Australia - Part 3

Snorkeling

We began our last day in tropical northeastern Australia with a drive westward over mountains into a dry, drought affected landscape. Gone were green rainforests. Instead, we passed brown open fields and thousands of termite mounds like the one below.

At one location where our tour guide was willing to stop we could see many similar mounds along a dirt road in the distance. Some fields had hundreds of mounds scattered about.

Eventually, after miles of desiccated country, we left the paved road and followed a rugged dirt road to the ranch/farm of a wildlife expert who invited us into his traditional Queensland home. There we were served tea and treats on a beautiful porch outside his open air house.

He told us about many birds he could see from his porch, but, at least during the time of our visit, most of them were not easy to see. An epiphytic plant grew on one of the trees near his house.

I was quite surprised when he showed us a bower bird's bower complete with several odd "gifts" arranged in front of the bower to attract a mate. One of the gifts was a syringe!

Next, we stopped by a pond, or billabong, where enormous numbers of birds congregated along with some cattle.

While looking at the birds I heard strange moaning sounds behind me. I wondered what unfamiliar Australian animal was making the sounds until I turned around and saw the source, a creaking windmill! Good thing I didn't ask the wildlife expert to identify what animal made the sound. He would, quite accurately, have classified me as an idiot.

As we drove along the bumpy dirt road away from the ranch we saw a big, one meter long goanna lizard near the roadside. Before I could take a picture the huge lizard darted into high grass and disappeared.

Soon we were back on paved roads driving to Port Douglas for our trip to the Great Barrier Reef. There we boarded a catamaran and took about an hour long sail to a small island with a horseshoe-shaped protected shallow bay. Thank goodness the sea was relatively calm. I felt no motion sickness.

Here's our catamaran anchored off shore at the island.

It was a beautiful spot and a sunny day.

  We were issued snorkel face masks, fins, and wet suits.

C had been eagerly anticipating this adventure for months. She prepared well by regularly practicing snorkel technique during her swim workouts. I, on the other hand, haven't been swimming for years, but I was willing to give it a try.

The water was warm and shallow. Our wonderfully kind tour guide, Marnie, helped C get started and soon they were off to join other novice snorkelers exploring the underwater reef. I was so happy that C had a successful snorkel. She was thrilled to see a small ray, colorful fish, and coral formations.

I flunked snorkeling badly! It was embarrassing to flounder around awkwardly in the unfamiliar fins. I finally got horizontal in the water only to find my face mask immediately filling with water. Even with Marnie's expert help I couldn't get the face mask to seal properly and keep water out. The minute I began moving forward a gush of water would cascade over my forehead into my eyes. Then I would inhale water. If the mask had worked, I'm convinced I would have been able to handle the breathing and swimming. Instead, after a few aborted attempts, I urged Marnie and C to go on without me. It just didn't work for me. I went back to the beach and watched from there.

Even though I didn't snorkel I did see some interesting things. The tide was going out. Receding water uncovered giant clams near the shore. Small reef sharks were swimming in water so shallow their backs were visible as they hunted small fish. I returned from the beach to the catamaran on a glass bottom boat whose pilot made some effort to sail over reefs the snorkelers had explored. I could see some coral formations, but the view through glass was disappointing. Everything looked green and bubbles from the moving boat blocked the view. Pictures I took were initially awful until I tried processing with Photoshop. Processing revealed some hint of beautiful colors I would have seen if I snorkeled. The first image below is an unprocessed view through the glass bottom. The second image is cropped and color corrected to remove the overwhelming green tint.

Notice the unavoidable reflections on the glass and the waxy streaks near the top. In spite of these imperfections, I got some hint of how nice the snorkel view would have been. Here's another part of the reef, unprocessed, and processed.

Finally, one more image pair with a small fish visible.

The sail back to the mainland happened at sunset. We could see the crescent Moon and Venus in twilight.

During our drive back from the Port Douglas we stopped on the roadside somewhere north of Palm Cove. The sky had temporarily cleared and the Moon had set. Aside from occasional passing headlights the sky was incredibly dark. The Milky Way was almost directly overhead and astoundingly bright - so bright I gasped when I first saw it! Unfortunately, good conditions didn't last long. Clouds kept hiding parts of the sky so I had difficulty getting oriented. Even so, I began to understand the constellation placement and see some spectacular views through my small binoculars. Then clouds increased and it was time to leave. As we drove on I was excited about future prospects for observing new things in dark skies. Little did I know that this brief 10-minute stop would be the best naked eye Milky Way view of the entire trip.     
 

Australia - Part 2

Kuranda

On our second day in Australia I woke up feeling kind of woozy. We had a delightful breakfast in the open air hotel dining area surrounded by tropical vegetation. Wooziness was banished by a view of the ocean, gentle warm breezes, and pleasing bird calls.

