Hello, all. I just wanted to send a quick note up to the folks reading the journal to let you know that I have not gone away -- though I will tomorrow. We begin our camping adventure early , and will not return until two days later. So, I will probably not be able to post anything until we return.
And I only have a few moments to do this entry, so I will post more complete accounts of what we've been doing in Alice Springs later. We've had a lot of fun, and the weather has once again been most cooperative. We arrived yesterday, and spent the afternoon getting our bearings. In the evening, we were treated to a wonderful didgeridoo concert performed by Andrew Langford, an internationally known 'didge' virtuoso. He was also kind enough to help willing students learn the basics about the instrument, and involved most of the audience in a large jam with didges, rhythm sticks, and shakers.
Today we took a tour of Alice Springs. The Desert Park is an outdoor wilderness park that duplicates the environments found in Central Australia, red sand desert, dry riverbed woodlands, and salt pans. They also have exhibits for the flora and fauna of the area, and a free flight bird show. Very nice, and good preparation for our students brfore the camping adventure.
After the Park and a lunch, we made brief visits to each of these: the Telegraph Station, the School of the Air, the Royal Flying Doctors Centre, and ANZAC Hill. The Telegraph Station is the reason Alice is here, as one of teh spots with enough water to host a repeating station on the line from Darwin to Adelaide. The School of the Air is an educational services for children living in areas of Australia to remote for a school -- they go to school via the Internet, though it was by radio only a few years ago. The Royal Flying Doctors offers medical emergency service and transport to those injured in the remote Outback (I always make a donation. You never know ...). And ANZAC Hill is the town's memorial to teh soliders, and affords the best view of Alice Springs there is.
Well, I must go. I apologize for the typos and mistakes; I am not on my handheld as I write this. Please return in a few days for the rest of the story.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Our Rainforest Adventures
May 15 (-17)
Cairns
Cloudy, rainy (but nice on the 17th)
The weather continues to dampen our spirits -- it's too bad, since during this portion of the course, we are in a rain forest, so I suppose it's not terribly unusual to find it raining. We just returned from the Rainforestation, the final stop on our day up into the rain forests on the mountains just north of Cairns.
We began today with a ride up the Kuranda SkyRail, a cable car transit system that takes you up the mountain and just over the forest canopy. This unique viewpoint allows you to view the levels of the rain forest at once.
But the rain forest looked sick today. Maybe it was just the rain, but leaves looked yellowish and trees looked bare. Our coach driver had earlier said that there was wind damage to the trees here, as well as farther south, from Cyclone Larry. Perhaps that was what I was noticing.
There were two stops along the way. AT the first, there is a boardwalk that takes a few minutes if you race through it, but about 20 minutes if you follow one of the guides at the stop. Ours was a young Aboriginal man, who discussed the basics of a few of the more common plants of the rain forest.
The 'wait-awhile' cane is what you would call rattan, the cane commonly used to make furniture. It got the name 'wait-awhile' from the early European explorers, who would get hooked on the minute barbs on the vine, and then call out to their colleagues to wait awhile until they got loose. Aborigines would use it as a building material, and also as a water source when in need; cutting one of the vines is like opening a spigot.
The most striking tree of the rainforest is the strangler fig. The strangler is a parasite, starting off life high in the forest canopy, where the seeds are in bird droppings deposited in another tree that is the host. The seeds germinate, and send out vines seeking out the forest floor. Once the vine has found its way to the floor, the vine takes root and begins to grow thicker and harder, and sending out more vines all the time. After many years, the strangler has enclosed the host tree completely, which then dies. But the strangler has developed enough structural strength by then to support itself.
One of the huge trees of the rainforest is the kouri pine, among the largest evergreens in the world. The ones in Australia are relatively small, measuring only five feet in diameter or so. The tree has an excellent defense against the strangler fig, as it sheds its bark and lower branches as it grows, so any vines that start are thrown off before they can reach the ground.
There are plants that use other plants for scaffolding but are not parasitic. The elkhorn fern and the basket fern are examples of epiphytes, plants that live attached to or supported by a tree but do not use their host for any food, and do not kill the host. These plants collect nutrients from debris that falls from above, and water from rain. At Flickr, I have a photo of an elkhorn fern that I took at the Australian Zoo.
After the first stop, we resumed our ride up the mountains and over the canopy. We were high enough up the mountain at this point to be literally in the cloud cover, so that our visibility was limited. but as we glided into our second stop, the clouds parted long enough to reveal a very nice view of the Barron River Falls.
