The Kings Creek Station (no apostrophe) is a wide open space in the middle of the desert where several of us had a chance to throw our wooden boomerangs from the Cairns Night Markets. It was good fun throwing them around the field in our campsites, and although we broke most of them, we had … Continue reading Operation Cassowary: Eating Live Worms That Taste Like Raw Eggs →

When you leave Alice Springs, it's normally five hours straight to Uluru by moving south and then west. What we did, however, was proceed west, hit Aboriginal sites and King's Canyon, and then move south to Uluru. We were in three white jeeps, and moved like a convoy west out of the city. We would … Continue reading Operation Cassowary: Sleeping With Camels →

The tour group and I engaged in a celebratory meal in downtown Cairns after a successful trip to the Great Barrier Reef. Cairns is a busy place, full of activists protesting politicians who were planning to dig holes in the reef, tourists browsing the night markets, and people enjoying the ice cream and gelato joints … Continue reading Operation Cassowary: The Long Voyage from Cairns to the Outback →

After leaving Cape Trib, our itinerary takes us to the cities of Port Douglas and Cairns, where I pet, feed, (and taste) some of Australia's wildlife. From Cairns, we visited the Great Barrier Reef and experienced some of the best waters on the planet. Welcome back to Operation Cassowary. Port Douglas is, according to our … Continue reading Operation Cassowary: Always Check Your Tail In the Great Barrier Reef →

The arrival of the car ferry symbolized our arrival in the Daintree Rainforest. What makes this rainforest so special? Well, the Daintree Rainforest, and most of all a certain area of it called Cape Tribulation, is the only place in the world where two humongous ecosystems collide. These are the Great Barrier Reef and the … Continue reading Operation Cassowary: Trials and Tribulations →

After less than one hour of sleep, three finished movies, and extreme amounts of Duran Duran music, the television screen on the seat in front of me was counting down the minutes as the mini-map airplane closed in on the east coast of Australia. In my aisle seat, tactically placed for easy bathroom access, I … Continue reading Operation Cassowary: Entering Cook’s Magical Landmass →