Our agenda today included a trip to Kuranda which began with a ride up mountains on the antique Kuranda Scenic Railway. 

While waiting for the train we noticed a small bird nest in an unlikely location - between two signs attached to the fence.

The train cars were nice but more than 100 years old. Our bus driver effectively warned us beforehand not to use toilets within the train because they were, "squishy"! The long, slow journey up the mountain included 93 curves, 15 tunnels, and waterfalls. 

The locomotives were decorated with aboriginal art.

The rail line brought us to the interesting small town of Kuranda. As we walked up the main street one side was filled with beckoning shops while the opposite side had several buildings devoted to aboriginal concerns, including this beautiful mural.

We wasted no time heading for the Kuranda Koala Gardens because C was hoping to "cuddle a koala". Apparently, we arrived at the right time because C was first in line for koala cuddling.

The word lethargic doesn't begin to describe these animals who can sleep up to 22 hours a day. It seemed like a major accomplishment for them to slowly extend one foot. C was thrilled to actually hold one for a few moments.

C loves to pet furry animals, including this somewhat reluctant wallaby who turned his head away from well meaning affection.

Koala Gardens had lots of other animals to see at close quarters. It was possible to get incredibly close to seemingly tolerant creatures. We saw a sleeping wombat hiding in a hollowed out log, and, pictured below, agile wallabies, a quokka, and a green tree python.

After Koala Gardens we visited the fantastic Australian Butterfly Sanctuary. I give this place 5 stars plus! We entered a somewhat steamy enclosure filled with fluttering butterflies and tropical vegetation. Butterflies were everywhere! They flew overhead and all around, often landing and spreading their colorful wings. The first butterfly below is called an australian lurcher. The second butterfly below is an orange lacewing.

All these butterflies were new to me. The next one is a red lacewing.

This next one is a female cruiser butterfly.

Unlike many wildlife exhibitions, the subjects weren't hiding, or asleep. They were out in the open and easy to see.

I found this common eggfly particularly beautiful.

Look closely underneath the black and white winged butterfly in the picture above. There, near center, you can see a gorgeous green butterfly with wings partially spread. This is a cairns birdwing, probably the biggest butterfly I've ever seen. It rarely spread its wings in a resting position.

I was able to capture green cairns birdwings flapping by on several videos, but when they landed, wings were closed. The next two pictures show a resting cairns birdwing and its colorful wing undersides.

I could have stayed here longer watching the endlessly changing display of beauty.

Butterflies landed everywhere, even on heads and water bottles!

The Butterfly Sanctuary's brochure encouraged visitors to "...watch freshly emerged butterflies from our laboratory ...". C joked this made them sound like "frankenbutterflies"!

After leaving the enclosed area we exited through a hall lined with mounted butterflies from around the world. Below are only two of the many dazzling displays.

Still shaking my head in amazement after butterfly splendor, it was time for lunch. We bought the last two available Cornish pasties (meat pies) at Annabel's Takeaway Pie Shop.

After lunch we strolled through Kuranda and browsed in shops. I was sorely tempted to buy some boulder opal to add to my rock collection. Now I wish I had given in to the temptation.

I bought a wind spinner with zodiac signs around a central yellow glass "sun". We came across an odd shop where everything was Scottish. There was an exhibit of Scottish culture and history. Braveheart was playing on a video screen. In the background bagpipe music was playing. I suddenly realized the bagpipe was playing Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child! That may be one of the strangest things I've ever heard!

Eventually, too soon, it was time to leave the village and return to the mountain base on the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway.

We rode above the rainforest canopy watching white cockatoos flying below us.

At several station stops along the way we walked through the rainforest on boardwalks.

Here's one view into the rainforest itself. It wasn't damp and steamy as I've always imagined rainforests to be. Instead, it was quite dry due to the current Australian drought.

We passed an enormous Queensland Kauri tree. It was more than 400 years old and towered into the sky.

Many trees were supporting brown growths that looked like large bird nests. We learned they were dried out remnants of epiphytic plants, possibly called staghorn ferns.

We later found a smaller version of this plant growing on one of the palm trees right outside our hotel room.

Cablecar stations along the way contained several exhibits about rainforest wildlife, including this realistic life-sized cassowary. Our tour guide said she had actually encountered wild cassowaries while hiking. We saw a few roadside signs warning of cassowary crossings. This is a BIG bird - a scary dinosaur-like bird with a head casque looking like a pterodactyl's crest.

After our Kuranda tour we headed back to Palm Cove for an outdoor pizza dinner in perfect evening weather.