The Barron River flows through the tablelands before descending to the ocean through a series of falls. The Kuranda Scenic Railway runs along one side of the gorge through which the river falls, the SkyRail on the other. At the second stop of SkyRail, we are treated to not only several great views of the falls, but also of the Railway across the gorge, as well as some history of the installation of the power generating station located at the falls. The stop also has a very informative interactive center for learning more about the rainforest.
Our final stop on the SkyRail was in the mountain village of Kuranda, where our coach driver was waiting for us. We really have no chance this day to visit Kuranda, which is a shame for those who want to do some tourist shopping. They will have a free day on Wednesday. But today, our destination was Rainforestation.
Rainforestation is a private nature park that abuts the nearby national rainforest area that SkyRail goes over. At Rainforestation, we take a tour on Army DUKWs ("ducks") through the forest and on a small pond that lies above a private dam. The Army Ducks are US leftovers from WWII; we abandoned several thousand of these land/water hybrid vehicles behind after the end of the war with Japan, and many Aussies found uses for them. There are currently 12 in use at Rainforestation; they maintain them, including machining replacements parts and retooling engines to run on propane. Though the weather was not cooperating at all, the tour was just fine and informative.After our tour, e were treated to Aboriginal dancing. Though I have seen this show a few times, I still find it a very nice introduction to the Aboriginal life style that was. I do not believe that most of the indigenous people of Australia live this way or desire to. In fact, I think most of the dancers that we see at Rainforestation are middle-class Australians, much like anyone else. But the really important thing that I hope students get from the dance pieces is the humor that the dancers display, and how that comes from the dance itself. There's a sly wit that runs through a lot of the Aboriginal stories that I've heard, and I think it's actually an important part of their culture.
After the show, we had a very nice lunch followed by a visit to the animal park. But it was so rainy that it was not very enjoyable. The day was somewhat of a disappointment.
. . .
Today is May 16; we have just returned from our trip to the Daintree Rainforest. This was a very enjoyable introduction to the oldest rainforest in the world, at about 130 million years. Our early morning ride included a tour of Port Douglas and a brief stop in Mossman, before our arrival at the Daintree river for our river cruise.
The cruise on the river serves one purpose, really, to see crocodiles and pythons in the wild. For a change, the weather was nice and sunny, so we were successful, seeing two large male crocs, one smaller female, and a baby only a few weeks old. We saw two pythons curled up in trees by the river as well. But the crocs easily capture your imagination with their sinister ways. The truth is that they are simply very successful predators who have been at this millions of years longer than we have, and that our impression of their behavior says more about us than them.
After our cruise and a ferry crossing, we took a rainforest walk that was brief but informative. Evidence of the damage cased by feral pigs was apparent at many points on the walk.
We lunched once again as a part of the tour. While waiting for lunch, some of us visited an enclosure sanctuary for kangaroos that have been injured and cannot return to the wild. One of those kangaroos took a special interest in me, wrapping his forelegs around my leg and vigorous licking my leg and biting at y pants! I'll see if one of the students has a photo of this they're willing to share -- it was pretty funny. After our lunch, we drove farther up the coast, past Cape Tribulation to the Emmagen Creek, where we had a swim and an afternoon snack of tropical fruits, billy tea and damper bread. We then made our way back to Cape Tribulation for some time on the beach. After a brief stop for homemade tropical fruit ice cream, we drove back, ending a very nice day.
. . .
Today is May 17. I'm sitting at Hides Corner, a outside mall in central Cairns. The weather has finally turned beautiful, so I'm glad that the students will have at least one day in Cairns with decent weather. Yesterday was good, but we spent our time a couple hours north in the Daintree.
When I read over what I wrote yesterday, I realized that it was mostly a description of what we did with very little reflection. I was in a hurry to get all caught up with my journal writing before going to Alice, where I will once again likely be out of touch for a few days. Since I have a few moments now before the Cairns museum opens, I thought I'd write down a little bit more.
First, this morning I spent walking down the esplanade again, but I spent a lot more time examining the mud, and was rewarded in two ways. I finally saw some mudskippers! These are fish that have lungs as well as gills, and can therefore survive in the exposed mud flat at low tide. They were at play just below the boardwalk, and I even managed to get some video of them -- it's on the still camera, so I don't know that it will turn out well.
