Our latest Grand Adventure is taking place within the far northern tropical region of Queensland Australia. We have managed a move from the leafy suburbs of coastal Cairns to the clear air, cooler climes and rolling lush green fields of the tropical tablelands that hover above Port Douglas and the Daintree.
We have purchased five acres with a much smaller house than our far-too-big home in Cairns, but it is a house that is graced with a very large and comfortable verandah that sports views out over the expansive garden, our paddock and dam, and the dark and thickly rainforest-clad Mt Lewis National Park. Those dramatically steep mountain slopes harbour such unusual animals as cassowaries, tree kangaroos, white lemuroid possums and countless other rare and unique creatures.
We are still in the process of shifting our seemingly endless stores of Stuff, trailer load by trailer load, along the wonderfully scenic coastal drive north of Cairns and then up the winding Rex Range, an hour and a half’s drive each way. We are presently living out of two houses, one rapidly emptying one and another place that is gradually becoming a home that we never want to move from again.
As we compose these words the air is at least four degrees cooler than on the coast, the trees are whispering as the refreshing breeze caresses us, and multiple delicate honey eater birds chirp and flutter energetically past. Multiple flowers are blooming in the garden, every colour of hibiscus you can imagine, and the different varieties of mangoes and lychees are all ripening nicely. The grass is green, and although the rest of Australia is in the grip of a drought and terrible bushfires this tropical region has been blessed with sufficient rain.
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