Treehouse in the Daintree

Hey all,

I am currently staying with an incredible older couple, Mike and Sigang. They live in a beautiful house on a hill that overlooks the coast and is surrounded by the amazing Daintree National Park Rainforest, and their only access in and out is by boat! Mike was born in the States and joined the peace core where he met Sigang in Malaysia, they are really great people and are totally into living sustainably and off the land. They drink rainwater, which pools from their roof and streams, solar panels to for power with reserve batteries, and a wide variety of exotic fruits and veggies that they grow in their garden. They also eat plenty of seafood and even the occasional wild boar that they can hunt right from the borders of their property. John and I are staying in a side shed/house that they used to live in when they were building their current one. It has now walls and the only thing keeping the creepy crawlies off us at night is the mosquito netting around our beds. The place is equipped with all the essentials for modern living, we have a hose for when we want to shower, our flashlights and battery lamps for night, and whenever we need to use the restroom there is a great hole in the ground tank made from an old truck that we can squat over. The place is paradise. So far we have removed a bunch of “rubbish” out to the beach, taken down a large tree overhanging our house, carried a bunch of wood up the hill, harvested bamboo to make scaffolding, and collected and shucked some delicious oysters. We have also gone on a rainforest hike lead by Mike who guided us up a river across a dry precipice, through thick underbrush filled with the annoying wait-a-while thorny palm vines, up and down different ridges all the while barefoot wielding a pair of scissors and a machete, he is totally hardcore. Even though we got a little lost and didn’t arrive at the viewpoint we were searching for, we did come across a giant fig tree, which was pretty amazing. During our stay I don’t think I have ever eaten so well and so healthily in my life. For my typical breakfast I would have oats with apples, oranges, coconuts, star fruit, ladyfinger bananas, raisins, all topped with some whole milk. We also eat a variety of other fruits including the delicious passion fruit, sour sop, abius, papaya, mango/paw paw, limes, and a variety of unusual apples. Soon mike is going to take us boar hunting and, if the water clears up, snorkeling too. I am really enjoying my stay here and am looking forward to the places I have yet to go.

Hope all is well in the States,

John

 

My exact gps coordinates are 15 56 27. 72 south 145 degrees 23 mins 37 sec 22

Discovery Festival

Hey Guys, sorry for the delay the interweb was down,

So I have just finished my two-week stay at Brads place and it was amazing. I don’t think I have ever gotten to eat so much seafood in so short a span, we had Mud Crabs and fresh fish throughout the week, along with Kangaroo one night too (tasted like steak with the consistency of venison).  While at Brads John and I had some really cool adventures. One weekend we went up to Cooktown for the Discovery Festival and stayed with Doreen, a nice Aboriginal woman who is friends with Brad. The festival marked the discovery/crash landing of Capt James Cook to Australia and his interactions with the Aboriginal people. There were some pretty cool activities for tourists to check out including an Aboriginal dance that I took part in. While at Brads we also got to go on an overnight hike to a extremely secluded beach at Cedar Bay. To get there we hiked for 3 hours through thick rainforest jungle, up and over a saddle that required ropes to help the decent, and over a mile of jagged rocks along the coast, but once we finally arrived it made it all worth it. The beach was incredible with its fresh water streams, total privacy, and all the coconuts you could eat. The next day we ate breakfast, went for a swim and then headed back to through the jungle to get to a point near the mouth of the Bloomfield River where brad would pick us up in his dingy. We hiked back over the rocks and saddle and then that’s where it got a little tricky. The trail that we were supposed to follow had been severely overgrown and terribly marked, later we found out that there really wasn’t a trail to be followed, we were just supposed to keep walking East until we hit the ocean whatever way we could. So needless to say we got a little lost, even though it was just over a kilometer to get out to the beach it took us over 2.5 hours. At one point we were walking in a swamp along Fitz Creek and I saw the largest Crocodile I had spotted yet, it must have been at least 17 feet long, at that point John and I decided that we need to get on some higher ground and out of the swamp. Shortly thereafter we made it to the beach and had a relaxing 2 hour long walk until Brad picked us up.

Over the course of our stay at Brads we took on a bunch of different jobs including cementing posts for a trailer, making stairs, weeding plants, fixing crab pots, digging holes, planting, getting loads of rocks, dirt and gravel, and creating wire frames to protect his fruit trees from wild horses. The entire process was great and Brad said that we were excellent workers getting done twice the work in half the time compared to other helpers. On Wednesday we said goodbye to Brad and were picked up at his dock to stay with Mike and Sigang who live just a little south of Brad in the Daintree Rainforest in a beautiful house only accessible by boat. Mike says he is going to take us snorkeling and spear fishing for fish and lobsters. I can’t wait to try it out. I hope all is going well for everyone back home.

Love you guys,

John

Our First Host

So after a couple days staying at a backpackers hostel John and I booked a bus ride up to Degarra to stay with Brad Gould, our first host. The bus we took was totally off road capable which was great because on the road north through the rain forest we drove through three large streams and some really rocky terrain, nothing like Septa in Philly. Within the first couple of hours Brad took us out on one of his boats where we saw a six foot female Croc and also picked up a couple of crabs from some pots he had set out earlier. We then came back and did a couple of light chores around his house, which reminds me of my Aunt Martha and Uncle Robert’s place in San Diego. He lives on a ten-acre plot that runs right up to the shore of the Bloomfield River right near the mouth of the Pacific Ocean. On his property he has a variety of exotic fruit trees, three rope swings, an outside compostable toilet, ping-pong table, Xbox Kinect, and a above ground pool (unfilled though). Right now Brad just got back from some other work he does and were about to go collect some gravel in his truck. So far this looks like it is going to be a great time here and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Starting Off

Hello Friends,

So I am just about to start my Australian Adventure and I figured it would be good to give people a heads up about what I'm planning on doing. First of all I will traveling with a college roommate, John Bergandino and we will begin our trip in the North-eastern part of Queensland along the Bloomfield River in Degarra. That area of Oz is a rainforest so I am totally excited to see what the jungle will be like. Once we are there we will take a couple of days to get ourselves aquatinted with the country, then we will take a bus up the coast to meet up with our first hosts Brad, Craig, and Cory to stay on their ranch. From there on we will be making our way down the coast staying with different people along the way. I will keep you posted on what happens next, until then g'day mates.