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.
Friday, May 13, 2005
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.
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.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Mother's Day
8 May
Brisbane
Cloudy and light sprinkles
10910 steps
I just finished a letter to my mother, so I thought I'd write for a moment about Mother's Day in Australia. My impression is that it's taken pretty seriously here; all the restaurants are open and holding Mother's Day specials -- I think that means that they add 10% to their prices. It seems that families are out and about a lot, and you see many women holding small bouquets, surrounded by their families. It is very touching.
Today was a free day, so I spent the day mostly scouting. My colleagues and I think we have a good course going, but we are always eager to find new things to do, so I cast about looking for things.
Brisbane has been a hard city for me to warm up to. The first year of the course, 2000, found us in a dump of a hostel on the south side of the Brisbane River. It was loud, the patrons were unruly, and it was located far from anything interesting. It probably has colored my perception of Brisbane since.
But this year, I've found more and more that Brisbane is in fact a very nice place, after all. Today, I visited City Hall, which also houses a city museum and art gallery. The city hall has a clock tower, of course, at the top of which you get a great view of the city -- and numb ears when the bells ring! The museum is brief, and deals mostly with the building of the City Hall. The central rotunda was taken over today by promotional booths of many historical and cultural societies, and I was able to make some contacts with a couple of Aboriginal groups that I hope to turn into experiences for students in future offerings of the course.
We are planning another group dinner for the students tomorrow night, at a riverside seafood place called Oxley's. I walked over there this morning -- probably accounting for about 4000 of the steps above! -- to get a menu, find out about prices, and about how to get there. We like the group meals, as it gives all of us a chance to find out what one another has been doing in a relaxed setting. We saw this restaurant from the water as we sailed on the Mirimar cruise yesterday, and started thinking about it as a possibility.
In the afternoon, my senior colleague and I went off to the South Bank Parklands, one of the best areas of the entire trip. There's a short rainforest walk, an inland beach (one cannot swim in the Brisbane River, as it will have sharks from time to time), a performing arts center, an outdoor amphitheatre stadium, a Nepalese peace pagoda, many restaurants, a weekend fleamarket, and long sidewalks along the river. A very enjoyable gathering place for much of Brisbane -- the inclement weather did not seem to stop the families out for the day honoring their mothers.
Tomorrow, we go to the Australian Woolshed for a look at the sheep industry. Tuesday, we leave for Moreton Island.
Brisbane
Cloudy and light sprinkles
10910 steps
I just finished a letter to my mother, so I thought I'd write for a moment about Mother's Day in Australia. My impression is that it's taken pretty seriously here; all the restaurants are open and holding Mother's Day specials -- I think that means that they add 10% to their prices. It seems that families are out and about a lot, and you see many women holding small bouquets, surrounded by their families. It is very touching.
Today was a free day, so I spent the day mostly scouting. My colleagues and I think we have a good course going, but we are always eager to find new things to do, so I cast about looking for things.
Brisbane has been a hard city for me to warm up to. The first year of the course, 2000, found us in a dump of a hostel on the south side of the Brisbane River. It was loud, the patrons were unruly, and it was located far from anything interesting. It probably has colored my perception of Brisbane since.
But this year, I've found more and more that Brisbane is in fact a very nice place, after all. Today, I visited City Hall, which also houses a city museum and art gallery. The city hall has a clock tower, of course, at the top of which you get a great view of the city -- and numb ears when the bells ring! The museum is brief, and deals mostly with the building of the City Hall. The central rotunda was taken over today by promotional booths of many historical and cultural societies, and I was able to make some contacts with a couple of Aboriginal groups that I hope to turn into experiences for students in future offerings of the course.
We are planning another group dinner for the students tomorrow night, at a riverside seafood place called Oxley's. I walked over there this morning -- probably accounting for about 4000 of the steps above! -- to get a menu, find out about prices, and about how to get there. We like the group meals, as it gives all of us a chance to find out what one another has been doing in a relaxed setting. We saw this restaurant from the water as we sailed on the Mirimar cruise yesterday, and started thinking about it as a possibility.
In the afternoon, my senior colleague and I went off to the South Bank Parklands, one of the best areas of the entire trip. There's a short rainforest walk, an inland beach (one cannot swim in the Brisbane River, as it will have sharks from time to time), a performing arts center, an outdoor amphitheatre stadium, a Nepalese peace pagoda, many restaurants, a weekend fleamarket, and long sidewalks along the river. A very enjoyable gathering place for much of Brisbane -- the inclement weather did not seem to stop the families out for the day honoring their mothers.
Tomorrow, we go to the Australian Woolshed for a look at the sheep industry. Tuesday, we leave for Moreton Island.
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