One Saturday a family group went on a day trip north in a Toyota Land Cruiser. Our first destination was the Daintree, a massive rainforest area which is a World Heritage Area. We crossed the Daintree River on a barge (which is the only way to do it at $26 per car return) and then drove on to Cow's Bay, a small crescent-shaped beach. There were warning signs about crocodiles and marine stingers, so it was definitely a case of walking a middle line between the water's edge and the vegetation when walking along the beach and keeping a keen look-out. We saved the swimming for Port Douglas, our second destination. There is a net-enclosed swimming area which is patrolled by lifesavers. The water was surprisingly warm and the water was not too deep for adults to walk out whilst enjoying a bit of fun with the generally gentle waves. My host advised not getting too close to the netting in case there were stinger tendrils trailing through the holes. Apparently the small and potentially fatal Ikuranjandi jellyfish can get through the holes, but these are checked for before opening the sea pool in the mornings.
As it was going to be a long car trip, our host decided to buy a portable DVD player for his daughter to keep her distracted a lot of the time. I was sitting next to her in the back as our elderly relative was sitting in the front. I would have to describe this machine as an instrument of torture - even the most hardened terrorist would have trouble with an unremitting and rapidly changing diet of high pitched children's cartoons. The young girl (who must surely have much better hearing than me) kept wanting to turn the sound up even though I who was further away could hear it perfectly well. These stylised cartoon voices are annoying in any language when one is forced to listen to them for an extended period - I felt exactly the same thing with children's cartoons in Norway!
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