Australia 2003-4

G'Day Mates once again.

Unlike back home, the weather here is getting warmer as summer nears. Along with that we are getting short rain storms each day, but not long enough to interfere with our plans. We have been enjoying the tropics of the east coast.

When last you heard from us we were just about to go on a snorkeling trip in the Whitsundays. We had a nice sunny day visiting first Whitehaven Beach, said to be one of the world's most beautiful tropic beaches. The sand is that fine white silica that squeaks when you walk on it and glistens in the sunlight. It was quite lovely and despite having to wear a 'stinger suit', a one-piece lycra and nylon suit, to protect against the possibility of tiny but poisonous jellyfish, the swimming was fun. The suits were only a precaution as no jellyfish were seen, but we had a first hand account of a man who was stung while swimming off another island a few days previously. Therefore, better safe than stung.

The winds were quite strong in the Whitsundays, as they have been all along the coast. We were taken to Mackerel Bay to snorkel, rather than the preferred Hook Island spot. Ray thought the corals were prettier there, with more of the 'soft' corals but I thought the fish population was sparse. Soft means that the corals have anemones and other soft parts growing on them. I love the snorkeling anyway.

Our next stop was Townsville, a small city on the coast. We picked a hostel that advertised a free BBQ on Fridays, the day we were arriving. The hostel managers were true to their word, serving up good sausages and fixing, plus providing entertainment from a local wildlife park. One of the employees brought along a four year old crocodile for us to hold, if we dared. It was only a little over a meter in length so Ray obliged while I took his photo. He said it was actually quite soft and not at all slimy. Luckily they had its snout closed with a strong elastic band. Playful nips could hurt.

One of the reasons we stopped in Townsville was to see the aquarium, the Reef HQ. The background for the fish is a living coral reef, with a wave making simulating the tidal action. The fish varieties are those that can be seen on the near by Great Barrier Reef. It was quite impressive and our visit coincided with feeding time and several well presented talks about the fish. We got to touch sea slugs and star fish, called more properly sea stars around here. We heard all about the predators of the reef; the sharks, some carnivorous (not people) fish and poisonous sea snakes, plus the infamous box jellyfish. I know what to stay clear of under the water, but we were assured the risk was extremely small. Good.

On our way north again, we headed for Bingil Bay, just outside Mission Beach. We kept passing Cassowary Crossing signs on the road. Cassowary are members of the ostrich family and quite rare. They have a crest on their head and a blue neck, but none made a mad dash across the road in front of us. We stayed in the excellent Sanctuary Resort, deep in the rainforest, in an elevated hut with net sides to enable you to get the real feel of the forest. The resort is supposed to have three resident Cassowaries, and I heard Cassowary sounds when I was swimming in their pool, but none stepped out of the rainforest for me. We had a nice relaxed visit anyway, taking short walks in the area and just hanging out.

A young couple from Toronto, staying at the Sanctuary, told us to go to the Atherton Tableland to see platypus in the wild, so the small village of Yungaburra was our next stop. We arrived at our hostel On The Wallaby, just about noon. The staff was rushing to finish their chores so they could go to the local pub for lunch. It was Melbourne Cup Day, always held on November 4. All over Oz, people were celebrating the most famous horse racing event of the year. I remembered a party I had attended In Ottawa when I had worked on a project at Systemhouse with an Aussie contracting firm. We had celebrated Melbourne Cup Day. This sounded like fun so we asked ourselves along.

Part of the traditional celebration is a pub crawl, so we started off with a beer at the hostel. Suitably prepared, four of us piled into the hostel can and drove across the street to the local establishment for another beer. More prepared yet, we drove a few Km farther on to the Lake Eacham Roadhouse at a country crossroads. The owners had brought the TV outside and has lawn chairs set up in a circle to watch the coming event, slated for 2:10 PM. I'm told the race originally started at 2 Pm but no one was ready then so they moved it to 2:10. Aussie logic? A few of the local women were suitably attired in Ascot type finery with flower bedecked hats. We paid $10 each for a cold buffet lunch and multiple glasses of champagne, with a strawberry and optional orange juice. Everyone bought $5 chances on a horse to win the race. The winner was to receive $120 and your horse was determined by a draw, so everyone had the same odds of winning. When the race started we all cheered loudly for our horse to win. Ours came in third, not bad, but not the pool winner. A local B&B owner won and promptly shared her winnings as more drinks for everyone there. It was a great introduction to the Tablelands.

