Mission Beach
We rented a car in Cairns and drove down to Mission Beach for a day.
The car was very small, and it took some getting used to, since the driver
sits on the right side:
In the summer in Australia, you can't swim in the water off the beaches,
because of the deadly Box Jellyfish (aka the Sea Wasp). One of our
guide books said you can tell when someone's been stung by a Box Jellyfish,
because they will come running out of the water screaming and then fall
down on the beach and have a heart attack. We did get to swim there,
but only in a area cordoned off with nets.
Here's a picture of the actual beach. The tide and the fauna make
interesting patterns in the sand:
The Mission Beach area is where Cassowaries live. They are a vital
part of the rainforest ecology (they are solely responsible for spreading
the seeds of dozens of plant species). They are bizarre looking,
but very rare. We didn't see one, but we took a picture of this statue
of one to remember what they look like:
