We were picked up at 8:00 am for our tour by an Aboriginal tour guide by the name of Aaron. Hee was born and raised in the area and knows everyone. He is also a survivor expert using plants for all natural remedies.
He introduced us to some new fruits that we purchased while stopping by a roadside stand and also filled us in with a few local facts about Australia.
You are not allowed to own a gun in Australia unless you own at least 90 acres of land. They raise sugar cane in the area like Iowa grows corn. The soil is very fertile from all the volcanic ash and the weather in this area is comparable to Florida. It is always warm with their winter being in June, July and August. It has been exceptionally warm with temperatures in the mid 90’s.
They harvest the sugar cane and then immediately replant so it is growing year-round. The local farmers own the sugar processing plant which dates back to the late 1800’s.
The creeks and rivers have crocodiles in them which they name. They are very territorial so they never leave and can be very dangerous. As neighbors – they will talk about the location of certain crocs which Jane and I found very funny. Our guide used to be in law enforcement where he told us in his 15 years they lost 4 people to crocs. The crocs will kill and then hide the bodies and let them decay and come back later and eat them.
It also is very weird they drive on the opposite side of the road and the driver sits on the right side of the car. I will get to experience this first hand later in New Zealand as we will be renting a car to drive through some National parks.
The local rain forest here is the oldest in the world and is estimated to be 260 million years old.
74% of the berries found in the rain forest are poisonous.
There are approximately 3,600 aboriginal languages spoken in Australia. Our guide can speak four languages.
Our guide was taught all his survival skills from his grandfather. He taught us you can use the outer layer of coconut shells as an insect repellant. There is a certain tree when nicked with a rock – will drip white sap that can be used as aspirin. He also showed us a plant – if touched will insert hair like follicles into you skin with excruciating pain. You will need to go to a Dr and he / she will do a wax tear off of the area to pull the hairs out and relieve the pain. He also showed us the rocks that the natives used to use to paint their faces (see pictures below).
We made a trip up to the Mossman Gorge which is in the middle of the rainforest. There was raging water coming down the mountain which was not from snow fall but rather from a spring.
It runs continuous which is hard to imagine.
People swim in this dangerous area, and he said a few months ago a women got swept away from the under current. He warned several people that were swimming to get out while we were there.
Upon completion of our tour we said our goodbyes and we were dropped off at the Wildlife Habitat Zoo. We got to pet the wallabies and some other animals. I wanted to get a picture holding a koala bear which is my favorite animal.
Wouldn’t you know it – there were designated times to get you picture taken with these animals and we missed it. I was heart broken so I worked my way up to the right person and told them of my sad story of traveling 8,000 miles just to get a picture with the bear. After lots of persuasion, they worked us in to a tour group and we got it accomplished. It was awesome.
We ended the day with some R & R at the pool and then out to dinner. We will prepare to leave our resort at 8:00 am in the morning for our flight to Adelaide where we will catch a ferry to Kangaroo Island which is in southern Australia.
Doug's Travels 