Water Parks

OK, these are the last Cairns photos and then I am back to trying to actually stay fairly current.  The last few days in North Queensland were in Cairns and the best Caravan Park on Earth!  They have two jumping pillows and that was about enough to do Levi's head in.  The Caravan Park was through a boom gate with cameras and pass keys.  Levi could go off on his own 'make friends' (his words) and play and then come back when he was tired, or hungry, or thirsty. 

He loved the freedom.  I loved not having to watch him every second.  I love watching him get more independent and these sort of trips are a good step in that direction. 

Levi gets some real airtime on those jumping pillows.  He can jump and jump!  I went out one morning and jumped with him.  You can go about half an hour and then your calves about die!  Levi can't go a lot longer than I can.  We deteriorated to playing Red Rover with just the two of us.  It became a complicated game that disqualified you if you stepped onto the sand.  After about five minutes of that, we had a few random kids join us and then a few more.  After about ten minutes I sat down and the game had become self sustaining.  It is lovely watching kids just be kids.  It is lovely to watch that many happy, healthy kids all just getting along!

 So we would go off during the day and do fun things like snorkeling or Kuranda and then when we got back, there was at least as much fun back home!  The last day we just stayed at the Park and played.  I think that was Levi's favourite day anyway.  He really did just need some time where 100% of his Mum's attention was on him.  He has had the short straw a few things lately.  Outreach has been hard on him and coming one straight after the other compounded it.  I have been distracted at times as well with babies and children that I love being sick all over the globe.  I too, needed some time to just jump.  I needed time to just feel the freedom that I see in Levi's face in these photos.  Just joy.  Joy in life.  Joy in feeling your muscles work under you.  Joy that, for all the kids in trouble in the world, there are more kids who grow up happy and healthy.  Kids who are well enough to just take life and growing out for granted.  How I wish that were true of all kids!

The other thing that the park has, is a water park/splash park.  It starts at 10am and goes through until 6pm.  The water is too cold for me but really most water is too cold for me.  It is still early spring here but Cairns never gets cold enough to even turn off the waterpark.  Levi wore his wetsuit.  I love this wetsuit.  I remember Ross in that suit and Evan.  I see those little boys and remember them at that age.  It won't last much longer.  Levi barely fits it anymore but I squeezed him in, because I can wait and get him a new one at the beginning of fall next year, giving me a few more months in it, for my fast growing weed ...... sorry ...... Child!

Levi had an absolute blast!  There was a big bucket at the top that gradually filled up.  Just as it neared the top, a bell would ring and then the bucket would upend and dump water everywhere.  As the bell rang, kids would come racing around and stand to get the full blast.  

There were taps to turn on and off and all sorts of equipment that shot water or caught water.  There were troughs to dam and to redirect flow.  There were a myriad of slides.

And by the end.  He was trashed!

 

Green Island

 I am still running a few days late. I am now back to work but I am talking about holidays and it is almost as good. We went snorkeling last Thursday. Green Island, no less.  It was perfect weather and the perfect day!  We found a sailing boat that went out to Green Island and moored off the island.  It allowed us to have our own snorkeling space.  Initially Levi was all pissy because he wanted to go diving and not snorkeling but once we saw the dolphin playing in our bow wave he forgot all about it.

We had a couple of hours snorkeling and then we were dropped on Green Island by tender to play on the beach for about an hour.  Levi and I built a castle with a complicated series of dams and moats and we played in the water. 

The tender came to pick us up and as we were driving back to the boat we saw the most beautiful sight.  There was a huge humpback breaching over and over in the distance.  The skipper of the little tender gave us all the option;

"Snorkeling or Whale watching?"

It was unanimous.  We all wanted the whales.  As we got a little closer (Not too much - there are lots of rules about boats and whales), we could see a littler shadow following each breach.  It was a mother humpback, teaching her new calf to breach and jump.  There was a huge jump and splash, quickly followed by little shadow and a smaller splash.  Breathtaking.  I feel so much joy watching that demonstration of motherly love. 

On the way home Levi was just exhausted.  I gave him a towel as a pillow and another as a blanket and he quickly feel fast asleep.  It was a warm space on the deck.  Well for a little while!  The sailing boat's bow dropped into a wave and water poured over the deck.  Standing on the deck, it felt like someone had emptied a swimming pool onto our heads.  It was enough that it soaked the skipper in the back.  The water poured over Levi, soaking the towels.  Levi didn't even wake up.  While we froze on the deck, because we were soaked and in the wind, but after sliding a hand in to check Levi, I realised that it was like a sauna in there.  He was fine!

