TRAVEL DAY 556 starts with morning coffee on the deck in the rain forest

Our lives may be simple – but with this long trip – our lives are definitely not boring.  Joe always has a black cup of coffee to start the day.  So, why not on a deck looking out to the rainforest?

When we planned our trip to the rainforest, we looked around for a place to stay.  How did the “Bush Turkey Bungalow” in Kuranda sound?  Perfect!  Of course, we had NO idea where Kuranda was.  Time to pull out a map.

When we arrived, we were greeted by this little statue at the top of the steps leading down to the cabin.

We settled in quickly, enjoying tropical fruits, like custard apple (no relation to apples, in case you were wondering).  Ah, but very like custard.

Our AirBnB host, Helen, came to visit bearing an unusual gift – a durian for us to try.  Now, we (and you) knew about durians and their smell, which is so strong that many places ban them.  We’d also heard that many people love the creamy taste.  We’d shied away from trying them all through our travels in Asia, but, with Helen’s “try it; you’ll like it” assurance, we decided maybe this was the time.  The smell was truly foul, but the taste was sweet, rich, and creamy.

Joe read and wrote on the deck every morning.  He noticed the many insects marching on the deck rail or flying by, so he pulled out his iPhone to work on perfecting his close-up photography skills.

We admired the rainforest planned “garden” as we walked up the driveway.  The trees all had epiphyte plants on them adding to the lush, very green effect.

At the top of the road we turned left, walked about 2 minutes, and saw the sign informing us that we had just entered Barron Gorge National Park.  We think life is very good when you live right next to a National Park!  We walked down the path, and, there, before us stood the cliffs of the dry season version of the great Barron Falls.

We enjoyed our stay at the Bush Turkey Bungalow.  Would we ever get bored here, we wondered?  We’ll never know.  On travel day 560, we headed down to the coastal town of Port Douglas.

 

May 2014