So apparently, Australia has two seasons: wet and dry. The wet season runs from November through April, marked by a high frequency of cyclone and monsoon activity and fast-moving low-pressure systems that bring torrential rains. Alas, in planning the rest of our time in Australia we did not know this, nor did we look at the weather forecast for the place we were heading after Sydney and Melbourne…
And so we arrived late at night in the tacky tourist beach town of Cairns, some 2,400 km north of Sydney, during just such a rain, on the outskirts of Cyclone Charlotte, which drenched the country’s northern coast with 20 inches of rain in 36 hours even as it was downgraded below cyclone status. Apparently the storm did massive damage all around us, flooding homes and businesses.
The downpour continued and we spent the entire next day in our hotel, testing out the gym, catching up on the news, watching season 1 of Deadwood (excellent, excellent show!!), trying not to eat the snacks in the minibar…
The next morning we woke up to bright sunshine outside, so we rented a car and headed for the hills. Unlike the vast, arid outback, this is a part of Australia where the lush rainforest rises up from the ocean into mountains where the air is hot, steamy and close. Insects and frogs fill the forests with eerie, rhythmic sci-fi sound effects, and tropical downpours can sweep in over the hills to end even a cloudless day.
The good news is, the other tourists left town about a week ago, and the past three days have been mostly sunny (and steamy steamy), so that means we have places like the stunning Four Mile Beach in Port Douglas all to ourselves…
Next stop: the Great Barrier Reef (gulp)…