Parrot fish eating coral

Getting Back to Cairns

The next day ( I think it was Wednesday) we drove from Undara to Innisfail and then to Cairns.  Levi and I went to a Crocodile Park and because it was a small one we were able to wander around pretty much undisturbed for much of the morning.  The lady at the desk let us in cheaply because we were 'locals'.  I asked what that entailed because we were obviously not locals!  She said it was because we could actually pronounce Cairns properly and that was enough in her books!.

There were wallabies to pat and lots of other animals.  It was a Croc farm and I had a long talk to one of the handlers about their method of getting the eggs.  Now Croc Mums are pretty fierce and defend their nest well.  Croc Dads are just as happy to eat the babies, so they can't leave them in there, but he will defend his mate!  They said that two people distracted Dad with food while three of them sat on Mum and one other person quickly grabbed the eggs.  Now I am glad that I am not the OH&S officer at that farm!

 Because it was so quiet, we got all the time in the world with the animals.  Levi got to hold a snake, which you can see he was fairly nervous about.  Right after this photo and in the next (Which Blogger for some reason won't load), the snake dropped further around him and started to squeeze a little.  As Carpet Snakes are constrictors, it was a bit much at this point for both myself and Levi and the snake got given to the next person.  I think the snake was a little disappointed that the only morsel that it might have been able to tackle was taken from him!

I got to hold a baby Saltwater Crocodile.  The baby they gave me was way too strong and feisty for Levi and would have been free in about a microsecond and biting him a minute later.  They are incredibly powerful for their size!  Overall though it was a fantastic day.  Levi took the photo of me, which is why it looks as if it was taken about hip height.  It was! 

I was wearing Tie Dye in honour of a family back in Oregon.  I am sure the little boy barely remembers me.  But I remember him!  Here's wishing his family peace!

Undara

This is where we stayed the next two nights.  A railway carriage!  It was a great idea on paper but it was a bit squished.  The beds were in a tiny room together and the refrigerator was about 1/2 a kilometre away in the camp kitchen.  The area was fabulous though.  The walks and the tours were fabulous!

The lava tubes themselves are the biggest in the world.  They are certainly a lot bigger than the ones that I have walked through in northern California.  There was a story there about NASA finding markings on Mars that they said were proof of water, but this lady who had seen these tubes said;

"They could be just lava tubes"

To which NASA said;

"Lava tubes don't get that big"

And she said;

"I don't know about that.  Our lava tubes are twice that size"

NASA has since changed their findings to report lava tubes and not past river flows.

The lava tubes are enormous and they are cool places in an inferno.  At the moment too, they are wet places, with crystal clear water from the floods in January.  In fact six weeks ago one of the tubes that we waded through was chest deep and inaccessible!

Here is Levi wading through the tube.  It was just over my knees which placed it well up on Levi's thighs.  We took his shorts off and he waded like that.  He loved it!  We walked several tracks that day and was very happy to be cooled down.  Frankly my feet were numb from the moment we started wading so I can't really tell you the real temperature!  I am a baby about cold water at the best of times and even Levi who will swim in anything, was cold in this water.

Right after all that walking, Levi played at jumping in the pool.  I was a big baby and was soaking up the sun watching him!  We spent two days in Undara and then headed to the coast.  I am running several days behind in reporting because Undara was another place with zero internet.  I am trying to report in chronological order so bear with me!

This is the lava tube with water in it!

Chillagoe

We are back in Internet land after being well outside the zone.  If you remember that Verizon guy talking in the phone all the time;

"Can you hear me now?"

Well in Chillagoe I can assure you the answer is a resounding No! There are some fantastic things to see and do and Levi has been a trooper.  Each day we have done walks totalling about 6kms in two or three walks or tours.  There are some great limestone caves and fabulous formations.  We were able to explore a couple of caves by ourselves and had to go on guided tours for three of them. 

This is Balancing Rock.  Of Course!  We walked up and around it and Levi climbed through it and all over the rocks on the walk.  The best reward was at the end though when we played in the swimming hole.  Actually, I am a complete baby when it comes to cold water, so I stayed out and took photos.  Mim and Mike both got in and tested the depths before all the jumping! 

One of the caves was not lighted.  You carried around these big batteries and torches and there were some really tight squeezes.  In one you have to climb through a tiny little hole and drop out the bottom, legs first.  Levi was very proud of himself for doing this and talked and talked about doing it afterwards!