Tales Of Brave Ulysses*

19 - 22 March 2010
The first part of our journey to get to Bloomfield Lodge in the rainforest was by small aircraft. Knowing our good fortune on this journey would you take a flight in a small aircraft with us? No? Wise decision! All pre-take-off checks completed we zoomed along the runway at Cairns and reached the end without taking off. “Sorry guys, there seems to be a problem with one of the gauges; we’re gonna have to go back and get an engineer to look at it” came the pilot announcement – well actually he just leaned over his shoulder and said it; this was a very small aeroplane. Back in the lounge, from where we could see the aircraft, we watched as a couple of guys lifted the ‘bonnet’ and sprayed some WD40 around, a quick test zoom along the runway and we were back on board and airborne.
We forgot to say that Cyclone Ului was, by now, approaching land, albeit much further south but we were getting the strong winds so the plane was buffeted quite a lot as we flew up the coast. The view of the rainforest on one side and the Great Barrier Reef on the other was truly spectacular. The aircraft was fitted with a Garmin sat nav (it seemed a bit more sophisticated than the one we have in the car back home) and as we came into land it kept flashing a warning: “TERRAIN AHEAD”. Indeed terrain was ahead in the form of a large mountain and we were flying straight towards it but we turned in plenty of time and landed on a very bumpy grass airstrip. No customs, no immigration, just a very nice guy named Gary from the Lodge to load our bags into the 4WD and take us for a short drive along a dirt road to the jetty where we boarded the boat to take us down the Daintree River to the sea and on to the jetty of the Lodge.

The Lodge is situated in the fringes of the Daintree Rainforest near the sea. The forest is now a National Park and the Lodge is one of only a handful of properties in the 1200 square kilometre area. There has been rainforest vegetation in this area for at least 200million years (making it 20 times older than the Amazon rainforest) and to date over 3000 plant species have been identified with over 700 of them endemic to the region. The forest also supports two thirds of Australia’s bat and butterfly species, plus nearly a third of the country’s frog, reptile and marsupial species including such rarities as tree kangaroos – we didn’t see one but on one of our walks we did see their claw marks on a tree where they had regularly climbed up. Of course what makes the rainforest so prolific in plant and animal life is rain – and the area gets an impressive annual average of four metres rainfall – that’s wet! Knowing our good fortune with the weather on this journey and the fact that we are on the edge of a cyclone would you come to the rainforest with us? No? Bad decision! Cyclone Ului has ‘sucked’ all of the weather systems from here about into its low pressure centre and left us with hot sun, it is still very humid – about 90% humidity beneath the rainforest canopy but there is always a cooling sea breeze which makes it more than bearable. On a couple of nights we had torrential rain which only added to the attraction. The Lodge is in the rainforest and a five minute walk in one direction took us well beneath its dense canopy and a five minute walk in the opposite direction took us on to the beach.
We were told that the Lodge started life as the Holiday Lodge for The Federated Painters and Dockers Union – a criminal organisation masquerading as a Trade Union. The Lodge was financed by the proceeds of organised crime on a grand scale. It seems that the government of the time was well aware of the organisation having “criminal roots in Sydney and at one point the Lodge was raided by Queensland police because what is now the lawn leading down to the jetty was a huge cannabis plantation but the whole affair was covered up for years. Now the Lodge is owned by a guy who has made it into the “beautifully remote”, “exclusive” and “luxury” holiday destination that it is today. On our first evening when we were fishing off the jetty, Chris confided in Gary that she had been worried about the place being too “posh”, Gary retorted that “we soon knock the posh out of people – the minute I met you two I knew you’d fit in”. A great compliment indeed –indeed we did in fit in with the warm welcoming relaxed atmosphere. It is everything it says it is in the brochure – plus some. We don’t think we have ever stayed anywhere which has given us such a totally satisfying experience. So much so that Chris wanted this blog entry to be titled “If Paradise Is Half As Nice” but this song goes on in an unsuitable vein so Gregg chose something, inevitably, much more obscure.

