Xmas Hols 2003 -Plans
12/23/2003
Things have been pretty quiet. I’m still waking up ultra early 1:30-3:30am local time although I guess it’s sleeping in if I convert it to PST. Today we ran down to the beach and towards the north end of the cove.
There are a bunch of deluxe resorts that direction.
Our housekeeper Jane also works at Angsana. She says it’s very nice and worth a visit (a spa resort-massages, facials etc), which is very colonial style.
Reef House Restaurant (fantastic French food). The restaurant was converted from a beach house. It is one of my parent’s favorite restaurants, so we will probably definitely eat here. (Here's the proof!)
Afterwards we swam in the pool at home. It’s great to just jump in and cool off after the run. Today seems hotter than yesterday, although my mom says the humidity is higher and that it’s going to rain soon. At least in the pool we don’t feel the sticky heat.
Here's a picture of "rain cooking"
Picking breakfast in the garden. Ripe mango anyone?
Went to Mom’s gym to workout. It’s all really old fashioned but the weights are the same. We were planning on working out everyday we’re here but it turns out that they close for the 10 days around Christmas, which pretty much covers the time we’ve got.
My Dad took us up the Skyrail this afternoon. It’s a gondola ride up in the rainforest canopy. As the Skyrail progresses up the mountain you can look back and see the whole plain with Cairns and the surrounding community. It’s changed a ton in the last 10 years since my parents first moved here. It used to be cane fields and palms everywhere, all agricultural. Now there are highways, shopping malls and KFC. Although the cane fields are still there, the urban sprawl is encroaching rapidly.
The base of the ride is set on the plain where it’s mostly shrubbery recovering from being part of the local sugarcane plantation.
As the gondola ascended into the canopy, there was a marked change in the ambient temperature. I think it dropped about 5-10oF. Totally unexpected, I always thought that the canopy was steaming hot. But there must be some kind of convection cooling. There were tons of tree ferns and orchids.
We crossed the Baron River Gorge. It didn't look like much because of the drought but in previous years, you would not see any rock here but a huge thundering torrent of water.
Eventually the ride ends in the climax community of well-established rainforest trees. It’s kind of neat to see trees from a totally different perspective.
At the end I'm glad to be in the “cooler” TableLand rainforest known as Kuranda. Our mom drove up via the winding road to pick us up and take us home for dinner at the Reef House.
