Coming back to Melbourne
felt to us both a little like coming home. Travelling is wonderful and exciting
and fun, but it’s also tiring, and nothing beats a good old (dry!) bed and the
comfort of your family around you. So much as we loved the Daintree, we were
bloody excited about coming back to Melbourne!
We had a wonderful
(dry!!) last few days in the Daintree, and spent a night in the beautiful town
of Port Douglass which is quaint and posh and has a lovely beach so we were
happy. We also stumbled across Cane toad Racing…I’ve bored you all to death
with Cane Toads so I won’t go into it, but let’s just say that that was a weird
experience…
One last note on the
Daintree before I leave it…The North Queesnland Wet Tropics that house the
Daintree covers a puny 0.01% of Australia’s surface area but it houses a
whopping 36% of mammal species, 50% of bird species, 60% butterfly species and
65% fern species. It is incredibly diverse and is an incredibly valuable
resource that I sincerely hope the people of Australia look after. We are using
a 10 year old Lonely Planet and it’s reassuring to see that it doesn’t sound
like it’s changed in the last 10years. If anything, some things seem to have
improved-the Cassowary population seems to have improved and there sounds like
there might be slightly more awareness amongst locals of the need to protect
the environment. We think this is in no small part due to the fact that there
is no grid electricity, and especially during the wet season and cyclone season
the weather can be pretty brutal which makes it a challenge to live there
(definitely not for the faint-hearted!). We also think it might be partly due
to the fact that the only direct route in is via a car ferry which definitely
limits the amount of development in the area as no developers want to contend
with that.
However…there is
constantly talk about getting rid of this ferry in exchange for a bridge, and
always talk of bringing the Grid to the Daintree. If either of these two propositions
were to actually be carried out I think it would have a devastating consequence
on the Daintree as I’m sure it would just open the floodgates to the world. Of
course this is a contentious issue between local people who seem to be divided
between those that are encouraging it as it would bring tourism to their
businesses and a far easier and accessible way of life, and those who strongly contest
it as they know it would spell the end of their haven, and would inevitably
have a negative effect on the environment. Of course you know my thoughts on
it, so I just sincerely hope I’ll pick up a Lonely Planet in 10 years-time and
will be happy to see that nothing much has changed in the Daintree (unless for
the better!). So until then…
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