the lagoon. We had a coupon promising a large discount…
“… but that coupon only works at our Pizza affiliated facility next door,” the hostess explained. “We offer upscale cuisine here.”
“And upscale prices,” I thought.
But we were hungry so we went ahead.
“How big is this green salad?” Nazy asked the waitress.
“I’m not sure,” she replied. “I’ll have to ask.”
And, when she returned she told us that it was ‘normally sized’. Nazy asked about Shiraz wine choices.
“Shiraz?” The waitress replied. “That one’s red, right?”
We ended up ordering barramundi (a local fish). The ‘green salad’ was warm broccoli, Brussel sprouts and green beans soaked in butter. Nazy asked for salt. The waitress (eventually) supplied an empty salt shaker.
“Isn’t the name of this restaurant ‘Salt’?” I asked. The question flew in one ear and out the other, totally unimpeded by intervening neurons. We couldn’t get her to deliver the bill and when we tried to pay she didn’t know how to use the card paying machine. Nazy was happy to escape but…
“… someone told me they had great desserts, Nazy.” I claimed.
“There is a Baskin Robbins nearby,” Nazy replied.
While we were walking to the hotel, the local Rainbow Lorikeets cam home to roost — all six million of them in one tree. Note for file: Roosting lorikeets are not quiet. We decided to try a different place the next night.
Morning dawned bright and early; Nazy and I were ready to see the Great Barrier Reef. More on Cairns in the next issue of The Weekly Letter.
Nazy in Kurunda
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