16:18 Fri.

1 Sep, 2017

Let’s go swimming!

Ok, maybe not!

Tags: Crocodiles, gorge, rain, rain forest, snakes, trip

Cape Tribulation , Australia

21 °C

Mostly Cloudy

6:24 am

6:12 pm

On Tuesday afternoon we arrived to Cairns, far up north on the continent. On Tuesday we had a chance to walk about the city, since it was not safe to swim. How come? Well there are some animals swimming around that want to eat you.

On Wednesday we gor up early in the mornings in order to go on a whole day tour even further up north into a ancient rainforest. It is suppose to be the oldest forest on Earth, dating back as far as 120 million years.

After driving for a couple of hours we arrived to the Daintree river which marks the border of civilization. On the other side there is no electricity, no phone signal, no nothing.

We crossed the river in a levi and drove some more on the other side. There we took a walk through the forest looking at the ancient flora and trying to spot some of the animals. Most of them were extremely well camouflaged, even after guide pointed his finger 2 cm away from them it was almost impossible to see them. After the walk we had a lunch on a nearby sandy beach, where another giant bird came to say

After the lunch we had another special thing planned. Sailing on a small boat up the river we crossed earlier. Well it was about time we saw some crocodiles, we heard so much about them. We did not have to wait long to see them. Few of them were sunbathing on the shores and few were swimming around. We were told these species is the largest, some males have reached length of over 8 meters. To top it off we also spotted some pythons in the tree canapies above the river.

After the river safari we departed toward home, stopping on the way in some gorge. Nothing to special compared to what we have in Slovenia.

Cairns is somewhere toward the end of photo.

City of Melbourne

Where weather changes every 30 minutes

Tags: eureka skydeck, Melbourne, rain, sun

Melbourne , Australia

7 °C

Cloudy

6:58 am

5:49 pm

Melbourne, the second largest city in Australia, with 4.4M inhabitants is set to surpass Sydney as the largest city by the year 2030.

In the past few days we had several opportunities to walk around the city and get a feel for it. It’s a mix of old buildings being shadowed by high modern skyscrapers. I think I saw at least 3 skyscrapers over 70 floors that are being build at the moment. The city had an golden era during mid 19th century when gold has been found in the area around it. Since then it has competed with Sydney for the most influence city of Australia.

Old arcades. The guy rings a bell each half an hour. — Old cathedral beside new skyscrapers.

Business district within the city center.

The city is relatively clean – for a big city, with lots of parks, trees and greenery. Sadly since it’s winter here most of the trees are leafless. It is winter here and the weather is quite weird. It is constantly changing in 1 hour it rained 2 times, there was a hail and sun with clear sky above the city showed for 2 times. The temperature currently are around 5-10 in the morning and can get up to 15 in the afternoon. When the sun is out it can be quite worm, if there is no wind, which is rarely. We really wish we would have brought more winter clothing with us.

You can see a lot of birds in the city. Many don't exist in Europe. — You can see a lot of birds in the city. Many don’t exist in Europe.

Arcades were build at the end of the gold rush in the late 19th century.

You can still find surprisingly a lot of phone booths around the city. I'm not sure if anyone is still using them. — You can still find surprisingly a lot of phone booths around the city. I’m not sure if anyone is still using them.

The city also boasts the oldest china town in the world. And has tons largest, fastest, longest, biggest … in the southern hemisphere, which literary means Australia and New Zeland (well you have a bit of South America and Africa as well).

Supposedly you go to jail if you are caught doing graffiti.

We actually saw some possums sleeping in the trees in this park (not this one obviously) . No sight of kangaroos yet though :( — We actually saw some possums sleeping in the trees in this park (not this one obviously) . No sight of kangaroos yet though 🙁

Old prison. Nowadays you can pay to be locked in there as a tourist.

As said before, view from our hotel is surprisingly good, but even a 28th store building gets dwarfed by the tallest building in Melbourne – Eureka and it’s skydeck. Today we had a chance to go up there on a 88th floor. It’s incredible how large the metropolitan area is, you can barely see the edge of the city when the lights get up. It’s in the 25th largest cities in the world by the city area, despite only having 4.4M inhabitants.

The entertainment district just across the river from our hotel.