Snorkelling and Other Sea Life

In Cairns and the Whitsundays we did a bit of snorkeling which was absolutely beautiful. I’m still not very proficient at underwater photography, but with some editing of the pictures some came out ok.

Anyway, here are our two intrepid snorkelers. Mekayla’s picture came out with a bit of a modernist twist that I rather like.

This picture of the coral does mostly capture the colors correctly, but it is impossible to capture the experience when it is just a few feet from your face.

The schools of fish that seem as interested in us as we are in them are in my opinion one of the coolest parts of snorkeling. And it is amazing how many fish you see in just two or three feet of water.

While I’m on the subject of sea life I might as well sneak in a few pictures from the whale watch. Not much different from New England whale watching in my opinion except that the sea is an incredible blue.

See ya!

The Elusive Platypus

Given the amount of time we spent trying to photo a platypus and because Mekayla went and shaped her birthday cake as one, I cannot skip out on writing a blog post about trying to observe them.

They are as cute as you think they are, but much smaller and rarer than you can imagine. The first time we went looking for them we sat quietly by the side of a pool where it was said they came out and expected it would be rather obvious when one showed up. After over an hour we gave up. We saw our first one from 60 yards away when we noticed other people pointing off into the water.

It was a barely visible hump that was really only distinguishable because when it was on the surface for 10 seconds at a time it swam around. Then the platypus would arch its back and disappear into the black river. They would then stay under water for a couple of minutes before briefly resurfacing.

We probably spent 3 hours trying to find and take pictures of them that day, and then we got up at daybreak to pursue them again the next day as well. We certainly did see many and with patience got to watch them for quite some time. But taking good pictures of them was very difficult because they were so shy. The few times that they did surface near me I was rarely able to focus on them and take the picture before they submerged again. This is what I got most of the time:

But there were a few decent shots in the end as well. This one does a pretty good job of showing their size.

On the Road

The roads in Australia certainly deserve their own post. They are a very different experience from the interstate highway system in the United States. Occasionally we have actually come across divided highways with overpasses and separate passing lanes. But far more often we have seen one long stretch of two lanes, one in each direction.

Passing (called overtaking here) is always an adventure, and of course there are the previously mentioned road trains. More exciting still was the many miles of the Kennedy Highway and Gregory Developmental Road (there is probably a bad joke in that which only my Mother would find funny) where the two lanes in either direction converged to a single lane, in both directions. The speed limit is 100 km/h.

When cars come in the other direction you each slow down and drive with half your wheels in the dirt and the other half on the pavement. When a road train comes you pull over off of the pavement. They don’t get out of your way. Fortunately a helpful gas station owner gave me a lengthy rundown of what to expect on these roads. There were signs, but having someone hit you over the head before the insanity starts is quite helpful.

Along the Kennedy highway we also saw someone who was putting our adventure to shame: a lone biker heading out into the outback. When we passed him, he probably had over a hundred kilometers before the next town. His bike was weighed down by what was mostly water and food.

Along one of the back roads before we left the Atherton Tablelands we also met the largest snake we have ever seen. Its body was only halfway onto the road and yet it was taking up the entire lane and had its head 2 feet up in the air looking at us as we drove past. Since seeing it I have lamented not stopping to take a picture, but at the time all I could think was “big snake, must go faster.”

We figured out afterwards that it was actually a python, completely nonpoisonous and not dangerous at all. Since seeing it though there have been numerous other sightings: snake shaped branch, snake shaped bark, snake shaped leaf, etc. Maybe one of these days we will again see an actual snake. In the meantime our travels will occasionally be delayed by detritus in the road.

Oh, and this is me fording my first creek in Eungella National Park.

And here is me testing the depth before going across another one. We were actually kind of frightened by this one, but it all worked out.

Australian Squirrels

In Boston occasionally you see tourists spending time taking pictures of squirrels and chipmunks. Certainly I too have been guilty of this as well, but for the most part we all get over it by the age of 12 or so. And by 18 after having seem dozens jump out in front of your car they have become a cute but mild nuisance.

We think we are taking pictures of Australian "squirrels". But they certainly are cute. Wallabies and kangaroos seem to be just about everywhere. In areas where they have been around humans they are really not that bothered by us. And the roads are certainly littered with their carcasses.

Since they are so adorable, here are some more kangaroos. Eventually we might get tired of it, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Servas: Atherton Tablelands

We stayed with our first Servas hosts on August 20^th. Servas is an international peace organization that has a network of host families willing to take in wayward travelers for a few nights. For the hosts they get to “travel” without leaving home, and for travelers you get to actually meet and talk with some locals.

Our first hosts were a retired geologist and a psychologist (doing work with Australian Vietnam vets) living on 100 acres in the Atherton Tablelands. Not really a farm, but they were impressively self sufficient with various fruit trees (grapefruit, mandarins, lemons, plums), 3 one megaliter tanks for storing rainwater, a wood-burning stove for cooking and heating, and solar panels were just starting to be installed.

David had also just recently gotten a horse who seemed to serve as both transportation and lawnmower.

To the untrained (American) eye these are chickens, but in reality they are chooks (shockingly this word is also in my spell checker’s dictionary).

Over the two days we had lots of discussions about geology, some politics, non-violence movements, and climate change. There is too much to summarize here, but definitely a great experience.

Rain, cows, and goats

Well, we find ourselves a bit behind in keeping up with blogging. Lots of stories percolating, but this one will have to do for now. Currently we are in Airlie Beach and on our way to Eungalla National Park hopefully to finally see some platypuses (I prefer to call them platapi).

We spent about forty-eight hours camping in the rainforest a few hours from Cairns. For thirty-six of those hours it rained. At least the forest delivers on its promises. Everything was green and beautiful.

Following the highway a bit further we suddenly burst from dense rainforest to the most rolling, majestic cow pastures I have ever seen. Did Massachusetts look like this before it regrew all of the forests?

This led us to some of the best cheeses (and cheese cake) we’ve ever had. Some of the locals though were a bit crass and rude about letting us use their roads:

Eventually we snuck by him, but somehow I think those horns are for more than show, because he definitely wasn’t concerned about our car.

Spew

The night before snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, we went to a slide show summarizing the life on the reef and what to look for. Near the end of the presentation the instructor talked about some fish that like to follow along beside boats hoping for someone to vomit (spew) and provide them with a “hot lunch”. She then casually mentioned that there would be high winds the next few days and everyone should take some harsh motion sickness pills (not the wimpy, feel good ginger tablets that don’t really work).

After the slide show about half the class lined up in a nearby 24 hour pharmacy to buy some motion sickness pills. Boy was that a good idea.

Mekayla and I had an incredible day of snorkeling. The sea was a bit rough, but it was still beautiful and there was not a hint of seasickness. Many of our fellow travelers were not so lucky. I think half of them were sick within 5 minutes of leaving the dock. At about 10 AM as we reached our first snorkeling spot I overheard one passenger ask a crewmember when they would be getting onto land. The answer was 5PM. Some people had a very long day.

Now we are off to camp again. It looks like we will be pitching the tent at night and in the rain. Just the way we like it. Now off to get used to driving a manual transmission with my left hand. Later.