13 May
Cairns
Sunny, breezy, and warm
Finally! The sort of weather one associates with Cairns has arrived: sunny with a nice breeze and warm temperatures. It's a shame that we won't have more of it before we take off for Alice, but at least the students got a taste of it. Today is a day for errands and such; I did laundry in the morning, then posted the prior entry to this journal, went over the student entries at the course blog (http://ecaustralia09.blogspot.com/) and added a few of my own, and made a few phone calls to confirm things for tomorrow and the next day.
Yesterday was our visit to the Daintree rainforest to the north. This tour package includes a cruise on the Daintree River to search for crocs and other wildlife, a rainforest walk, a buffet lunch, an afternoon tea on Emmagen Creek, and a visit to Cape Tribulation, our northernmost point on the course. Our guides this time were Findlay and John.
John is a old friend to the course. We started using Billy Tea Bush Safaris several years ago, and John has been one of our guides every year. He is very knowledgeable, and is very good with the students. By the way: to my senior colleague, John sends his regards. Watch for a picture of him cooking our lunch on the course blog.
Our drive up the coast was pleasant, though rainy. We stopped in Mossman to pick up avocados for lunch and fruits for the afternoon tea. It is often the case that we are doing this while children are on their way to the nearby school, so we get a chance to see the school uniforms and the crossing guards directing children and cars about.
After Mossman, we continue up the road for another half-hour, until we near the Daintree River. There is no bridge across the Daintree; one must cross on a boat or by ferry. For our first crossing, we use a boat that takes us on a cruise of the river searching for crocs. Of course, with the cloudy and rainy weather, the big adult males that dominate the river were off in their lairs, so we only saw a small hatchling swimming by the side. It was a shame, but there's no controlling the weather, of course. We did see a python and a few tree snakes, as well as an azure kingfisher, a brightly colored bird of the river.
Our tour guides met us on the far side of the river, and we continued our drive into the Daintree Rainforest National Park. This park is a part of the tropical rainforest of north Queensland, and is thus listed as a World Heritage Site. We drove into the mountains for our rainforest walk.
The boardwalk we use takes about 45 minutes to complete, and runs through a typical portion of the forest, complete with the ferns, cycads, satinays, paperbarks and strangler figs that make up the major portion of the forest. There are the epiphytes, too: the staghorn and elkhorn ferns, as well as huge basket ferns far above the forest floor. We even saw a couple of lizards clinging to small tree ferns.
The fate of the cassowary has been on the minds of the people here for a long time. A cassowary is a large flightless bird, similar to the emu, the ostrich, and the kiwi. It is a keystone species of the rainforest; remove it, and the forest will undergo dramatic changes. And the cassowary is endangered; the current estimate is that there are about 1500 left. Since the area has been World Heritage listed, loss of habitat is no longer an issue. The biggest threats to them are cars, and competition from feral pigs.
No one is certain, but it was a common practice for mariners to release pigs into the areas around beaches at which they would land. This would often guarantee a supply of meat when they would return. The thinking is that the feral pigs in the Daintree are the result of such a release, though it is impossible to be certain. IT is also impossible to say who did so, or when. But the pigs have been in the Daintree for a few hundred years now, slowly eating the ecosystem out from under the cassowaries. It is uncertain if there is a way to save the birds. And since no one has successfully bred them in captivity, it is very possible that the cassowary will go extinct in the coming years, thus drastically altering if not destroying the rainforest.
On these walks in past years, I've seen a lot of the damage done by the feral pigs. They often tear up the forest floor, exposing the earth that then sheds moisture, leaving less for the plants. The pigs go after young plants, making it difficult for new growth to get started. But this year, I noticed a lot less. I asked John about it, and he said he had noticed it too, but was uncertain of the reason. There have been culling programs in place; perhaps they are having an effect. In any case, it's a bit of good news for the rainforest.
We stopped at a roadhouse higher up in the mountains for our buffet lunch, prepared by John. Steaks and sausages, four different types of salad, coffee and tea service, all very good. The roadhouse keeps a menagerie as well: a few tropical birds, some kangaroos and wallabies, and two snakes. Some of the students went with Findlay to feed the kangaroos while John prepared lunch.
