To A Place Unknown: 5.July.2016 (Day 30)

Living in my own private Idaho

Leaving behind the field station, Darwin, and the NT was bittersweet. Parts of the daily routine were almost starting to feel normal and the best animal spots were just coming into focus.

Typical to life in the top-end, I was given a proper NT goodbye on my way to the airport.

Turn on the headlights for end-of-the-world-fires please.

My initial plan was to fly-out sample toads and run my dehydration trials, and then fly back. I wanted to give myself 5 full days just to be safe.

Unfortunately for my bank account this is the high-high-high tourist season in Australia. I did manage to find a ‘cheaper’ flight, but I’ll have to stay from Monday to Wednesday.

Nine days in a tropical paradise, waaah, boo hoo

#FirstWorldProblems.

(Checking an empty container that had liquid nitrogen in it was pretty interesting at the airport, but more on that later.)

To also save some dough, I booked a hotel a little out of town for what I thought was an incredible rate. Now that I’m here, I don’t know what crowd they normally cater to but some of the bathroom signs seem really odd/unnecessary.

What do you mean that’s not the right way?

My flight didn’t land until near midnight but considering I was supposed to be working I figured I’d stop at a park on my way to the hotel to look for some toads and possibly start running my dehydration trials.

BINGO

Ten toads in ~3 minutes.

Definitely the most challenging field work I’ve ever done.

Aside from the seedy bathroom signs (and stray currlies all over the bathtub and toilet, gross) the major perk to this hotel is a ‘do not disturb’ sign for the door (which hasn’t been in some of the other hotels I’ve stayed at). I can only imagine housekeeping walking in to a room full of toads stuck in Tupperware, needles on the counter, and a large grey case that vaguely resembles military chemical storage.

If I were a fly on the wall.

Good news, bad news. I found toads no problem, but I was up to almost 4am processing them and taking data.

My first full day in Cairns… I slept until almost noon (19-year-old George would be very proud).

Unwillingly to sit in a dank hotel room with 10 water-depraved toads, I ventured out to see what all the downtown fuss was about. Cairns (remember you yanks, pronounced can-z) is a tourist Mecca. I was warned that the crowds would be a little overwhelming, but I really had no idea.

It’s certainly a beautiful town. Try as I might though, I’ve inherited a good portion of my father’s agoraphobia and the crowds had me skittering out of there quickly.

So…many…tourists.

I hit the road going south with no real destination.

Just out of town, and for most of the drive, spread out in almost every direction are fields of sugar cane.

Sugarcane (Saccharum sp.)

Cane toads were introduced in Australia to eat the cane beetle which eats the sugar cane roots. Unfortunately the toads didn’t give a hoot about the beetles and spread out throughout Queensland.

Fields like this went on for miles (err kilometers) and made me feel like I’d get diabetes just looking out the window.

I’ll admit I was pretty excited to be back in the jungle. When I eventually pulled over and started on a hike though, I remembered the most frustrating thing about jungle work…

You can try looking left…

Too thick

Or right…

Still too thick

Or even up…

(sigh)

…and there are thick tangles of plants everywhere. The jungle is not the place to tarry far. Luckily there was a nearby trail.

Most of the time, the ‘trail’ isn’t much more than a narrow opening in a green wall.

The route (?)

In this case it led to a nice little swimming hole called Josephine falls. Still too crowded for my taste though.

Somehow I managed to find a pretty dodgy old trail that looked like it led somewhere at one point.

Sense of adventure still burning, and lacking my wife’s better judgment, I didn’t see why I wouldn’t follow it up.

Looks safe enough.

It didn’t lead up to much except a smaller portion of the river above the larger tourist-infested pool bellow.

The easiest jungle hike (and the least-likely way to get lost) is to just go trudging through streams.

Bridge over troubled waters

At the point of giving up and turning around, I could hear something in the distance. I knew that freight-train sound anywhere.

Waterfall!

My journey paid off big-time. Not only was this one of the most beautiful pools I’ve seen but I had it all to myself (which was also a plus since I forgot any kind of swimwear, wupps).