Moreton Bay

14 May
Cairns
Sunny and Mild
8810 steps (as of 11am)

My guess is that I'll do a lot more walking today. I am in downtaown Cairns at a Global Gossip, but expect that I will walk far north today in search of baseball. I'll let you know in a later journal entry if I was successful.

I wanted to catch you up to day on what we did at Moreton Island. Moreton Island is a sand island just off the coast of Australia, near Brisbane. It lies to the south of Fraser Island, the larger sand island that we have visited in past years. We made the choice to visit Moreton Island this year in order to avoid some backtracking in the course -- the less time we spend doing so, the more time the students have to see new things.

Moreton is not only smaller than Fraser, it is also narrower. The result of this is that it has no developed rainforest as does Fraser, and thus not the amount of tourism. There are only two general stores on the island, and camping conditions are less developed than they are at Fraser. On the other hand, there are no wild dingoes to worry about, so the camps can be more open -- at times at the camp on Fraser last year, we felt as though we were in a POW camp, with the fences around our campsite.

Though there's no rainforest to walk in, there is a middle-level island habitat that is worth exploring. Moreton is a sand island, so there are several freshwater systems at work, such as swamps and window lakes. There are also beaches on the bay sie as well as the ocean side -- we had to chase the students out of the ocean side water; I don't think they fully understand concepts like riptides and undertows (parents, no one was in danger). We did swim nearby Honeymoon Cove, at the north end of the island.

The flora that cover Moreton are mostly fire-managed. The banksia tree and the grass tree both depend upon fire for germination, and of course the ever-present eucalyptus are fire-tolerant. The shop at Bulwer had dramatic forest fire photos; I'd be terrified at the approach of anything like that. The residents of the island appear to endure a larger-scale fire ever couple of years. Naturally set fires (due to lightning) can't be helped and indeed are necessary, but the most recent fire was set by an idiot on a boat who shot off a flare on New Year's Eve -- fortunately, the fire stopped before the village.

There was a threat of rain the entire time we were at the island, though it only rained the last few hours on the second day, before we got back on the ferry. We could see dark clouds in the west over Brisbane, and supposed that the mainland was getting socked hard with rain. it's interesting how the presense of the ocean changes the climate so much, over the course of just a few miles. It did hamper us some; we could not snorkel around some shipwrecks owing to strong currents and rough water.

At the end of teh first day, while the students splashed about at the beach, I climbed around the rocks at Honeymoon Cove. The north end of Moreton is the only bit that's not all sand; there's a series of ancient volcanic islands from a previous era of the world, and the north end of Moreton is a part of that series. The volcanic upheaval pushed through a lot of sandstone, so the rock formations have the unusual feature that all the sandstone sedimentary lines are nearly vertical. There's been a lot of erosion, and some areas appeared to be unstable enough so that I did not chance it. But there are narrow breaks in the rock, and weather pinnacles and other features of interest. When I get to the point where I can upload some photos, I will do so.
We arrived on Moreton with the report that there was a missing person. A Colombian tourist had gotten off the ferry the weekend before and had never returned. There were rescue helicopters and police boats combing the island, but we heard no report of any discovery. It remains a mystery.
I don't know if we'll return to Moreton or not. The problem with going to Fraser is that we spend several hours going north of Brisbane to get to the ferry for Fraser, and therefore several hours going back. We thus backtrack, since we board the train and go north the next day. Fraser is prettier, but Moreton still has a lot to offer. We have some things to discuss for next year's course.

Well, now I am off in search of baseball.