After lunch, we made our way up the Bloomfield track, a dirt road that runs up to Cooktown. We went past Cape Tribulation to Emmagen Creek, the northernmost point of our travels, stopping at the creek for afternoon tea, damper bread, and exotic fruits. Th sun began to show while we were at the creek, as the rainy weather system finally started breaking up and moving out.
On our way back to Cairns, we made three stops, one at Cape Tribulation for a quick look-see, a second at a tropical fruit ice cream shop, and a third brief stop at a lookout on the Coral Sea. All in all, a very lovely day.
It is now around 5:30 pm on the 13th. In a little while, I am going to take the students over to the Cock 'n' Bull, a local restaurant, for a group dinner. And tomorrow, we take off for Alice Springs and our visit to Central Australia.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Kuranda
12 May
Cairns
Rainy in the morning, sunny in the afternoon
Yesterday was our trip up to Kuranda and Rainforest Station. I am sorry to report that it was a little disappointing, owing only in part to the weather. The day's schedule seemed poorly planned, with unexpected gaps in the early part of the day. Since the tour company was arranging it, I expected something better.
Our driver picked us up at 9am. In other years, he would have taken us to Sky Rail, a unique cable car system that takes its passengers on a 7 km ride above the rainforest canopy. But since Sky Rail was closed for maintenance, we were scheduled to go to a butterfly sanctuary at 9:45. Since it takes less than a half-hour to get from Cairns to Kuranda, we arrived about 20 minutes early -- the trouble is that it was too early to really do anything in the village.
The butterfly garden is a lovely exhibit, and a great place to see the butterflies of the rainforest in a controlled settings. We saw Ulysses butterflies, the brilliant blue ones typically seen high in the canopy. We saw the Australian birdwing butterfly, another typical resident of the rainforest, and many others. Our guide was very thorough in explaining the life cycle of the butterfly, as well as the care that the Garden has taken in recreating an environment conducive to the species represented. It's a good place, and I hope make it a regular part of the course.
Our time there was up at 10:30, but we were not due at Rainforest Station until 11:30, so we had an hour to spend in Kuranda. Now, this is not a bad thing at all; Kuranda is a cute little tourist village and a great place to spend far too much money on souvenirs. Since we would not be served lunch until 1pm, some of us has a mid-morning snack -- I had an okay kangaroo meat pie. Some of the students discovered the photo gallery of a well known Australian photographer and ordered a few prints.
Rainforest Station has five venues: a wildlife park, an Aboriginal dance theater, a Dreamtime Walk, a buffet lunch, and an Army 'Duck' tour of a patch of rainforest. We've done this many times, and in various orders. The rain put a damper on the wildlife park, but we still received a competent show. This was also the chance for the students to see a couple of predators up close, a quoll and a dingo. Since the rain would later prevent our seeing large crocodiles on the Daintree, it was their best chance to see just how big they can get.
The Aboriginal dancing is always humorous. The Pamagirri Dance Company was among the first such troupes created in the 1990s after Cairns became a tourism center, and though is fortunes have been eclipsed by the larger Tjapukai enterprise, they do alright. They perform a series of short dances, getting the audience involved, and generally displaying a very good sense of humor. Of course, they only do dances appropriate for children -- after all, Aborigines think of whitefellas as children, so it's consistent with their dealings with whites.
The dancing is followed by a 'Dreamtime Walk,' a short program in which we are instructed in playing a didgeridoo, witness spear throwing, and learn to throw a boomerang. Some aboriginal instructors talk a bit about bush 'tucker' (food) and bush medicine, but ours did not. A bit disappointing. On the other hand, our guide had to do a lot of his work in the rain, wearing nothing but his loincloth and a bit of paint that started washing off. so, on balance, the Aboriginal experience was okay.
Lunch is very good: lots of choices, and all very fresh and tasty. Since it is autumn here, winter squash dishes do show up. The Rainforest Station kitchen prepares a pumpkin soup that is wonderful. When I first had this a few years ago, it inspired me in my own kitchen, and I now serve a squash soup to the family from time to time.
