Woolshed

13 May
Cairns
clear skies, mild tropical weather

(7500 steps on 9 May)
(8180 steps on 10 May)
(6420 steps on 11 May)
(< 1000 steps on 12 May)
4530 steps

We arrived in Cairns by train this afternoon. We travled from Brisbane to Cairns on sleeper cars; it takes about 30 hours.

After we dumped our bags at the Cairns Queenslander and bought provisions for the morning, we walked down the Esplanade to Barnacle Bill's, where I once again had the Very Best Meal I Have Ever Eaten whil in Australia: their Coral Trout, Blackened. The fish is fresh, cooked perfectely, with a blackening spice that is reminiscent of jerk seasoning. It comes with a wonderful coleslaw and fresh raw vegetables. It's just perfect.

The students love the place we're staying. The accomodations are like a motel -- it is a Comfort Inn. But, after the Wattle Lodge, the TinBilly, and the Sunlander train, Comfort Inn seems pretty good to them. Besides, they can do their own cooking now, so they get to save a little money.

So, let me catch you up on the last few days, gentle reader:

First, at the Woolshed in Brisbane. We've gone there for a few years now. It's a chance for teh students to get a glimpse of the workign of a sheep station, and to learn a little bit about the sheep industry in Australia. We also have a little fun at whip-cracking. Now, I should mention that I learned how to crack a whip the first year I was in Australia, and can do it fairly reliably. So, while the students seemed to be impressed with my ability, I think it's less than it appears. Our guide was Bill once again, an older Ausralian man who has learned enough Japanese to get along with their large tour groups as well as groups like ours.
Okay, truth told, it's a little touristy. But, we are tourists as well as students.
The kangaroos at the Woolsheds animal park are friendlier than the ones at Lone Pine, and our students enjoyed playing with them much more. The students discovered that if you pet a kangaroo between its front paws, it will completely relax -- like stroking a cat under its chin or between its ears.
On the other hand, they do not react so well when the sheep are sheared. It's a little discomforting for some city folk to see how farm animals are worked. I, for one, sleep quite well at night after eating my steak.

After the Woolshed, we took the students to Oxley's, a riverboat restaurant we passed on our way to the Lone Pine Koala Sancuary a few days before. The arrangement we had with Oxley's was that we would alternate entrees, main courses, and desserts -- so, they would put pumpkin sup in frnot of the first person, then spinach tortelini in front of teh seond, then pumpkin soup again, and so on, so that peopel could swap and eventually get what they liked. The soup and tortelini were our entrees. We had salmon or fillet steak for our main courses, and mango ice cream or chocolate eclirs for our dessert. All in all, the studnets enjoyed it very much, and the river view of the Brisbane skyline from the restaurant was an added touch.

We used the City Cat to get there. This is Brisbane's ferry system. It's a much simpler scheme than Sydney's: Brisbane is divided into travle zones; when you buy a ticket in Brisbane, you are buying passage from one zone to another for a day. So, our tickets to Ferny Grove for the Woolshed were good for getting to Oxley's as well.

I finished The Garden of Beasts by Jeffery Deaver today, and loaned it to my senior colleague so that he could read it on the train. My hope is to give it to the manager at Toddy's in Alice Springs, as he is a fan of Deaver's. The Garden of Beasts is set in 1936 Germany, just before the Olympic Games. An American gangster hitman is coerced by the Office of Naval Intellegence to infiltrate the U.S. Olympic team in order to assassinate a high ranking German officer, in order to thwart Hitler's rearmament plans. As always, Deaver's books are thrilling, with plot twists that occur when you least expect them and are never what you expect. I recommend him to anyone who likes mysteries. If you saw The Bone Collector, you saw a movie based on one of his books, so you will have an idea of what to expect.

I'm going to sign off for now. Tomorrow, I'll write about our trip to Moreton Island on 10 May and 11 May.