Tropical Get Away

 

Illawarra flame tree (Brachychiton acerifolius)

Hello all,

Well, we finally made it. We were supposed to go on our holiday at the end of August but, as some of you might remember, Covid reared its ugly head and our trip was postponed.

So, here we are in Port Douglas staying in a luxurious, Balinese style  villa, set in a large compound with immaculately maintained, lush, tropical gardens. It's torture for a poor ikebanist like me to see all this wonderful material but to be forbidden from touching. And by 'touching' I mean cutting. At the villa we have a garden at the front and a bigger one at the back. At the end of the garden is a wall of vegetation at least 15 metres high. See photo below:

And this is me working on the blog. I lugged my heavy, ancient laptop with me just for this task.

It is so quiet that the only sounds we hear are the rustling of leaves, some birds, the babbling of the water features and the resident gecko, who clicks away every so often. And the biggest surprise of all, no insects!

All of the above is exclusively ours, with complete privacy. Other than going out for meals, we have no desire to leave this place. Having said that, with a fully appointed kitchen, including a coffee machine, we are able to prepare some simple meals ourselves.

We have a number of different Buddhas around the property looking after us. Here's one of them.

The main reason we, southerners, gravitate north is the weather but for those of us interested in plants, it's an absolute paradise. Below is one of two of these palm like plants in our back yard. Its common name is Traveller's palm, even though it is not really a palm. Its genus is Ravenala, Species madagascariensis. It's a relative of the strelitzias.

Oh how I'd love to get my hands on these crab claw heliconias (Heliconia bihai)

On Saturday we went for lunch at Ospreys Restaurant, Thala Beach Nature Reserve. The last time we were here we could not get a reservation, so this time we booked ahead and it was worth the effort. The restaurant is set high, with views of the tree tops and beyond that, Thala beach.

The view from our table.

                                 

And this lazy visitor (some kind of Monitor) stayed sleeping on the tree trunk for the duration of our meal.

Yesterday we took a drive to Palm Cove, mainly to see the majestic Paperbark Melaleucas, some of which are reported to be over 400 years old. They are protected, so much so, that buildings are built around them. You could be sitting in a restaurant with a giant tree trunk next to you. The rows of palm trees are, also, quite lovely in this village.

Sam in front of Paperbark Melaleucas. If you look closely at the background, you'll
see trees growing through the roofs of buildings.

We drove past this shrub, below, several times and were struck by its full, vibrant flowers. Luckily Sam was driving as it would have been a dangerous distraction for me. We stopped and took photos, which, unfortunately don't do justice to the shrub or the colour of the flowers. In fact, the star shaped flowers are small, yellow ones surrounded by large apricot/pink brachts. It's name is Mussaenda erythrophylla.

Close up

Bye for now,

Emily