The 'Duck' tour was bad from the start. The ducks are converted U.S. Army DUKWs, an amphibious vehicle; these were abandoned by the US at the conclusion of WWII. They are thus over 60 years old! Ours broke down once on the tour, and we needed a mechanic to come and restart the vehicle. But that was not the problem.
The tour consists of a ride through a bit of rainforest patch, along with a bit of a ride on a reservoir lake on the Station grounds. It's a chance to see some tropical rainforest plants up close, and a chance to glimpse some wildlife. Of course, to do this, one needs to look up, hard to do when the vehicle is covered on top. Though this is a rollback cover and the students and in were in good raingear, the driver left the canopy on, rolling it back occasionally, resulting in big dump-s of water on some students. And the driver slid off the road! The ducks move very slowly, maybe 4 mph, and they have a large turning radius, so some maneuvers are a little tricky; turns that one would easily negotiate in a car become three-point turns, maybe even five-point turns. But that's normal. However, on a level stretch after a not very difficult turn, the driver hit a mud patch and slid into the trees on the right. We had to abandon the duck and wait for another to come pick us up. It was a mediocre tour and a but of poor driving.
There's nothing that we do at Rainforest Station that we could not do elsewhere, and there are other worthwhile experiences that we could do with other tours that we have come to trust. So, we will probably abandon Rainforest Station for next year. We'll still do Sky Rail, and add the Butterfly Garden, the Tjapukai Aboriginal Culture Park, and perhaps the Venom Zoo, and so we should have a good bit of fun.
This is the following day. We have returned from the Daintree, but I will write about this very pleasant experience in my next entry. I should warn you that we are entering the portion of the course that involves some camping, so my entries will become spottier, as internet access will become less consistent.
Cairns
Rainy in the morning, sunny in the afternoon
Yesterday was our trip up to Kuranda and Rainforest Station. I am sorry to report that it was a little disappointing, owing only in part to the weather. The day's schedule seemed poorly planned, with unexpected gaps in the early part of the day. Since the tour company was arranging it, I expected something better.
Our driver picked us up at 9am. In other years, he would have taken us to Sky Rail, a unique cable car system that takes its passengers on a 7 km ride above the rainforest canopy. But since Sky Rail was closed for maintenance, we were scheduled to go to a butterfly sanctuary at 9:45. Since it takes less than a half-hour to get from Cairns to Kuranda, we arrived about 20 minutes early -- the trouble is that it was too early to really do anything in the village.
The butterfly garden is a lovely exhibit, and a great place to see the butterflies of the rainforest in a controlled settings. We saw Ulysses butterflies, the brilliant blue ones typically seen high in the canopy. We saw the Australian birdwing butterfly, another typical resident of the rainforest, and many others. Our guide was very thorough in explaining the life cycle of the butterfly, as well as the care that the Garden has taken in recreating an environment conducive to the species represented. It's a good place, and I hope make it a regular part of the course.
Our time there was up at 10:30, but we were not due at Rainforest Station until 11:30, so we had an hour to spend in Kuranda. Now, this is not a bad thing at all; Kuranda is a cute little tourist village and a great place to spend far too much money on souvenirs. Since we would not be served lunch until 1pm, some of us has a mid-morning snack -- I had an okay kangaroo meat pie. Some of the students discovered the photo gallery of a well known Australian photographer and ordered a few prints.
Rainforest Station has five venues: a wildlife park, an Aboriginal dance theater, a Dreamtime Walk, a buffet lunch, and an Army 'Duck' tour of a patch of rainforest. We've done this many times, and in various orders. The rain put a damper on the wildlife park, but we still received a competent show. This was also the chance for the students to see a couple of predators up close, a quoll and a dingo. Since the rain would later prevent our seeing large crocodiles on the Daintree, it was their best chance to see just how big they can get.