I also saw cone shells moving. The cone shell is a mollusk with a deadly venomous barb that one should always stay away from. I saw one in the mud, and noted that there was a curved trail away from it. Suspecting that I was seeing a trail it made on its own, I waited for a few minutes, and sure enough, it moved -- about an inch!. I waited awhile longer to make sure of what I was seeing. I have some video of this, too, but I don't think it will be very convincing.I did get a photo of pelicans flying to their morning gathering spot that I hope will turn out. I'll see in a bit when I go to the internet cafe. If they turn out, I'll upload them to Flickr.
I guess a few parents read what I wrote about the reef cruise and expressed concern for their children. Everyone is fine; it was nothing more than some nausea induced by the choppiness of the waiter; it only affected a few of the people on the boat (one or two students and one or two other passengers), and it only lasted a little while. So, please, don't worry; they're having the time of their lives. By the way, if you like my journal, please let me know. You can post a comment, or you can e-mail me at chjacobson@elmira.edu. I do check my mail as much as I can, and am always happy to hear from parents, friends, family, and colleagues. So far, I've been able to answer every e-mail I've received.
Cairns
Cloudy, rainy (but nice on the 17th)
The weather continues to dampen our spirits -- it's too bad, since during this portion of the course, we are in a rain forest, so I suppose it's not terribly unusual to find it raining. We just returned from the Rainforestation, the final stop on our day up into the rain forests on the mountains just north of Cairns.
We began today with a ride up the Kuranda SkyRail, a cable car transit system that takes you up the mountain and just over the forest canopy. This unique viewpoint allows you to view the levels of the rain forest at once.
But the rain forest looked sick today. Maybe it was just the rain, but leaves looked yellowish and trees looked bare. Our coach driver had earlier said that there was wind damage to the trees here, as well as farther south, from Cyclone Larry. Perhaps that was what I was noticing.
There were two stops along the way. AT the first, there is a boardwalk that takes a few minutes if you race through it, but about 20 minutes if you follow one of the guides at the stop. Ours was a young Aboriginal man, who discussed the basics of a few of the more common plants of the rain forest.
The 'wait-awhile' cane is what you would call rattan, the cane commonly used to make furniture. It got the name 'wait-awhile' from the early European explorers, who would get hooked on the minute barbs on the vine, and then call out to their colleagues to wait awhile until they got loose. Aborigines would use it as a building material, and also as a water source when in need; cutting one of the vines is like opening a spigot.
The most striking tree of the rainforest is the strangler fig. The strangler is a parasite, starting off life high in the forest canopy, where the seeds are in bird droppings deposited in another tree that is the host. The seeds germinate, and send out vines seeking out the forest floor. Once the vine has found its way to the floor, the vine takes root and begins to grow thicker and harder, and sending out more vines all the time. After many years, the strangler has enclosed the host tree completely, which then dies. But the strangler has developed enough structural strength by then to support itself.
One of the huge trees of the rainforest is the kouri pine, among the largest evergreens in the world. The ones in Australia are relatively small, measuring only five feet in diameter or so. The tree has an excellent defense against the strangler fig, as it sheds its bark and lower branches as it grows, so any vines that start are thrown off before they can reach the ground.
There are plants that use other plants for scaffolding but are not parasitic. The elkhorn fern and the basket fern are examples of epiphytes, plants that live attached to or supported by a tree but do not use their host for any food, and do not kill the host. These plants collect nutrients from debris that falls from above, and water from rain. At Flickr, I have a photo of an elkhorn fern that I took at the Australian Zoo.
After the first stop, we resumed our ride up the mountains and over the canopy. We were high enough up the mountain at this point to be literally in the cloud cover, so that our visibility was limited. but as we glided into our second stop, the clouds parted long enough to reveal a very nice view of the Barron River Falls.
The Barron River flows through the tablelands before descending to the ocean through a series of falls. The Kuranda Scenic Railway runs along one side of the gorge through which the river falls, the SkyRail on the other. At the second stop of SkyRail, we are treated to not only several great views of the falls, but also of the Railway across the gorge, as well as some history of the installation of the power generating station located at the falls. The stop also has a very informative interactive center for learning more about the rainforest.
Our final stop on the SkyRail was in the mountain village of Kuranda, where our coach driver was waiting for us. We really have no chance this day to visit Kuranda, which is a shame for those who want to do some tourist shopping. They will have a free day on Wednesday. But today, our destination was Rainforestation.
