We have had warm weather Christmases before, so it wasn't really the warm weather that made the difference. It was a combo of Australia just in general not being as over the top as the US is about Christmas, and spending most of our time outside of cities and never in malls. We also didn't listen to the radio (with the exception of Alan occasionally turning it on to get the cricket scores --sorry England) so never heard a single Christmas carol.
What were the signs of Christmas that we did see?
- A total of 5 cars with the red Rudolf nose on their front grills and antlers on their windows.
- 1 car with a renegade candy cane circle on the front grill.
- Two farms/ranches where they decorated the barbed wire fencing flanking their front gates. One possibly decorated by a child, the other with a more Martha Stewart flair
- Lots of small towns with the old style, tinfoil garland type decorations
- Strings of colored lights in parks and over main streets
- Most of the small Australian Country towns we were in have divided main streets. Often the median area is park-like with trees, shrubs, roses, benches, etc. And, at this time of year, decorated Christmas trees
Our Christmas Day
Daintree Village
Steve started out early with some local birding and I slept in, then got some coffee and enjoyed it on the veranda.
We enjoyed Christmas breakfast on the veranda with Trish and Andrew, then headed down to the jetty. Ian had invited us to be his guest on the 9:30 am cruise he was running. This was on the bigger boat that focuses on crocs, but we were always happy to take the opportunity to be on the river.
We arrived early, and Ian and his partner were holding little bits of bread over the side of the boat. He had trained archer fish to spit on command for the bread. Archer fish spit streams of water to knock berries into the water to eat. In this case, if they spit water he would throw them the bit of bread. Very entertaining!
On the beach
After the river cruise we hung about on the veranda, had a cup of tea, Trish brought over some delicious shortbread cookies she had made. Eventually we headed out, thinking to go to Mitchell Lake, but changed our mind and went to the Cairns Esplanade.
It was about 1 1/2 hours down the Captain Cook Highway, just a beautiful drive. It skirts the sea most of the way and it is a gorgeous turquoise. At the esplanade Steve headed for the mangroves to bird (got the mangrove robin) and I threw a blanket down on the grass and enjoyed the sun, reading, writing, watching people and the sea.
We arrived early, and Ian and his partner were holding little bits of bread over the side of the boat. He had trained archer fish to spit on command for the bread. Archer fish spit streams of water to knock berries into the water to eat. In this case, if they spit water he would throw them the bit of bread. Very entertaining!
On the beach
After the river cruise we hung about on the veranda, had a cup of tea, Trish brought over some delicious shortbread cookies she had made. Eventually we headed out, thinking to go to Mitchell Lake, but changed our mind and went to the Cairns Esplanade.
It was about 1 1/2 hours down the Captain Cook Highway, just a beautiful drive. It skirts the sea most of the way and it is a gorgeous turquoise. At the esplanade Steve headed for the mangroves to bird (got the mangrove robin) and I threw a blanket down on the grass and enjoyed the sun, reading, writing, watching people and the sea.
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