The Aboriginal dancing is always humorous. The Pamagirri Dance Company was among the first such troupes created in the 1990s after Cairns became a tourism center, and though is fortunes have been eclipsed by the larger Tjapukai enterprise, they do alright. They perform a series of short dances, getting the audience involved, and generally displaying a very good sense of humor. Of course, they only do dances appropriate for children -- after all, Aborigines think of whitefellas as children, so it's consistent with their dealings with whites.
The dancing is followed by a 'Dreamtime Walk,' a short program in which we are instructed in playing a didgeridoo, witness spear throwing, and learn to throw a boomerang. Some aboriginal instructors talk a bit about bush 'tucker' (food) and bush medicine, but ours did not. A bit disappointing. On the other hand, our guide had to do a lot of his work in the rain, wearing nothing but his loincloth and a bit of paint that started washing off. so, on balance, the Aboriginal experience was okay.
Lunch is very good: lots of choices, and all very fresh and tasty. Since it is autumn here, winter squash dishes do show up. The Rainforest Station kitchen prepares a pumpkin soup that is wonderful. When I first had this a few years ago, it inspired me in my own kitchen, and I now serve a squash soup to the family from time to time.
The 'Duck' tour was bad from the start. The ducks are converted U.S. Army DUKWs, an amphibious vehicle; these were abandoned by the US at the conclusion of WWII. They are thus over 60 years old! Ours broke down once on the tour, and we needed a mechanic to come and restart the vehicle. But that was not the problem.
The tour consists of a ride through a bit of rainforest patch, along with a bit of a ride on a reservoir lake on the Station grounds. It's a chance to see some tropical rainforest plants up close, and a chance to glimpse some wildlife. Of course, to do this, one needs to look up, hard to do when the vehicle is covered on top. Though this is a rollback cover and the students and in were in good raingear, the driver left the canopy on, rolling it back occasionally, resulting in big dump-s of water on some students. And the driver slid off the road! The ducks move very slowly, maybe 4 mph, and they have a large turning radius, so some maneuvers are a little tricky; turns that one would easily negotiate in a car become three-point turns, maybe even five-point turns. But that's normal. However, on a level stretch after a not very difficult turn, the driver hit a mud patch and slid into the trees on the right. We had to abandon the duck and wait for another to come pick us up. It was a mediocre tour and a but of poor driving.
There's nothing that we do at Rainforest Station that we could not do elsewhere, and there are other worthwhile experiences that we could do with other tours that we have come to trust. So, we will probably abandon Rainforest Station for next year. We'll still do Sky Rail, and add the Butterfly Garden, the Tjapukai Aboriginal Culture Park, and perhaps the Venom Zoo, and so we should have a good bit of fun.
This is the following day. We have returned from the Daintree, but I will write about this very pleasant experience in my next entry. I should warn you that we are entering the portion of the course that involves some camping, so my entries will become spottier, as internet access will become less consistent.
Reef Cruise
10 May
Cairns
Rainy, Windy, and Humid
(Partly sunny on the reef)
The 8th was a free day during the day, with a visit to Reef Teach in the evening. Reef Teach is an organization devoted to educating people about the Great Barrier Reef and the wildlife that lives on it. Our visit consists of a two-hour slideshow that goes over the animals we will see on our visit, the types of coral, and the threats to the Reef. Though a two-hour slide lecture sounds dull, the students always have enjoyed it, and put what they learn to good use the next day on the reef cruise.
There are thousands of types of fish on the Reef, and there's no way we could learn them all -- in all likelihood, the experts do not know them all. Reef Teach sets a more modest goal of getting to recognize the general categories of fish we'd be likely to see: the wrasses, the damselfish, the angelfish, the surgeons, the butterfly fish, the triggerfish, and the sharks. They also showed us other animals we might see: turtles, octopuses, urchins, nudibranches and squid.
And, of course, there's the coral itself. It is animal, though it does behave like a plant in some ways. The coral begin as a small larva that attaches itself to a bit of rock and creates a small protective shell. It periodically leaves its old shell and creates a new one atop the old; hence, the coral colony grows in size at a rate of about 1 cm per year. So, when one sees a boulder coral that is 3 m across, that boulder coral is about 300 years old. And there are boulders much large than that. There are also coral colonies that take the shape of elkhorns, fingers, plates, and other shapes and configurations.
