Sunlander, ReefTeach, Passions of Paradise

15 May
Cairns
Sunny and Mild
4720 steps

I am caught up enough so that I can risk writing things down in order. Let me begin with the train ride to Cairns. Really, there is not much to say about a 30-hour train ride. My senior colleague is a train buff and enjoys traveling that way. It has some advantages, as you can do an amount of sightseeing from the train. As we go north and enter the tropics, we begin to see more sugar cane fields and banana and pineapple plantations. There's also plenty of cattle and sheep grazing land, on which we see cattle egrets, ibises, pelicans, and other birds. We spot the occasional dingo, and there are a lot of kangaroos. I've never seen a wild koala yet.

We scheduled nothing on the day of the 14th, so everyone had their separate adventures. I walked the Esplanade and found this internet shop, Global Gossip. The students engaged in many actvities, from shopping and hiking to river cruising and parasailing. Tomorrow (Monday) is a free day, so I expect that the students will have many more adventures.

I did find out about the Cairns Cubs. They played today (Sunday), and I was out on the cruise, so I couldn't go. But I will meet with their manager tomorrow, and will purchase some Cairns Cubs memorabilia. Before I leave this evening, I will find out when the next Cubs games on WGN-TV will be broadcast, and will send a message to the announcers about the Cairns Cubs. If you're interested, listen in.

Saturday evening, we went to ReefTeach, a 2-hour lecture about the reef intended for people who are planning on going out to the reef the next day. The man who gives the lecture is a marine biologist, Paddy Coldwell. He is a transplanted Irishman, and has a very distinctive lecture style. Some people find him a little over the top; he screeches and moves about the stage, full of energy and enthusiasm. But he is very effective at getting a few important points across to his audience about what to expect on the reef, how to treat the reef, and how to help preserve the reef.

While tourists do some damage to the reef, far and away the most damage to the reef somes from agricultural runoff. Earlier generations tore out the mangrove swamps and riverside trees, thus robbing the reef of runoff water that was relatively nutrient-free. More nutrients mean more algae; more algae is a threat to the coral, and if/when the coral goes, so goes the entire ecosystem. Personally, I think the reef is tougher than we are, but that doesn't mean we shoudln't be good caretakers.

Today, we got on the Passions of Paradise II, a twin-hull sailboat bound for Paradise Reef, a patch on the Great Barrier Reef. My colleague and I had both been on the original Passions of Paradise twice, and have now been on this new boat a couple of times. The weather was cooperative, and the sea was unusually calm. I have a cold, so I did not go snorkeling this year, but was content to watch the students as they snorkled and went scuba diving. They saw all mannr of fishes and corals, a few reef sharks (parents: the reef sharks are no threat to people), sting rays and sea turtles. Most report this as the high point of the trip so far, though they still talk about holding koalas.

I apologize for ending this entry so son, but it has been a long day, and I have about a kilometer walk back to the motel. Tomorrow is Monday, a free day, and I will return with more about Cairns.