The next day we joined the hostel guide, Steve, and several others on a trip to Lake Eacham. Ray had a short bike ride around the area while I walked the 3km path through the forest around the lake. Part way around the lake I met a local couple who was stopped peering into the bush. They told me they were looking at the nest of a Bowerbird, and the gentleman explained all about the bird's strange habits of picking whole leaves to attract a female. A bit farther on we saw one male singing away on a nearby tree. I said goodbye to them at the end of the trail, and took a side trip to an interpretation center, where I learned all about the efforts of a local group attempting to rejuvenate the rainforests in the area. One woman volunteer took me on a tour of their plant nursery, where each Friday about 30 volunteers prepare and plant seeds from local bushes and trees. It was quite an operation and has garnered much praise for their successful methods.

By the time I rejoined the group, Ray and some of the others had had a swim in the lake. Ray took me over to where he had seen several turtles sunning themselves. We were on a viewing platform over the lake when we were joined by a group of birders, all carrying tripods and high power scopes. Ray looked at one woman and asked "are you from Canada?". She shrieked and gave him a big hug. It was Janet Castle, the wife of his Ottawa Bicycle Club friend, Bob Trotter. We knew she had gone on a birding trip somewhere, and that Bob was set to join her at the end of November in Brisbane, but meeting her was a complete surprise. On top of that, as Janet later told us, the group had been forced to make alterations to their original plans. They had arrived in Melbourne a week earlier, to discover that their guide, a Torontonian, had never even come to Australia and there had been no reservations made anywhere for their prepaid trip. That meant the group of 14 bird enthusiasts either had to cancel their plans or do it themselves, at additional expense, which they did. They flew to Cairns, hired a big bus and drove themselves to the best birding spots. Amazingly, they were all still in great moods. Of course, they wanted to know what birds we had managed to see and were super jealous of my Bowerbird spotting.

I mentioned platypus as one of the main reasons for visiting Yungabarra. Several live in a muddy stream right in town. To see them, you have to sneak up on them at dusk or dawn and at this time of the year the females stay inside their nests with their young, so only the males come out to feed. We followed Steve to his favourite viewing point at dusk. Janet's birding group was there as well (they were staying at the local hotel in Yungabarra), and we were all pleased when one swam across the creek before diving to cover.

Our platypus viewing improved the next morning when we joined Steve again at 5:45 AM for an early morning canoe ride down a tributary to Lake Tinaroo. The lake supplies water for the farmers and the towns in the area, but Atherton Tablelands has been experiencing a long period of drought so the water levels were extremely low. There was just enough water to paddle our plastic canoes, but luckily the platypus have not left. We saw several swim at the shores of the tributary. This is a favourite spot for catching giant Barramundi fish and several fishermen were out already, although I didn't see any being caught.

Later that day Ray and I took several short walks in the area to view the wildlife. We did manage to see a Pandemelon, a small kangaroo variety, run through the brush and we identified several marsh birds in a local sanctuary. We saw a Musky Rat-kangaroo, sort of a cross between a rat and a kangaroo, but our coup was on our afternoon walk around Lake Barrine. We saw Janet and her group later that evening and they were wild that we had seen Chowchillas. Scooped them once again. These are grouse type birds that only live in this area of Oz. Janet said the group was wondering what we would see if we ever really decided to take birding seriously: probably nothing!

I had another scare on the walk around Lake Barrine. We were almost finished our 5 Km circuit of the lake when Ray called "Jeanne!" and grabbed my arm. I slipped on the rough ground and nearly fell on a 1.5 m long Amethystine Python, lying across the path. I scared it just as badly and it slithered slowly into the bush.

We were up early the next day to drive to Cairns. Janet had spoken highly of the Mareeba Wetlands, conveniently on our route. We arrived before the gates opened, so we made a side trip to a Mango Winery. This is new industry in the area taking advantage of the local mango crop and replacing tobacco for several farmers. It was a very pleasant light wine, just the thing for our mid-morning break!

Back to the wetlands we went, passing fields littered with termite mounds. There must be a real problem in this area. We had a good time, binoculars and bird book in hand, identifying more new birds. Our favourite was the Jacana, a small marsh bird with skinny legs and long toes. It walks on top of water lilies, picking up the leaf edges searching for bugs.

Cairns is really quite a pleasant town. We are staying at a nice hostel, Tropic Days, several blocks north of the touristy downtown. It has a nice garden with a small swimming pool, so it is a nice place to chill out. Included in our hostel rate was a coupon for a meal in a downtown pub. This seems to be a popular draw with the hostels. I can't recommend the atmosphere of the pub or their free meals, but for a $4 upgrade, the meal was not bad.