Coral have two sources of nourishment. They have small tentacles that wave in the current, catching what they can. That is usually not enough, so coral will ingest a small amount of algae, which embeds in the tissues of the coral and begin photosynthesis. This is the reason that coral have such beautiful colors.
When the waters get too warm, the algae produce toxins along with the nutrients, and so the coral expel the algae, causing the coral to appear white and colorless. This coral bleaching is very dangerous for the coral, since they lose an important source of nutrition and are thus weakened. As ocean temperatures continue to rise, the Great Barrier Reef, like many other coral reef systems in the world, will be severely stressed.
Coral mate once a year, in a process that that biologists figured out only a few decades ago. A few days after the October full moon, the tides and the temperatures will be exactly right for all the corals -- all of them -- to release sperm and egg into the water, forming a huge slick on the waters above the reef. Much of this slick is gobbled up by fish and some waterbirds, but the eggs that get fertilized will produce larvae that begin the cycle again.
Our reef trip was the next day, Saturday the 9th. The poor weather was in full force as we left the slip, with sprinkles and wind, but a brief break in the clouds produced another rainbow similar to the one we saw at Fraser Island. Nevertheless, the water was choppy, and many people on board got sick. I don't think any students did, though some felt queasy; I did, too. But since our first stop at Michaelmas Cay was on its north side, we were in gentler water, and we did get a bit of sun while we were snorkeling.
I don't think I'm very good in the water. The instructors on the boat give us all these signals and tell us to pay attention in case they call for us to move this way or that. Once I get in the water, I am pretty much disoriented, and can focus on nothing other than the stuff right around me. People bump into me, the current pushes me about. I do enjoy watching the fish, and think I got a couple of passable shots. But when I hear about the things that others saw, I think that I must be doing something wrong.
But I did get a nice photo of a giant clam, so I'm happy about that. I bought this plastic bag that seals completely against the water, so that I can put my digital camera in it and essentially have an underwater digital camera. Needless to say, I did not put the Canon Rebel XS in; I have an old Kodak 7300 that did quite well. The bag is supposed to be good to about 4 meters, but since I stay on the surface, the bag never gets more than an arm's length under.
The students saw so much! Sea turtles, reef sharks, lion fish, sea cucumbers, and many other things. Of the 14, 9 went on dives, and getting lower in the water means seeing more. I do not know how many had underwater cameras, but if we get a few photos, that will be great.
Being on the boat is also a great time to meet other people. I struck up a conversation with a Sydney couple who had taken advantage of some weekend fare discounts from Qantas. The wife had been in Cairns many years ago as a child, but the tropics were all new to her husband. The students found many new friends among the other passengers and the crew -- I'm told that the male divers were very cute. One of the crew told a ribald joke to a group of the students, and so they demanded a similar joke from me. If you don't mind, I will not share it with you -- and even if you do mind ...
The ride back was better than the one out, though it was still a bit rocky. I find that a little TravelCalm plus staying outside on the deck keeps the seasickness at bay, though I must admit that I get a little queasy when it's choppy. But the weather could not dampen the students' spirits; they clearly had a great time and learned a lot about the Reef.
It is now the evening of Mother's day here, though it's early Sunday morning in the USA too early for a phone call. I'll call my mother early tomorrow morning. Then it's off to Kuranda for a look at the Butterfly Garden and Rainforest Station.
Cairns
Rainy, Windy, and Humid
(Partly sunny on the reef)
The 8th was a free day during the day, with a visit to Reef Teach in the evening. Reef Teach is an organization devoted to educating people about the Great Barrier Reef and the wildlife that lives on it. Our visit consists of a two-hour slideshow that goes over the animals we will see on our visit, the types of coral, and the threats to the Reef. Though a two-hour slide lecture sounds dull, the students always have enjoyed it, and put what they learn to good use the next day on the reef cruise.
