A Myriad of Transports – from Spirit of Freedom to Daintree – Thursday 25 June 2009

Yes, this really was the airport!
And our tiny 13 passenger plane - Suburban size anyone?




View from the window!!!



Snuggling a Koala!!!!


Thursday was a day when we traveled many kilometers to make our way from the Spirit of Freedom boat and make our way to Daintree…and somehow we managed to take quite a few modes of transportation, so, it seemed fitting to divide up our day –

Part I – The live-aboard dive boat

Six am came early and we woke up, quickly packed our bags, and had our last breaky aboard the SOF. The boat slowly tutted into close range of Lizard Island as we watched the sunrise and continued to enjoy the last while with our new friends.

Part II – The tenders

To reach the airport on Lizard Island was a multi-step process – that included ourselves and all of our possessions to be loaded into tenders – little tiny inflated dingies that have a tiny motor on the back and being motored to the shoreline. We nervously and very cautiously entered the tenders with our cameras and backpack that contained both of our laptops and all of our other electronic equipment and hoped for the best. The tenders couldn’t quite reach the sand, so we had to take our sneakers off, climb out into the water, and walk to the shoreline with our technology tightly hugged as we headed for land. As for our suitcase, the crew transported our other stuff while we were walking the island and it was waiting at the “airport” later on…

Part III – We literally walked to the “airport”

It was nice to step onto a beach and to be on solid land. And we, along with the rest of the passengers on the SOF went on a “walkabout” around the island. We walked down the beaches and then through the mangroves, up a mountain/hill where there was a beautiful overlook of the reef, and then down to the shoreline on the other side again where we waited for a crew member from the main boat to arrive and escort those of us who were heading home to the airport.

Lizard Island has a very ritzy resort on it – I was told the rooms are upwards of 800 bucks a night…we actually passed Greg Norman and another famous golfer as we were hiking and were told many celebrities frequent the resort.

So a crew member arrived and we literally walked to the airport, Daniel carrying our “technology backpack” and myself carrying our camera and purse full of passports, dive cards, etc., that we had actually carried up and over a huge hill/peak to actually reach the airport. The airport itself was a moderate sized gazebo with four chairs and two benches. I’m not kidding. We have pictures of us waiting at the “airport”. I think the runway for the plane was no longer than 400 meters.

Part IV – The 12 passenger plane

The pilot arrived with his twelve passenger plane and we had to give him our weight in kilos and take a life vest to wear around our waist in case the single engine plane went down. We walked to the plane and discovered the inside was comparable to the inside of a suburban. Not kidding. At all. And as we took off the pilot reminded us we would be flying 700 feet or so above the reef, since we couldn’t fly any higher and risk getting the bends (it hadn’t been 24 hours since any of us had been diving yet).

To be perfectly honest, I thought the flight was AWESOME! I loved the view and was glued to the window with my camera for the entire hour and ten minute span. It was just beautiful!!! However…we both looked at each other and agreed that it would be incredibly easy to completely freak out if you let yourself... I will admit that when I got third pick at the seats I picked the one closest to the exit.

Part V – SOF transport crew

We were greeted at the airport by SOF crew who were ready to take us to our car rental place with both our boat luggage and stored bag. There was a slight misunderstanding at first about which car rental place we needed, so we drove through all of main Cairns, and then, ended up at the other airport terminal.

Part VI – We rented a car…that came with a steering wheel on the right side of the car…

We rented a car at the airport – a cute, red, Toyota Yaris that Daniel was relieved to discover was an automatic – (he was afraid it was going to be a manual that required him to not just drive on the opposite side of the road, but to shift with his left hand too…) and then our journey had three additional parts…

Part VI – sub a. We drove back to Cairns. Again.

We headed back into the main city, yet again. This time we were returning our underwater camera and trying to give them enough time to make us a DVD of our photos. We had been backing them up all along, but it’s a free service… so we hit the atm again, grabbed lunch, got two ice creams at McDonalds to use the wifi and let everyone know we had safely made it off the boat, and then picked up our DVDs…it all took much longer than one would think, so by the time we finally left we were good and ready to get on the road…

Part VI – sub b: We swung through Karanda…

So we decided to try to visit Karanda’s Koala Gardens…there are only a few places in Australia in which you can legally hold and pet koalas…and Karanda is one of them. Most states in Australia ban it – but Queensland allows it…we could actually do it in Brisbane the Sunday afternoon we have free - at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, but there’s a huge wine festival that afternoon that allows you to taste wines from all over Australia, and we were hoping to get to take advantage of that. Consequently we also discovered Karanda’s a cool place to look at the rainforest, but we didn’t have enough time to do any of that before it closed.

Anyway, we decided to take an hour or so detour to Karanda to try to snuggle with a Koala – one of the huge must do’s on Beth’s list!!! The road leading up to Karanda Village was ridiculous and put Daniel’s driving-on-the-opposite-side-of-the-road-skills to a test immediately. I can best compare the roads to the ones up in Pisgah national forest…and these were extremely windy for much much longer – 13+ kilometers of snakey roads at 50, 60 and 80 kmph. Ridiculous.

We safely made it. Somehow. And!!! I got to hold a beautifully soft and fuzzy koala named Sienna! Her fur was thick and slightly bristly, but still very soft. She was pretty heavy and solid for her size too – but very sweet – so fun! We also got to handfeed some kangaroos and wallabies and got a great look at a big, fat wombat who was chowing down on his meal…and really looked like a guinea pig crossed with…well, a pig…

Aw, yay for the Koala snuggle!!

Part VI – sub c: Alas, we weren’t there yet – onto Daintree

The drive to Daintree wasn’t a bad one – pretty views of the water but still tight, narrow, winding roads. We drove for just over an hour and a half before arriving at our hotel – an eco-lodge in Daintree Village. We were greeted by the very amicable owners and quickly set out for dinner across the street and then settled in.
So, after six forms of transport we managed to make it up to the Daintree area. We’ve seen a mix of tropical vegetation and extremely lumpy green farmland along the way…and very odd looking white cows that seem to have an extra hump in their shoulders. Tomorrow we hope to see the rainforest and enjoy a river tour!