Scenic Drive

Spending the night in the rainforest was a great idea last night. All the comforting sounds of nature. Boy was I wrong. I woke up with mosquito bits on my legs and I as I stepped out of my room to go use the facilities there were all sorts of critters everywhere. I jumped at the sight of this good sized rat looking things. The guy who works there told me that that was a tree kangaroo. A lot of the species found in the rain forest are protected and since I had the Nissan Tida with me I had to be careful. So careful, in fact, the hotel owner had to watch me back up and out of the parking lot so that I didn't squash some endangered species. I felt bad but I had to laugh out loud because the hotel owner is a pudgy little Scottish guy who has the quintessential Scottish accent and while I was pulling out he thought he saw something and all I heard was "Shite...oh..ner a pro-blem, false alarm. Keep 'er comin' as she goes." It was perfect.

I had no agenda for the day, which was a big surprise. As I stopped for gas I saw a brochure for a scenic drive up to Port Douglas, which is a posh yacht club type town, so I turned the radio on and headed out. The radio out here is complete shit for driving music. There are nine thousand talk radio stations and one music station. The music station only plays re-makes of 70s and 80s songs with crazy rave beats behind them. I could only take so much of the "boom, boom, boom, boom" before my head was out to explode (I swear that music kills brain cells) so I put it on the talk stations. It was interesting for a little but all of the talk stations just talk about gossip stuff. I lost a lot of respect for Australia today. Of course I was in the Outback. The American Midwest doesn't have much for radio stations either, so I became a victim of circumstance. There were some interesting stories that popped up, which was a welcome relief.

The drive was beautiful. It is one of the very scenic drives in the world that is a World Heritage protected highway. It is easy to see why. The drive meanders along the coast, which is more than just a normal coast taking you through rock beaches, sandy beaches, and these mud beaches that look like someone came and sucked up a bunch of water with a straw because it looks like the shore should be higher up but it isn't. After a while in the coast you turn west into the rainforest, which encapsulates the entire road in greenery making a tunnel out of the forest. The forest is right on the beach but extends all the way up the mountains. Nature did a bang up job with the landscaping here.

I am starting to get really used to driving on the left. I am starting to wonder how it will feel when I go back to the "normal" way. One thing that I will not get used to is the roundabouts in the middle of the highway. You have to be alert because they can sneak up on you too. They aren't as crafty as the kangaroos and cows so I was prepared. I was a little worried that the rave music might have slowed my reflexes, though. I swear they need a health warning on that stuff.