There are thousands of types of fish on the Reef, and there's no way we could learn them all -- in all likelihood, the experts do not know them all. Reef Teach sets a more modest goal of getting to recognize the general categories of fish we'd be likely to see: the wrasses, the damselfish, the angelfish, the surgeons, the butterfly fish, the triggerfish, and the sharks. They also showed us other animals we might see: turtles, octopuses, urchins, nudibranches and squid.
And, of course, there's the coral itself. It is animal, though it does behave like a plant in some ways. The coral begin as a small larva that attaches itself to a bit of rock and creates a small protective shell. It periodically leaves its old shell and creates a new one atop the old; hence, the coral colony grows in size at a rate of about 1 cm per year. So, when one sees a boulder coral that is 3 m across, that boulder coral is about 300 years old. And there are boulders much large than that. There are also coral colonies that take the shape of elkhorns, fingers, plates, and other shapes and configurations.
Coral have two sources of nourishment. They have small tentacles that wave in the current, catching what they can. That is usually not enough, so coral will ingest a small amount of algae, which embeds in the tissues of the coral and begin photosynthesis. This is the reason that coral have such beautiful colors.
When the waters get too warm, the algae produce toxins along with the nutrients, and so the coral expel the algae, causing the coral to appear white and colorless. This coral bleaching is very dangerous for the coral, since they lose an important source of nutrition and are thus weakened. As ocean temperatures continue to rise, the Great Barrier Reef, like many other coral reef systems in the world, will be severely stressed.
Coral mate once a year, in a process that that biologists figured out only a few decades ago. A few days after the October full moon, the tides and the temperatures will be exactly right for all the corals -- all of them -- to release sperm and egg into the water, forming a huge slick on the waters above the reef. Much of this slick is gobbled up by fish and some waterbirds, but the eggs that get fertilized will produce larvae that begin the cycle again.
Our reef trip was the next day, Saturday the 9th. The poor weather was in full force as we left the slip, with sprinkles and wind, but a brief break in the clouds produced another rainbow similar to the one we saw at Fraser Island. Nevertheless, the water was choppy, and many people on board got sick. I don't think any students did, though some felt queasy; I did, too. But since our first stop at Michaelmas Cay was on its north side, we were in gentler water, and we did get a bit of sun while we were snorkeling.
I don't think I'm very good in the water. The instructors on the boat give us all these signals and tell us to pay attention in case they call for us to move this way or that. Once I get in the water, I am pretty much disoriented, and can focus on nothing other than the stuff right around me. People bump into me, the current pushes me about. I do enjoy watching the fish, and think I got a couple of passable shots. But when I hear about the things that others saw, I think that I must be doing something wrong.
But I did get a nice photo of a giant clam, so I'm happy about that. I bought this plastic bag that seals completely against the water, so that I can put my digital camera in it and essentially have an underwater digital camera. Needless to say, I did not put the Canon Rebel XS in; I have an old Kodak 7300 that did quite well. The bag is supposed to be good to about 4 meters, but since I stay on the surface, the bag never gets more than an arm's length under.
The students saw so much! Sea turtles, reef sharks, lion fish, sea cucumbers, and many other things. Of the 14, 9 went on dives, and getting lower in the water means seeing more. I do not know how many had underwater cameras, but if we get a few photos, that will be great.
Being on the boat is also a great time to meet other people. I struck up a conversation with a Sydney couple who had taken advantage of some weekend fare discounts from Qantas. The wife had been in Cairns many years ago as a child, but the tropics were all new to her husband. The students found many new friends among the other passengers and the crew -- I'm told that the male divers were very cute. One of the crew told a ribald joke to a group of the students, and so they demanded a similar joke from me. If you don't mind, I will not share it with you -- and even if you do mind ...
The ride back was better than the one out, though it was still a bit rocky. I find that a little TravelCalm plus staying outside on the deck keeps the seasickness at bay, though I must admit that I get a little queasy when it's choppy. But the weather could not dampen the students' spirits; they clearly had a great time and learned a lot about the Reef.
It is now the evening of Mother's day here, though it's early Sunday morning in the USA too early for a phone call. I'll call my mother early tomorrow morning. Then it's off to Kuranda for a look at the Butterfly Garden and Rainforest Station.
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