Exchange: American tourist with Australian II

and drove up to southern part of York peninsula to see
rain forests on another day. I am not suicidal, asshole , and didn't
go
all the way up.
PJ

Why would you have to be suicidal, PJ?.. I was never menaced by
blackfellas or attacked by
crocodiles once. Mind you, I'm not congenitally stupid, so your wife
probably made the right decision for you.
Craig

No concern over crocdoiles or "blackfellas". I am from SW Georgia so we
live peacefully and with mutual respect for both (not "crocs" though
but "gators").

You probably know cairns better than me in Feb. Few times I have been
there it was sunny in the morning and you could see clouds building up
late morning, early afternoon, followed by tropical, torrential
downpours mid afternoon with flash flooding. I wanted to go up further
but we were advised not to, since we didn't know the terrain and where
dangerous flooding could occur.

You are right about my wife. She is not a "rugged" type by a stretch
and
enjoys only luxury type accomodations. As I tell her all the time, I
think she must have descended from royalty that she doesn't know about.
I did notice from Queensland guide books there were what sounded like
neat rain forest resorts further north. Even had my eye on renting a
jeep type 4wd out of Cairns but couldn't talk her into it particularly
when the locals advised against it.

When were planning our Australian excursion to Ayers Rock and Alice
Springs, I inquired on the net then about renting a car and driving
from Ayers to Alice, again in Feb (it was hotter than hot there then),
and got good advice not to drive for the same reason and to take a
greyhound bus from Ayers Rock. I sat up with the driver on most of the
trip. He was an untenured academic, I believe in Sociology, from Sydney
(where else?), spending that summer driving while his wife and kids
were back in Sydney. He was very knowledgeable about the area and it
was a very interesting day and Alice was so interesting. The red
desert is one of the most beautiful places on earth, We came across a
Dutch artist living in Alice who was inspired by the red desert with
the "Ghost gums" ?( "nomenclature', again) and his work captured it
perfectly.

Thanks again for allowing me to recollect