We spent our first full day in Cairns exploring the various walks within the city. At the airport, we followed boardwalks over a mangrove forest and read all the informative signboards along the way. We visited the lovely Flacker Botanic Gardens where there were all manner of tropical plants, most helpfully labeled. In the afternoon we returned to the Whitford Range Environment Park to follow one of the tracks through one of the last remaining rainforests in Cairns. We climbed up to several views to look down over the airport on one side and Cairns and the coast on another. Cairns seems to have made a good effort to retain good park areas, including the port area, which has recently been redone with plants and pathways.

To help us understand more about the Barrier Reef, we attended the popular Reef Teach, really a one-man show conducted by a local diver. Although he said he has been diving in the area for 21 years, he still retains the broadest Irish accent I have heard in a long time. He did know his fish and corals and was most entertaining in imparting some of the fundamentals on his listeners.

Cairns was to have been our most northerly point but we had heard good things about Cape Tribulation, about 150 km north. The road has been paved all the way for about 2 1/2 years, so off we went to explore for a few days. We stopped on the way at Mossman Gorge, on the Daintry National Park. This is THE spot for all the day-trippers to Cape Trib, but luckily we arrived before most of them. We managed to have a nice 2.5 km walk around the rainforest area and after seeing others having a great time swimming in the streams, we got our suits and joined them. The water was lovely and refreshing, just what we needed after our walk.

After a picnic lunch we continued on, crossing by cable ferry over the Daintry River and on past more Cassowary Crossing signs. No sooner did Ray finish remarking that some unlucky motorist must have hit a Cassowary one day, than we saw two cars stopped just ahead of us. A large Cassowary was stopped in the middle of the road. We saw it look around, then casually walk off the road into the woods. They live! and we finally saw one!

Cape Trib is where we ceased being tenting wimps. There isn't anything even big enough to call a town there, just a few resorts. The dorm and cabin rates are rather expensive in Cape Trib but you can camp at some of the resorts. We lucked out with our choice of Cape Trib Beach House. All the cabins were set well apart in a wooded area and we had a nice campsite next to one cabin, plus we got to use all the facilities of the resort. For a bargain place it was well set up with kitchen facilities, laundry, a bistro and bar beside a nice pool and access to the beach. We used the 6-person tent that came with our car. It is huge; high enough to stand up in and room for a small family. It really was no more difficult to put up than our 3 man tent, but it took us a while to figure it our. When it was finally up we got our folding chairs that were also part of the car package and relaxed for the afternoon.

We had heard good things about night walks for signing all those creatures that sleep during the day, so we signed up for one at Cape Trib. We did see some big beetles, cicadas, cockroaches, non-poisonous spiders, but no snakes or possums. We did see a white-tailed rat, a white-lipped tree frog, one of the signature creatures of a rainforest, a forest dragon, a lizard that clings to the side of the tree trying to look inconspicuous and a similar river dragon. Part of the walk took beside a creek where a few small crocodiles live, but they weren't very friendly that night. Adam, our leader heard one splash into the mangroves nearby and he swore one was lurking in the waters across the creek from us, but my eyes weren't good enough to pick out the crocs shining eyes. The walk was interesting, but not the most memorable activity.

White-tipped Tree Frog

Baby Fox Bat

On our way back to Cairns a few days later, we stopped at the Bat House, where abandoned or injured Fox Bats are nursed back to health. They bring in several of their tame residents everyday for visitors to feed pieces of papaya and pet. Yes, their thick fur is soft and cuddly. These bats are awake during the daytime so it is no hardship for them to be on dispay. As well as one large male, we had four 3 week old babies to feed from small baby bottles filled with formula. The handlers wrapped the bottles in tea towels to give the bats something to cling to and they suck away, upside down, on the nipples. They told us that bats are humans closest relative in Oz. Bat its true!

Back in Cairns, it was time to sign up for another visit to the Great Barrier Reef. Yesterday we spent a pleasant day on a large motor ship, Osprey V, along with 120 other snorkelers and divers. Many, like this boat offer inexpensive introductory dives, but we just wanted to snorkel. The reefs are close enough that you don't really have to dive to see the fish. The winds have been quite strong every day so it was a rough ride out to Hastings Reef, but neither of us was ill. We had two stops on this reef to see the fish and although the currents were strong, the visibility was great. I even used one of their free prescription masks for even better views. We saw lots of fish and some of them I could even recognize from our fish chart and Reef Talk. Every boat has its "Wally", a semi-tame Giant Maori Wrasse, and this boat was no different. One of the staff threw fish out to entice Wally to the boat and shortly he appeared, knowing that lunch was being served. Ray and I even got to pet him underwater while a diver-photographer took our picture. How could we resist buying such a souvenir.

Tomorrow we leave on our Alice odyssey. We have stocked up on food and bought extra water bottles and a jerry can for extra gasoline, so we are ready to go. Wish us a save and speedy trip!