Kangaroos and Koalas

For whatever reason, we’re still waking up around 5AM. We opened the curtains and I noticed raindrops on the handrail of our balcony. 

We enjoyed breakfast, just the two of us, in a nearly empty dining room. As they lead us to our table near the back of the room, we must have received no less than 20 greetings from the wait staff!  I found that breakfast by ourselves was relaxing after so many conversations with new people. 

We returned to our room, which looked better than we had left it. It always does. One of the particularly magical things about going on a cruise is how often they do room cleans. The bed will be made, fresh towels replace the damp ones, and if you use a blanket on the balcony it will be folded neatly in its place when you return.  

Bryan did the laundry for us as we wait for our meet up time for our first planned shore excursion. He made his way to the little laundromat just down the hall and started a load. 

Coming in to a new place is always fun. We stood out on the balcony and marveled at the bright green mangroves blanketing the edge of the shoreline and growing up out of the water. All we saw were trees and fishing ships, no buildings to indicate a city was there anywhere.  Eventually Bryan pulled up a map and we realized the city was on the other side of the ship, and we had already arrived in Cairns, they were just using a tug to get us into place. 

As we had more time to spend on the ship before our scheduled tour we happily went down to the International café. I got a “lactose-free” hot chocolate, which was very good. They froth up the milk, so it is almost like having whipped cream on top. Yum! Bryan got a donut, but it turned out not to be fried. He said it tasted like a circular dinner roll with a bit of chocolate on top. 😄

After finished up the slightly mundane task of laundry, we waited in the lounge to board our tour. Everyone we met had recommended the train and skyway tour out of Cairn. We had booked the duck tour in order to see some Australian wildlife. It turned out that it was fortunate we had, because the train excursions ended up being canceled. 

We rode a bus up to the RainForeStation Nature Park. I flinched anytime I saw out the window a vehicle “coming at us” on the right. It is really funny to me that I can’t seem to quickly change my expectations on that when we travel somewhere that they drive on the left. But here we are.  

Our French speaking Swiss guide talked (in English) for the 45 minutes up to the wildlife park, telling us all sorts of things. She mentioned the tree kangaroos are endangered species.  As fields came into view she told us about sugar cane. I learned if it was planted by seed it would take 15 years to mature. Instead, they plant the rhizome and harvest it 12 months later. 

The bus drove up a winding road through the rainforest. It reminded me of the historical highway in the gorge at home. This is my first time being in a tropical rainforest, and I tried to stay alert as the tour bus continued up the hill past thick trees. 

The buffet when we arrived was unremarkable. I was able to find food that looked milk free, and was happy for that. Once we had eaten we went to go see the animals. 

We booked our time slot to hold a koala and get a photo taken. We also purchased a small bag of kangaroo feed. Then we went in through the double gates, and there were the kangaroos standing right before us on the grass. 

We hadn’t been there a moment before a class full of schoolchildren poured into the area and surrounded the kangaroos we intended to feed. Bryan offered the children some of our feed, and we found ourselves filling many little palms with the food pellets. 

After a bit, we also were able to feed the kangaroos, and pet their soft furry backs. 

There were also the smaller wallabies, some with little joeys poking out of their pouches. It was really delightful. There were other animals as well. Dingos, koalas, crocodiles, and a cassowary. (A large, flightless bird that reminded me of Kevin from the Pixar movie, Up.)

Next, we made our way to the photo op with the koala. It reminded me a bit of the owl café in Tokyo, with rest areas for animals that were “off duty” and specific times intervals that the animals could be handled. These intervals, it turns out, are extremely brief, and once they had taught Bryan how to stand like a tree trunk to receive the koala, the entire experience was less than 30 seconds.

After our time with the animals, the next activities were lead by local indigenous Pamagirri guides. During this aboriginal experience we got a chance to throw a boomerang, listen to a didgeridoo being played, saw traditional dances, and spear throwing. 

Immediately following that was our duck tour. We rode an old army duck vehicle from the 1940s with an Australian guide telling us about the rainforest and pointing out sights. As we were in the amphibious vehicle, our wet tropics safari soon became a cruise. I really felt that at any moment I might be instructed to look at “the backside of water” since that is the only type of jungle boat cruise I have been on previous to this. The loop they took us on was not long, but we had time to spot the furry bottom of a kangaroo rat disappearing into the dense foliage. The highlight of the experience for me was seeing the bright blue butterfly, as big as a bird, swooping crazy loops above us as we crossed the pond. Stunning! 

We were so hungry by the time we returned to the ship that we decided to try for an early dinner. We showed up at 5PM as the dining room opened (although our reservations were not until six). 

While eating dinner we heard from our new group of table mates that due to particularly bad weather, they had heard that our next port had been canceled and we would be staying in Cairns. As we were preparing to leave the ship for an evening walk, the captain came over the loud speaker to make it official. In a tone of voice that seemed to say “I’m sorry for your loss” he explained that we would be remaining where we were and that those who had excursions booked from Port Douglas should check to see if they had been canceled. 

Now, the most anticipated part of our trip has been our visit to see the Great Barrier Reef. I’ve been gleefully hoping to see turtles as we snorkel. We had tickets booked for an excursion our from Port Douglas to the Agincourt Reef, which we’ve heard is the very finest of the reefs that could be visited along this cruise. 

We waited in line to speak to the very busy ladies at the shore excursion desk. They were unable to tell us for certain of changes to our excursion, but encouraged us to look for a letter that had gone out about the changes. We ran back up to our stateroom. The only letter we had was a duplicate of the captain’s general announcement. 

We followed our original plan and went for an evening walk in Cairn. We bought me some chocolate fudge ice cream and went shopping night market. The night market was fun. It reminded me a bit of Pike’s Street Market. We made a couple of purchases and walked back to the ship. 

Enquiring again at the desk, we were informed that “you are the lucky ones” who would still be visiting the reef tomorrow. Thank you, Jesus! She wrote out a little post it note with the new departure time and we walked back to our stateroom wondering if they would be bussing us to Port Douglas for our original tour, or boating us out of here. Either way, feeling very blessed to still have the opportunity to see the reef at all. 

After getting that happy news we decided to go “out” for some live music. We ended up in the Explorer’s Lounge, eating street tacos, chips and guacamole, and listening to the band, Cruise Control, singing an eclectic variety of tunes. 

We went to bed that night cautiously hopeful that we might still get to go to the reef.