Rainforestation is a private nature park that abuts the nearby national rainforest area that SkyRail goes over. At Rainforestation, we take a tour on Army DUKWs ("ducks") through the forest and on a small pond that lies above a private dam. The Army Ducks are US leftovers from WWII; we abandoned several thousand of these land/water hybrid vehicles behind after the end of the war with Japan, and many Aussies found uses for them. There are currently 12 in use at Rainforestation; they maintain them, including machining replacements parts and retooling engines to run on propane. Though the weather was not cooperating at all, the tour was just fine and informative.After our tour, e were treated to Aboriginal dancing. Though I have seen this show a few times, I still find it a very nice introduction to the Aboriginal life style that was. I do not believe that most of the indigenous people of Australia live this way or desire to. In fact, I think most of the dancers that we see at Rainforestation are middle-class Australians, much like anyone else. But the really important thing that I hope students get from the dance pieces is the humor that the dancers display, and how that comes from the dance itself. There's a sly wit that runs through a lot of the Aboriginal stories that I've heard, and I think it's actually an important part of their culture.
After the show, we had a very nice lunch followed by a visit to the animal park. But it was so rainy that it was not very enjoyable. The day was somewhat of a disappointment.
. . .
Today is May 16; we have just returned from our trip to the Daintree Rainforest. This was a very enjoyable introduction to the oldest rainforest in the world, at about 130 million years. Our early morning ride included a tour of Port Douglas and a brief stop in Mossman, before our arrival at the Daintree river for our river cruise.
The cruise on the river serves one purpose, really, to see crocodiles and pythons in the wild. For a change, the weather was nice and sunny, so we were successful, seeing two large male crocs, one smaller female, and a baby only a few weeks old. We saw two pythons curled up in trees by the river as well. But the crocs easily capture your imagination with their sinister ways. The truth is that they are simply very successful predators who have been at this millions of years longer than we have, and that our impression of their behavior says more about us than them.
After our cruise and a ferry crossing, we took a rainforest walk that was brief but informative. Evidence of the damage cased by feral pigs was apparent at many points on the walk.
We lunched once again as a part of the tour. While waiting for lunch, some of us visited an enclosure sanctuary for kangaroos that have been injured and cannot return to the wild. One of those kangaroos took a special interest in me, wrapping his forelegs around my leg and vigorous licking my leg and biting at y pants! I'll see if one of the students has a photo of this they're willing to share -- it was pretty funny. After our lunch, we drove farther up the coast, past Cape Tribulation to the Emmagen Creek, where we had a swim and an afternoon snack of tropical fruits, billy tea and damper bread. We then made our way back to Cape Tribulation for some time on the beach. After a brief stop for homemade tropical fruit ice cream, we drove back, ending a very nice day.
. . .
Today is May 17. I'm sitting at Hides Corner, a outside mall in central Cairns. The weather has finally turned beautiful, so I'm glad that the students will have at least one day in Cairns with decent weather. Yesterday was good, but we spent our time a couple hours north in the Daintree.
When I read over what I wrote yesterday, I realized that it was mostly a description of what we did with very little reflection. I was in a hurry to get all caught up with my journal writing before going to Alice, where I will once again likely be out of touch for a few days. Since I have a few moments now before the Cairns museum opens, I thought I'd write down a little bit more.
First, this morning I spent walking down the esplanade again, but I spent a lot more time examining the mud, and was rewarded in two ways. I finally saw some mudskippers! These are fish that have lungs as well as gills, and can therefore survive in the exposed mud flat at low tide. They were at play just below the boardwalk, and I even managed to get some video of them -- it's on the still camera, so I don't know that it will turn out well.
I also saw cone shells moving. The cone shell is a mollusk with a deadly venomous barb that one should always stay away from. I saw one in the mud, and noted that there was a curved trail away from it. Suspecting that I was seeing a trail it made on its own, I waited for a few minutes, and sure enough, it moved -- about an inch!. I waited awhile longer to make sure of what I was seeing. I have some video of this, too, but I don't think it will be very convincing.I did get a photo of pelicans flying to their morning gathering spot that I hope will turn out. I'll see in a bit when I go to the internet cafe. If they turn out, I'll upload them to Flickr.
I guess a few parents read what I wrote about the reef cruise and expressed concern for their children. Everyone is fine; it was nothing more than some nausea induced by the choppiness of the waiter; it only affected a few of the people on the boat (one or two students and one or two other passengers), and it only lasted a little while. So, please, don't worry; they're having the time of their lives. By the way, if you like my journal, please let me know. You can post a comment, or you can e-mail me at chjacobson@elmira.edu. I do check my mail as much as I can, and am always happy to hear from parents, friends, family, and colleagues. So far, I've been able to answer every e-mail I've received.
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