So what did we do with ourselves for four days in “beautifully remote” Daintree?
Eating: the food was the best we have eaten in Australia with fresh fruit, salads and vegetables in abundance, as well as fish and seafood (some of it caught from the jetty) all of it imaginatively and superbly prepared and individually tailored to each person’s dietary requirements. All meals are taken communally in the dining area so present an opportunity to meet new people as guests are arriving and leaving each day – on one day we had the place to ourselves for a whole morning until two new people arrived at lunchtime, the most was 12 (it can accommodate a maximum of 36 people).
Fishing: we tried our hand at fishing from the jetty. On the first occasion G caught a large shovel-nosed ray which was so strong it broke his line, then C caught a large mud-crab (taste much nicer than they sound) but it dropped off the line but then she caught a white-tipped reef shark. Gary had told us that sharks normally break the line and go free and as the Lodge only uses degradable hooks and lines it would be OK; but this one didn’t break the line so we had to dial 9 from the phone thoughtfully provided and call for Gary’s help who netted it, released it from the hook, let G take a photograph of him, C and shark, and then threw it back where it promptly swan off safely.
Listening: to the sounds of the rainforest which is never silent, likewise the sea.
Looking: at the birds and butterflies, at the trees, plants and flowers, at the ever changing light over the mountains, at the frogs, lizards and snakes, at the myriad stars on crystal-clear pitch-black nights - the constellations are sort of upside down though! Many of the butterflies and moths are huge and have the most beautiful colours – one of the best has to be the Ulysses which has brilliant blue upper wings and dark spotted under wings which appear to ‘flash’ on and off as it flies with its wings opening and closing. They fly from the ground to the top of the rainforest canopy and back again. Reptiles seen included a couple of tree snakes, although one was on the boat jetty rather than in a tree, a red eyed tree frog, several cane toads (they really are disgusting) and an Amethystine Python, which is Australia’s largest snake and can grow up to 8.5 metres long, however this was only a baby one at one metre long, which Gary found outside the dining area and brought it into show us.





Reading: we have had chance to read books other than travel guides as the Lodge has an extensive library. One book on Aboriginal Art contains a quote from Margaret Pearson (an Australian post-impressionist) that although the mystic properties of Aboriginal art is important, “mythology and religious symbolism do not matter to the artist, only to the anthropologist” which struck a chord.
Relaxing: something we have not done very much of on this holiday as we keep moving from place to place but the Lodge is very conducive for doing nothing – although after this peace Hong Kong and then Tokyo may be overwhelming.
Riverboating: we went for a trip up the Bloomfield River with a very knowledgeable guide named Jamie who pointed out numerous things of interest – the main ones being the Estuarine Crocodiles basking in the warmth on the edge of the river – we didn’t see any really big ones though, the largest one we spotted was only about three metres long! There is one which is that can be seen that is 6 metres long.
Swimming: the Lodge has a beautiful deep pool in which we swam every day.
Walking: we undertook a walk deep into the forest, again with Jamie, and saw some wonderful flora and fauna (including wild pigs – one of which growled at us before running off); one part of the walk took us to the top of the ridge which was a very steep climb, so-much-so that we had to use ropes to haul ourselves up the last 500m. (Note: C quite glad that there is no rainforest in UK as Barry and Gregg can get lost in Epping Forest – sorry, Barry and Gregg can take detours in Epping Forest – so what would happen to them in jungle is anyone’s guess). We also walked to the beach on a number of occasions where we beach-combed and G, inevitably, built driftwood sculptures.


23 March 2010
Cyclone Ului hit land on Sunday along way south of where we were but last night its tail brought torrential rain to Bloomfield, so much so that G woke up C to say a hurricane had arrived. She wasn’t at all impressed and told him it was just raining and to go back to sleep.
This morning we were told we had 44mm of rain overnight and that the airplane that was due to take us back to Cairns could not land on the grass airstrip we used when we arrived and instead we had to be driven to Cooktown, an hour’s drive north on dirt tracks by 4WD. Aren’t you glad you came with us? The drive was very interesting and enjoyable as we went through more of the rainforest but also across the Black Mountain, two huge mounds of black granite boulders near the road, the result of ancient volcanic activity.
We arrived back in Cairns after a very turbulent flight and returned to our hotel to re-pack for tomorrow’s flight to Hong Kong.