Tropical Queensland

After four months crossing 14,0000 km (8,700 miles) of changing terrain while living in an canvas off-road camper trailer we have moved on to what should be a slower paced adventure. We have just relocated to the Caribbean (after some 44 hours of transit time with three kids under 7) and are now currently in Martinique which is located in the Lesser Antilles. We plan to spend some quality time as a family exploring around the West Indies. Transitioning from fast paced desert crossings to island time should also give me a chance to catch up on some of the backlog of photo editing. This is a shot from early on in our Australian road trip when we were heading up to the wet tropics in Queensland. It is taken of Smalleys Beach on the Northern side of Cape Hillisbourgh. We camped behind the foreshore there for a week and often had the beach just to ourselves or shared it with a couple of fishermen.

After almost three years in Canada it made me realise that there was something quite different about the sunsets in the tropics that you just don’t get closer to the poles. After a bit of research it turns out that these soft pastel tropical sunsets are due to the higher overnight low temperatures which continue to hold humidity in the air as you transition into night. This creates a very consistent soft air glow every night even when you have no clouds. Closer to the poles the air cools rapidly as the sun sets forcing any moisture to condense out into droplets which quickly form laminar cloud layers. Providing a much more random outcome these clouds tend to either block the colours from the sunset completely or on rare occasions when they align perfectly and are high enough you get those wonderful crisp multi colored reflected light displays from the clouds.